Take Pics *of* The Mark, Not Just *from* The Mark

[+Black Dog Trackers]

A primary aspect (along with fun) of our finding and logging benchmarks is to make the mark more findable than before. The 'distant picture' is very important to this aspect. The concept is to take a picture so that the disk is in the view, or at least the exact location of the disk is in the view (preferably with an arrow pointing to it). Even better is to include not only the disk's location, but also at least one of the objects referenced in the 'to-reach' description.

 

Although the majority of logs' 'distant pictures' include the disk's location, I have noticed several that have only one 'distant picture' and it doesn't have the disk's location in view. Instead the picture is made with the disk's location purposefully not in the view.

Usually people title these pictures something like "View from the Mark", or "Looking East from the Mark". Sometimes all four directions are included.

 

It would be rather difficult to find the disk using such pictures. Basically, it amounts to finding the disk with your back!

 

I should note that there's no apparent restriction on the number of pictures that can be included in a benchmark log, so there's nothing to prevent one from taking, and including in the log, a nice 'View-from' picture in addition to a more useful 'View-of' picture.

[+Spoo]

BDT:

 

You are not incorrect. I try to include some photo that shows something abut the site but do not always succeed. Some of us (like me), only have dial-up service. Every photo takes a minimum of 3.5 minutes to download IF I do not get kicked off. That means a simple Tri-station, with text, is 15 minutes of on-line time if everything goes well. Quite often, my download time is 6 mins per photo.

 

Also, unless the co-ordinates are drastically off, I figure: "If I could find it, anyone can." If the co-ordinates are off, I publish this fact.

 

Then there is this: today, with the land owners help and permission, I tracked down PF1161. This tri-station was on the top of a hill covered in boulders and trees. There is NO-WAY I could ever have taken enough pix to show you where it was. Even though the co-ordinates were within 5 feet of the monument, we simply could not find the thing in all the undercover. When we did find it, I could not believe it was there. I must have crawled over that position 2 or 3 times.

 

Edit note: I forgot to say.....there are also us idiots that DO NOT know how to add an arrow to our photos ! lol

Edited July 15, 2005 by Spoo

[Bill93]

For PF1161 since the RMs were easier to find, the next step could have been to tape from the RMs in the directions of their arrows, using the precise distances given on the NGS data sheet. RM1 21.239 meters=69.7 ft, RM2 12.921 meters=42.4 ft. Scratch a line at each radius and dig where they cross. That should have put you right on top of the station. This assumes that you can get a tape more or less straight through the brush, of course, but even if that is difficult the accuracy should be better than GPS under tree cover.

 

On those picture times, I wonder if you need to save them with lower resolution. If you send high res, the GC site will reduce the resolution anyway. The software that usually comes with a digital camera or scanner can do that. I pick 640 pixels in the long direction, jpg format, and usually get a file around 100 K bytes. At my typical dial-up speed of 32 kbits/sec that takes about 30 seconds per picture to load.

 

The picture shows that it also would be a candidate for a metal detector to cut down on the digging.

[+Spoo]

Bill93:

 

Believe it or not there is NO WAY a tape could have been run through this forest. As I say, I was easily closer with my GPS'r even under the tree cover. Sometimes in these woods, I can't even get an adequite pace count. The leaves and other debris often bury this stuff 2-3 inches or more. A metal detector would be nice. I am often faced with hikes of 2-3 miles and 1000 feet or more in elevation climb (not this case here at PF1161) so is no way I am gonna carry one.

 

As for pic resolution, you are correct. I am usually trying to download a 0.4 to 0.6 Meg resolution. I just cannot figure out how to reduce the resolution and still supply a good looking pic.

 

My dial up speed is showing 24 Kb....but then reduces to 2-3 Kb on a good day during the download. Hey !I live in the sticks ! I am still using my computer in evenings by candle light.

[Team Armadillo]

I think part of the problem is that the infromation given about logging benchmarks by GC.com says to take a picture from the benchmark itself in each direction. That is why so many do it. Perhaps Jeremy could change that.

[2oldfarts (the rockhounders)]

Spoo,

 

If you have the program "Paint" on your computer you can use it to adjust the size of your pictures. Most windows have it as a default program.

 

Try right-clicking on the picture thumbnail you want to adjust and select "edit". After The picture opens in paint select "image", then "Stretch/Skew" and enter a % number to shrink the picture (try 50 first time) for both vertical & horizontal controls. After you "save as" with a new name, you can close the picture and select "NO" to the prompt "save changes" to keep the original picture in it's original size.

 

Hope this helps,

 

John

[+Spoo]

2oldfarts (the rockhounders), John:

 

I just tried that and it works. Thank you. Now lets see if I can remember that ! If so, maybe I can help towards BDT's point.

 

Exselsior! Onward and upward.

Edited July 16, 2005 by Spoo

[2oldfarts (the rockhounders)]

[+Black Dog Trackers]

Microsoft's Paint will also do the arrows in pictures.

 

Click the text icon (an A). Select the font called Wingdings 3 and use the letters f through m to get arrows. Be sure to select the lower of the two icons with the blue cylinder, red whatever, and green cube so that you don't get a white background for your arrow. After you select an arrow, put your mouse cursor on the edge of the text box so that a white arrow-cursor appears and then move your arrow into position. Click on an icon other than the text icon (the A) to finish.

 

Avoiding using red or green for arrows is a good idea since the more common color blindness is red-green.

[Z15]

I draw the arrows in free-hand with paint or I use a box like in photo below. But I am guilty of using red a lot so I will stop that.

 

As for taking a wide shot of the area, that only works for you all that are not buried in the trees like I am. I step back to the road, 50 ft away and you can't even see the witness post for the trees. I was riding a snowmobile trail (BDT loves those) out of Houghton looking for some BM's (with my ATV, not a snowmobile LOL), found 3 out of 7 still there but the tree cover was so dark the flash went off on the camera. The old grade was only 8 ft wide at best and sometimes 10 ft.

 

Here is where my back was against the tree line and the toe of a 1/2 slope upwards a hundred feet or more. Just beyond the BM, its drops off several hundred feet (all forest), R/R/ cuts into side of big hill desending from about 1200 ft down to 602 ft in about 2 miles.

 

Here is a photo I took a few years ago (LOL), there is a BM which is a copper spike in the station way up there on the right. This is a photo of the same R/R I was on this week, only about 3 miles south and around circa 1900 (called Mill Mine Junction, the pne on right is of the same area today. btw-I did not take the photos, one of left is from the MTU archives of the Copper Range RR. SG0078)

Edited July 16, 2005 by Z15

[2oldfarts (the rockhounders)]

Mike,

 

I, for one, really like the box that you put around the mark. I think it is better than an arrow. At least it centers it & you know for sure where the mark is. Arrows are sometimes placed so the point is touching the mark & sometimes is quite a way away from it or even scewed a little, so you really have to do a "Waldo" thing to find it.

 

Shirley~

[Z15]

I do too, sometimes the arrows make the photo look terrible or obstuct the image to some extent. The box is easy to use with paint, just select the line icon, then select the width size, and they select the box icon and drag it in..........

Edited July 16, 2005 by Z15

[+Black Dog Trackers]

Square????

A triangle is wingdings letter r.

[+Spoo]

BDT:

 

The info you gave is insufficeient to obtain the arrow and place it. First off, clicking the A does not provide Font. When I did get to the font (and I am damned if I know how) it does not work as you outlined. The arrow is so dog-gone tiny, I might as well not bother with it.

 

What am I doing wrong?

[2oldfarts (the rockhounders)]

Spoo,

 

We just went & played with 'Paint' & found out that you have to select "COLORS" at the top of the screen & "EDIT COLORS" first. Choose what color you want your arrow to be, click "OK". Now Click the "A" at the left of the sceen the 5th Icon down. This is the text box. (it says so if you just hover your cursor over these little thingys).

 

Now you have to 'draw your box' where you want the arrow on the picture or page.

This pops open your "FONTS" box where you first choose "WINGDINGS 3", then the next little box to the right of that has a number in it...click on the arrow to bring down a list of numbers & choose the biggest for now. Then we clicked on the "B" for bold.

 

Now--whew---after all of that you can choose F thru M for whichever way the arrow points. Just play with it on a blank page to get the feel....It seems rather a long drawn-out process to me. I think the "BOX" that Mike used is a little easier. That is, colors, then box, then just click where you want the corner to start & pull.

 

Hope this helps...

 

Shirley~

[+Black Dog Trackers]

Spoo -

 

I think my paint program was 'remembering' some state I was in before or something.

 

Try this:

 

1. Start the Paint program.

2. Open a picture file with it.

3. Click the A icon for text

4. Click anywhere in your picture and a dotted line text box will appear

5. Right-click your mouse and a small gray menu box will appear.

6. Select "Text Toolbar" in the gray menu box.

7. Select Wingdings 3 in the font dropdown box.

8. Select a font size in the next dropdown box. If the largest number (72) isn't big enough, simply type a bigger one where the 72 appears.

9. Click your mouse in the dotted line text box again.

10. Type a letter on your keyboard

11. If your text box isn't big enough, carefully position your cursor exactly on a corner of the text box until a black double-arrow cursor appears. Drag it to change the box's size.

12. If your text box is too big, hit the Escape key and hold your mouse button down on the picture and drag out a smaller box.

13. After typing your arrow remember to use the white-arrow cursor you get on an edge of the text box to move your arrow into exact position.

14. Change fonts to something other than Wingdings 3 to add any text label you want.

15. Remember to choose the lower of the two blue-red-green icons so that your text is on a transparent background.

16. To choose the color of your text, left click on the color of your choice in the little color menu at the bottom of the screen (a right-click selects the background if you don't pick transparent background in item 15).

 

This seems like a big list of stuff, but once you do it, it will be easy as pie.

[jacksan]

I went to log a benchmark on GC (JZ0312, number 2 for me) and I don't see a way to upload a photo? How/where do you do this??

[Z15]

You have to first post the log then it will let you add photos.

 

Go HERE to log S39. In right hand box at top, click "Log this Bench mark". Another page comes up to fill in the log info and when you submit the log, another form will come up to upload photos

Edited July 17, 2005 by Z15

[+BuckBrooke]

All hail the oldschool powers of Paint. I've been editing my photos for a while. For me it's especially good for the "disc-only" shots where I need to trim out the background to save the disc resolution.

[ArtMan]

Draw a box using Photoshop.

 

(This is how it works in my very old version 5.5; other versions may vary.)

 

After selecting your preferred color ...

a] Create a new layer (ctrl-shift-N) (Optional, but good practice.

b] Select rectangular marquee tool (dotted line)

c] Draw rectangle in desired location. Hold down the <shift> key for a square

d] Open stroke dialogue (Edit/Stroke)

e] I choose 2 pixels, 80% opacity; you may experiment

f] Click OK, then Ctrl-D to deselect marquee

 

You can make boxes of different colors, which you can refer to in your text, e.g. see my second photo on AA5776.

 

-ArtMan-

Edited July 23, 2005 by ArtMan