For anyone who may be interested, this is the tale of what was encountered in tagging raw photos taken with Canon cameras (5D and 20D) with GPS coordinates. The GPS recording device is in the photo below – it is small enough to place in a pocket or backpack (which I did on my day of four small walks, December 07). On the right-hand side of the photo is an open flap, shown with USB cable attached.

The flap has to be lifted to connect the device to a computer with a USB cable. To the computer (Windows OS) , the device looks just like an external drive. A folder containing log files, created each time the device is turned on, is on the GPS drive These files have an extension of .log. The software provided with the device only tags .jpg files. I wanted to tag the raw .cr2 files produced by Canon cameras, so I did a little research and discovered the steps below. There may be better ways (information always welcome), but for now this works well – especially  as the unit is reasonably priced.

a) Convert the .log files to .gpx files using GPSBabel. The interactive version of the software GPSBabelGUI.exe makes it a lot easier to use. It is a shareware program with a usage donation option. (If there are  multiple .log files, they can all be selected to create just one .gpx file.)

b) Tag the raw .cr2 photos with data in the .gpx file – using GPicSync. This is an open source/cross-platform application that can be downloaded from SourceForge.

c) Process the raw images with PhotoShop Elements or PhotoShop CS.

• I used to use ZoomBrowserEx, but it does not transfer the GPS tags to the processed file.
• PhotoShop saves processed files as .psd with the GPS tags intact. If these files are saved as .jpg, the GPS tags are not lost. They are lost if the file is saved as .tif – surprising because GPS tags are part of the Tiff stable of various tags, EXIF, IPTC, etc.
  (http://www.awaresystems.be/imaging/tiff/tifftags/privateifd/gps.html)

The images below show the dialogs of GPSBabelGUI and GPicSync. I think that GPicSync does a better job than the software provided with the GPS device. (I just noticed some other options in GPicSync for GPS tags that I need to try out.)

(GPSBabelGUI interface)

(GPicSync interface)

After tagging, the .jpg files can be uploaded to Flickr and the GPS tags will be recognized if the “Import EXIF location data” is set to “Yes” in the “Privacy & Permissions” section. A number of map options then become available after loading GPS tagged photos. One of them is a general map, where one can click on a thumbnail in a strip of tagged images, and determine where it was shot.

(Flickr GPS settings)

(Flickr GPS map – showing pictures taken on the four walks)

I do not have enough photos yet for a Winter 2008 slideshow post. I took my four short walks on Sunday looking for photos of bird species I am missing – such as Goldeneye, Hooded Merganser, better Scaups, etc. But, instead, photographed some of birds I already have. However, seeing common birds is not bad – I would be very concerned if the Buffleheads and other species did not return each winter.

Every year since 2002, I have had in the back of my mind the thought of attending the Morro Bay Bird Festival, especially after visiting in the summers of 2006 and 2007.  But, I often remembered after the festival was already over. Duh! This year I remembered in time, but by the time I got to booking, the events I had marked were full. Oh well, maybe next year.