Sometimes it’s hard enough remembering where you were yesterday let alone where you were during your two week vacation, so as I’m preparing for my trip to Europe to do a couple of workshops and take a lot of photos I figured now is as good a time as any to buy a geotagging device for my DSLR. After a little bit of research, I decided to give the GeoPic II geotagging unit a try. It was $212 shipped from B and H Photo.
Its first test would be on a day trip to Philadelphia for a couple of workshops and a Father’s Day dinner on Saturday, June 19th. Next to all images is a map with the tagged location where each photo was taken. I will spare you the operation details since that would turn this into a really long post, but if you do have any questions regarding how it works, please ask in the comments section.
First stop, of course, was Starbucks for a wake-up call.
First stop of the day.
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The GeoPic II locked onto a signal right away. It emits a beep, which can be turned off, that lets you know if GPS info is being sent to your camera via the 10pin connection. To be sure, you can also view the info panel and see if the GPS icon is displayed.
From Starbucks, I was on to Baltimore.
Baltimore, MD as seen from 95 North.
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Obviously I wasn’t out of for stellar photographs, but you can see I didn’t disappoint. Look at that Baltimore smokestack. Just brings out the emotion and the hardships of the city in one single frame… A picture is truly worth a thou… Yikes, tollbooth coming up; better put the camera down.
The GeoPic II seems to have no problem locking on to satellites in the car so the next photo I take is in the parking lot of the Philadelphia Courtyard Marriott where I’ll hold my 10AM workshop. According to the map, the address isn’t the same as the hotel’s address which is 8900 Bartram Avenue, but the arrow is exactly where I took the photo.
Philadelphia Airport Marriott
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One cool feature of this device is that it allows you to freeze your position. So, before I enter the hotel, I freeze the location on the outside so that any shot taken from within the hotel will default to the frozen outdoor location, since any GPS device will have a difficult time finding a signal indoors. You just need to make sure you unfreeze it before you go to a new location to avoid it being stuck at the last one.
Inside the hotel with the signal frozen.
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Once the workshop is over, it’s time to head to the Philadelphia Museum of Art to do a Field Trip Workshop from 4 to 7PM. Here are a few shots from the museum. I got a kick out of watching the wedding photographers come and go. It’s a great view and I can’t make fun since I’ve done a couple of weddings in Philly and have done the exact same thing!
If you ask me, it was way to hot to be jumping!
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Wedding Photographer Chris Hensel
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The only issue I seem to have as I wander around the museum area is that the location is lagging behind where I actually am. This might be due to me just taking photos and not worrying about deliberately pressing the shutter to make sure I am locked on. You can see my location in the fountain photo marks me as across the street. This is fine with me as my goal is still to take great shots and not be distracted by some device that in the end doesn’t affect my images. I wouldn’t want to miss a shot waiting for the GPS to lock on.
Every photographer is required to take a shadow portrait at some point.
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According to the Geopic II I was across the street from this fountain.
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Next, my dad, who lives in Philadelphia, meets me at the museum and it’s time to head out for a pre-Father’s Day dinner. We headed over to a Jazz Club called Warmdaddy’s. I would tell you what part of Philly it’s in, but I don’t know so take a look at the map for yourself.
This location was the hardest of the day to lock on to with the The GeoPic II. We finished dinner while singer Carol Riddick was doing her set, so I grabbed my D700 and made sure it was OK to take a few photos. I went outside to get a signal and kept pressing the shutter button but couldn’t find one. I ended up walking out to the middle of the courtyard before I was able to lock on to a signal and my location where I finally locked on is accurately portrayed on the map. Once I heard that beep, I froze the signal and walked back into the club. There was a serious low light situation going on in there, but thanks to a 2.8 lens and the ability to up my ISO to 4000, I got some great shots. Sometimes it’s not the photographer, it’s the camera.
Carol Riddick sings at Warmdaddy's
Manual mode: ISO400 f2.8 1/200th second
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So that was my day, I wished dad a happy Father’s Day, gave him a hug goodbye, and headed straight back to Fairfax, VA.
The GeoPic II worked as well as you can expect a device that depends on GPS satellites to work. On one hand, the waiting time trying to get it to lock on to a signal can be frustrating, but on the other hand it does a much better job of finding one than my Tomtom GPS. During my trip, I will just leave it on all the time, but turn off the beep so that whenever there’s a signal it will lock on, but if there isn’t, I’ll have enough points marked that I can connect the dots and figure out exactly where I was. It’s definitely a $212 well spent. Writing down your locations when you travel is the easy part; matching it to your photos once you’re back home is always the challenge!
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