The Best Map Tools for Dog Photographers
Why do I need The Best Map Tools for Dog Photographers?
The best map tools for dog photographers is something I’ve spent hours researching. I’ve been a location-based dog photographer since October 2014. My specialty is taking photographs of dogs in stunning locations, beautiful scenery, rolling hills, and breathtaking landscapes.
Simply creating beautiful photographs of dogs to create pieces of art to hang on the wall.
Much more work goes into planning my location sessions than just rocking up on the day and hoping for the best.
So I thought I would share some of the best tools that I use to help me plan for my sessions over the next few blog posts.
Why do we need Maps?
Cartography is the art and science of creating Maps. It’s not a new thing, Aristotle and the Greek Philosophers were known for consulting maps and the earliest records date back to Babylonian times, around 2300 B.C.
If you remember I spent time in Staffordshire Search and Rescue, so I’ve well versed in how to both read a map and navigate with one.
The most interesting part of maps is the things you can discover, especially if you cross-reference maps.
When I plan a session there are a number of things I need to know in advance:
- What is the terrain like? Is it suitable for those with limited mobility?
- Is there water nearby for action shots of dogs, especially gun dogs?
- Where can I park?
- Is there a landmark for customers to meet me at?
- Are we able to do a circular walk to give my session variety
- Are there any areas we should avoid?
All of this information can be gained from a map!
The first of my favored maps for planning sessions is the trusty OS Map.
I say trusty as to a large extent in the United Kingdom the Ordnance Survey map has been the standard for the military, government and agriculture for a long time.
The name comes from Ordnance and Surveying the original purpose relating to it’s military roots – mapping to defend against attack and invasion.
The OS is a government-owned agency and provides maps for business, leisure and government uses, both on paper and online.
Alongside the OS Map a staple in the armory of Search and Rescue operatives is the Viewranger App for mobile phones.
The app is excellent and provided detailed trails and routes on your mobile. It can record routes and similar data, so you can have seasonal trails for example on your dog photoshoots.
Viewranger is quite a social app too, you can see where others have used a trail and you can post your recommendations too.
Viewranger can eat your battery, so I would recommend having a charged phone or a USB Battery Bank like this in your kit bag
Ok, so you are out in the middle of a nature reserve, heathland or wasteland and trip and fall breaking your ankle. Don’t laugh. It happens to the best of us. How do you tell the emergency services where you are?
The OS Locate App is a free app for all mobile devices, that takes your phone GPS data and translates it into a set of coordinates for you to give to the police/emergency call handler. It’s fast and accurate and should be on everyone’s phone.
It’s also handy if you are hiking with a paper map and want to check where you are. Which is slightly less dramatic.
Next on my list of handy tools is OpenStreetMap.
Did you know that photocopying, scanning or screen grabbing maps can contravene copyright laws? Also, dependent upon the actual purpose of the map, not all maps contain the same data.
OpenStreetMap was started as a project to create and provide free geographic data to the world. It allows users to use the maps in a creative and productive way.
With this in mind, I often find more interesting information available on these maps as they can be user verified too.
The engineer side of me often wants to map data out onto a map.
This could be the locations of regular shoot venues or the locations of country fairs we attend, or it could be partner businesses.
BatchGeo is a great tool for this. You can pull data from an excel spreadsheet and it will map the data.
If you want to get high tech with your mapping and even see a 3D representation of where you plan to hold your dog photoshoot, then Google Earth is an excellent app to help with this.
Google Earth can be used online, as a Chrome extension, or the Pro version can be used on Mac/Pc and mobile devices.
I love Google Earth as I can also add location data to the App from Excel and have partner businesses and shoot locations on my phone and switch them on as different overlays/styled icons.
The last of the great mapping tools I will feature in this blog post is absolutely Magic!
Operating since 2002, Magic is an information mapping tool used by Natural England, Defra and other government agencies. It’s a pretty cool tool as it includes a lot of woodland names, details on what’s there and also detailed information on Sites of Special Scientific Interest. The more interesting your dog photo shoot, the happier your clients will be.
Maps for Marketing
When it comes to Marketing, we might need to use map tools for another purpose. If you want to work out your travel time/work area, then a great tool for this is FreeMapTools.com . You can create radius’ around a location, such as your studio for miles, kilometers or travel time. This is handy when planning for events and marketing promotions such as Facebook Adverts.
The Ordnance Survey group can also print you a custom map for the studio based on your requirements, we use one here for our marketing and for £20 + framing costs, it’s an excellent tool.
So there we go!
Just a few of the handy tools I use when planning sessions.
I bet when you thought about becoming a photographer, you never knew you would need The Best Map Tools for Dog Photographers.
