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  • Dave 2:35 pm on July 27, 2008 Permalink
    Tags: , , map   

    The sad state of Flickr maps 

    One of the things I enjoy is the mixture of photographs and mapping. Exploring a map and viewing photos is really enjoyable when it’s done right. My first exposure to this kind of thing was when Zooomr had it as a feature and I really longed for Flickr to have that feature too. After quite some time, maps and geotagging appeared on Flickr and that was great. Towards the end of last year though, the Flickr Map pages received an update which crippled their usefulness. At the time, I thought that maybe it was just teething problems of a new version. However, now, around 9 months later, they’re still as broken and useless as they were last November.

    The Flickr Map above: I’ve pointed it towards an area of the Peak District where I know I have a lot of photos. I can’t get it to display all of my photos from there though – just the recent or interesting ones. They also just appear as pink dots on the map. In order to find out what’s behind a pink dot, I have to click on it and one of the photos on the bar at the bottom will display a larger version. It’s just a slow and horrible way of browsing. What’s wrong with popping up thumbnails as you move the mouse over those dots? And displaying the rest of the photos?

    The secondary problem of course is the state of the map itself. Yahoo maps have lagged behind Google Maps for as long as I can remember. Some of the city maps look nicer, but as for satelite photos of most of my favourite walking locations go, they just look like a mess which is next to useless. Compare the image above with the one below, showing the same area but zoomed in further (but not as far as it possible).

    loc.alize.us is a third party web site that plugs in to Flickr to display photos on maps. This seems to work in the way you’d hope – browse around the map and photos that were taken in that area are marked on the map with markers. Mouse over those markers for a little thumbnail version of it to appear. It’s just very quick and easy. The quality of the maps is a huge bonus too of course.

    I do hope that Flickr haven’t decided that the maps are a niche that few people have interest in – I’d love to see it developed and fixed so that I don’t have to rely on other web sites to be able to browse my photos on a map. Flickr have direct access to all of the data, which should enable them to do a proper job.

     

    • Primed Minister 4:54 pm on August 13, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Couldn’t agree more with the points you’ve raised. I have the localize bookmarklet on my web browser and it seems to work pretty well. Finding my own photos on maps seems to be quite a rare thing. The “See where this picture was taken” link that it adds to your photo though on Flickr I think is very useful. I wish more people would use loc.alize…

  • Dave 12:10 pm on July 20, 2008 Permalink
    Tags: , edale, , hollinscross, , , ,   

    Nottingham Flickr Group Peaks Walk 1 

    Click on the image above for slideshow. The photos in the slideshow are from everyone involved, not just me – you can click on the photos when they appear to get more info and find the original page should you so wish.

    We had planned to go walking on a circular route from Edale on to Kinder Scout. The weather was pretty horrible when we arrived though, so after discussions in the (much improved) cafe near the train station, we decided to do an alternate route with more options for escape should the weather deteriorate further.

    So, we headed up to Mam Tor which was enjoying a bit of rain and lots of strong wind, enabling people to lean in to it at some quite impressive angles without falling. From there we went along the ridge, passing Hollin’s Cross, Back Tor and Lose Hill before descending in to Hope and catching the train back to Edale.

    All along the route, we were either getting blown around and rained on, or enjoying the sunshine and blue skies as the wind moved the weather at speed across the country. The only constant was that Kinder Scout, our original destination, remained engulfed in dark looking storm clouds for most of the day, only clearing in the late afternoon as we returned back to Edale.

    Weather like that makes it more interesting – and it certainly makes a nice change not to have just plain grey boring skies. There is something quite nice about walking in rain and wind when you’re wearing things that protect you from it.

    I think we’re going to try and do our original route towards the end of next month.

     

  • Dave 7:58 am on July 16, 2008 Permalink
    Tags: , , ,   

    Nottingham Flickr Group Clumber Walk 

    There are more photos from everyone involved here.

     

  • Dave 10:48 pm on July 1, 2008 Permalink
    Tags: alstonefield, , dovedale   

    Alstonefield Walk 

    I went for a walk on Sunday with some of my usual walking mates and we went from Alstonefield in a loop down the Manifold Valley and up Dove Dale. All in all we clocked up just over 14 miles – the first half was fairly relaxed with lots of photography going on, the second half was faster with less photos. The second half was faster because we’d managed to spend 5 hours doing the first half of the route so needed to be back before daylight deserted us. It gets dark pretty late at the moment so we made it back in good time, but in future I think we’re going to decide if it’s going to be a mainly photo type walk (under 10 miles, and taking time to take photos), or a longer walk where we just enjoy the scenery and do something that might go towards getting us fitter (well, me anyway).

    I didn’t have much energy left by the time I got home so didn’t process many photos until the following day.

     

    The editing above sprang to mind when I saw this sign – if I’m completely honest, my first title was a bit ruder, but this is a compromise I’m happy with!

    And finally, and inevitably…

    There are a few more photos from the day in my Flickr set.

     

  • Dave 8:18 am on July 1, 2008 Permalink
    Tags: , , , nose,   

    Does my nose look big in this?, originally uploaded by Verrico.

    Just in case you ever wondered how close you have to get in order to get a cow nose!

     

    • greywulf 9:08 am on July 1, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Love it!

    • brendadada 6:52 pm on July 7, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Ahah! A solid dry stone wall to lean against, and a stretch of barbed wire between you. Not always so fortunate though?

    • publicenergy 7:06 pm on July 7, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      I view dry stone walls and barbed wire as unfortunate items in the pursuit of cow photos – unless they have the young ones in tow, cows are generally chilled out and inquisitive and seem to like having their photo taken – and seemingly quite like to find out what cameras taste like too!

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