Geotracking

My husband is obsessed with all things map-related. And I have a really lousy memory for where/when photos were taken. Sure, the date and time properties on the file help but what if it's just a photo of random trees or a butterfly?

That's where my anniversary present, the GiSTEQ PhotoTrackr, comes in.

It's a small GPS device, roughly the size of a garage door opener. Once you power it on, it locates the satellites to obtain a position. I have to say I'm rather impressed with this as it's done remarkably well even from inside my house. I installed the software to my laptop and then set about syncing up the time between the PhotoTrackr and my camera. This is an important step to remember for later.

Shooting is easy - turn on the PhotoTrackr and then carry it with you (I threw mine in the camera bag). Take photos like you normally would. When you're finished, turn off the PhotoTrackr until you're ready to load the log onto your computer via USB. Again, very simple.

Finally, upload your photos to the computer and load them into the GiSTEQ software. The software will match the timestamps on the files with the corresponding locations in the log and load it all nicely into Google Maps allowing you to retrace your steps and see exactly where you took each photo.

Unless you are a moron, like me, and somehow sync the time but not the date. So no matter how many times I loaded the photos, nothing showed up on my route. It only took me thirty minutes to discover the error and another twenty to find a way to change the data in the photo files so it would finally match up.

Now, it works like a champ. I can't wait to use it on our trip to San Francisco!