Posting pictures with finds

[+Trustworthy]

Hello,

 

First of all, let me state that I am very new to geocaching, so if I am asking an ignorant question, or one that has been asked and answered here before, I apologize in advance. I joined here back in 2005, but I didn’t start geocaching until this summer, while I was at a family reunion in South Carolina. I have recently upgraded to premium membership, after I attended a local geocaching event. I purchased and installed the geocaching application on my Android Samsung Galaxy SII.

 

I own a Garmin GPSmap 76CS, a Garmin GPSmap 76CSx, and I recently purchased a Garmin Montana 650t. The reason I have two GPSmap’s is that I misplaced (I thought it was stolen from truck) my GPSmap 76CS, and I replaced it with a GPSmap 76CSx. I used to be a ground team leader in the Civil Air Patrol for six years, and we did search and rescue for the Air Force (and sometimes the Coast Guard, when they needed assistance finding a boat, that was usually on land, or sometimes still docked in the water.

 

Performing search and rescue is why I purchased my first GPSmap 76CS, because that GPS is waterproof, and it floats, so that if I ever got caught in a terrible rainstorm, while out in the field, or if I ever fell into the water, while in the field, I wouldn’t ruin my GPS. After my GPSmap 76CX went missing, I replaced it with the GPSmap 76CSx, which at the time was the next model up. Now I own a Montana 650t, and it has a built-in camera, just like my smartphone does. I also kayak and bike with my Garmin’s. My new Montana 650t doesn’t float, but it is waterproof, and I bought a GizzMoVest heavy duty case for my Montana 650t that I hear is supposed to make the Montana 650t float, which I hope to never test.

 

When I was at our family reunion this summer in South Carolina, I made it a point to get started in geocaching. The first day we went out, my wife and I, a nephew, and two nieces’ found 7 out of 7 caches that we were searching for. That first day I had a chance to walk in my first bamboo patch that I have ever been in, and I found it was very cool. We took photos of all of us in the bamboo patch, and we also took photos of all of us, after we found each of the other caches.

 

I didn’t have my Montana 650t during geocaching this summer, so I took the photos from my smartphone. Even though that my Montana 650t has a built-in camera, I’m thinking that it might be better to continue to take photos from my smartphone, because it would be easy to upload these photos from my smartphone to geocaching.com, using the Android geocaching.com application that I have installed.

 

I am just unsure where the appropriate place would be to upload photos of a found cache, because I would not want to give away the location, or ruin anyone else’s searching. I searched this “How Do I…?” forum, for this topic, and the only thing that I found was a topic called “[bUG] Adding photos when posting logs”, and there were recent posts as of yesterday, that stated people were having problems uploading photos from their smartphones (similar to my smartphone) using the geocaching.com application.

 

So my question is, is there a place that it would be appropriate to upload photos of found caches, where it wouldn’t ruin someone else’s searching? If so, where should these photos be uploaded to, and how exactly would I do that? If the geocaching.com application is having a problem doing this, which doesn’t appear to being addressed by the programmers, then how are people successfully uploading their photos?

 

I have been trying to do my logging, while I am out in the field, because that way I don’t have to keep track of what caches that I found, or what caches that I haven’t found, and record any notes that might go along with those finds, or did not finds, and if there is an appropriate place to upload the photos of my finds, it would be handy to be able to do that while I am still out in the field, and that would eliminate one more thing from my “to do” list when I return from geocaching.

 

Best Regards,

 

Robert

[+SKAMS]

So where to put photos?

On Groundspeak the place to put photos is your log. Once you've placed a log you can upload photos for it. Also when editing an existing log. (Any type of log)

 

Just keep in mind that this photo does not include spoilers.

So avoid to show the exact hiding spot

On well crafted containers it may also be not desirable to show how the container looks like.

 

Also keep in mind that smartphones and GPSrs often include the GPS-Position where the picture has been taken into the EXIF-Information of the image file. Groundspeak does not remove this information on upload. So everyone can retrieve it from there.

 

So better do not post images of final locations where the coordinates are not revealed in the listing. (Usually finals of Mysteries and Multis)

Or make sure that those photos do not contain EXIF-coordinates and do not show any recognizable hints about the final location.

 

How to organize these photos? I just handle them like any other pictures. Personally I move them on the hard disk & a backup medium in a folder named after the import date. I sometimes add a word to the folder name detailing the location.

 

To review such images I use a number of tools including "Picasa". Picasa can also show the EXIF-location of images on a map which might be helpful to tell which image was related to which geocache.

 

Then just select that image from the folder and upload it while editing the log. Many owners will be happy about photos in the logs. Some state that also in the cache listing.

Edited September 17, 2012 by SKAMS

[+kunarion]

I have been trying to do my logging, while I am out in the field, because that way I don’t have to keep track of what caches that I found, or what caches that I haven’t found, and record any notes that might go along with those finds, or did not finds, and if there is an appropriate place to upload the photos of my finds, it would be handy to be able to do that while I am still out in the field, and that would eliminate one more thing from my “to do” list when I return from geocaching.

I'd suggest using the Montana for logs and photos. Make a shorthand "Field Note" on each cache as a reminder, upload all the field notes when you get home, and then do the logs and upload some of the pictures. Just an idea.

 

Geocaching.com requires a certain max image size (and file size), it tends to automatically resize and make the photo look less good upon upload, so I always need to resize before sending anyway. I blot out or crop the spoilers, find the best shots, upload the few that are pretty good. I take a close-up picture of (TB and coin) Tracking Codes for my own records, which never get uploaded to the site, so it's easy to manage all photos on a PC later, from all sources (GPSr, Android, ordinary camera). By looking at a tiny screen, can you even tell which ones are worth uploading?

 

The Garmin's photo EXIF info gets removed on upload to the cache page (check that to be sure, since things tend to change around here). There's probably a setting on the GPSr to not save Lat/Lon coords, but that also removes some helpful info when you're selecting log photos.

 

If you take pictures with the Smartphone, you can use an App like Google Drive or Dropbox, to temporarily save photos til you get to a PC to review them.

Edited September 17, 2012 by kunarion

[+Understandblue]

I've never had trouble uploading photos to logs using the geocaching app on my phone - sometimes I'll add a photo of just the log, cache contents, crazy animals on the way to the cache or an especially pretty location. I share my more revealing photos of containers or anything that might be a spoiler just in an album on FB with no cache info. I do enjoy looking at people's photos, and when you look at them in the phone app it does warn you that they may contain spoilers, so I never look at them until after a find, but they are fun, especially the happy kid finds I think it adds a lot of life to the logs.

[+SKAMS]

The Garmin's photo EXIF info gets removed on upload to the cache page (check that to be sure, since things tend to change around here). There's probably a setting on the GPSr to not save Lat/Lon coords, but that also removes some helpful info when you're selecting log photos.

I just was trying it out with an image taken with a smartphone and which originally contained EXIF GPS information. Even the resized version I downloaded from my users gallery at geocaching.com still contained the EXIF-Information including "GPSLatitude/GPSLongitude".

[+kunarion]

The Garmin's photo EXIF info gets removed on upload to the cache page (check that to be sure, since things tend to change around here). There's probably a setting on the GPSr to not save Lat/Lon coords, but that also removes some helpful info when you're selecting log photos.

I just was trying it out with an image taken with a smartphone and which originally contained EXIF GPS information. Even the resized version I downloaded from my users gallery at geocaching.com still contained the EXIF-Information including "GPSLatitude/GPSLongitude".

That's good to keep in mind. What about photos from a Smartphone?

[+Understandblue]

It's a setting on your phone - mine do not contain EXIF data... You can test it here on the photo I took on GC1C49D

[+kunarion]

It's a setting on your phone - mine do not contain EXIF data... You can test it here on the photo I took on GC1C49D

I've seen coords and no coords, both. It seems to depend on the location or the way it was uploaded on Geocaching.com, or maybe the current site update? (if it's served from your own web site, the EXIF is intact for sure)

 

A GPSr photo is a great way to mark a waypoint. So you lose some info if you shut off saving the coords to its photos. ...I'm assuming the Garmin grabs the EXIF info, to display where a photo was shot. If I'm wrong, I'm sure 500 people will correct me pretty soon.

Edited September 17, 2012 by kunarion

[+Understandblue]

Hmm that's a good idea - I've never thought of using it that way, although I do take photo "breadcrumbs" to keep from getting lost... "turn left at stump by big rock"

[+kunarion]

I do take photo "breadcrumbs" to keep from getting lost... "turn left at stump by big rock"

I did the very same thing while hiking over a mile through a HUGE maze of thorns recently. I decided that taking a bunch of photos at every turn, the photos and waypoints might help me get back out of there. That plan worked pretty well.

Edited September 17, 2012 by kunarion

[+SKAMS]

That's good to keep in mind. What about photos from a Smartphone?

Hi kunarion in that case I was talking about my smartphone. My garmin doesn't have a camera.

[+dprovan]

On well crafted containers it may also be not desirable to show how the container looks like.

I don't agree that "well crafted" has anything to do with it. I've seen a few newbie pictures of containers that give away the hide entirely because a container that looks like that could only be one place, well crafted or not. My advice to a newbie would be to never post a picture of the container or the actual hide. With more experience, there might be exceptions where, for example, the container is described or shown in the cache page, but when starting out, I'd say just don't do it.

 

Since everyone's GPSr gets you to the right place, it's typically OK to post a picture of the area, although even then watch out for giving away things like "on the bridge" vs. "under the bridge". With multis and puzzles, naturally you don't want to give away the final location with a picture.

[+kunarion]

My advice to a newbie would be to never post a picture of the container or the actual hide.

I spread out the contents, take a picture of that (if it may be useful to the CO or future cachers to see swag degradation or condition). And I take that picture at a spot a few yards away, so there's no worry about EXIF location giving away anything.

 

I don't post the pictures of container camo, hide style, specific tree branch or whatever, unless there are special circumstances where I know it won't spoil the find. But the actual "spoiler" picture might be worth saving in a folder on your PC, EXIF and all, if you think you'd like to continue Geocaching for a while, since that info will come in handy at times.

[+KellyRenae65]

what about posting a pic of a travel bug you found? I found one, took a pic of it and now I cannot for the life of me figure out how to upload the pic

[+The A-Team]

what about posting a pic of a travel bug you found? I found one, took a pic of it and now I cannot for the life of me figure out how to upload the pic

You haven't logged any caches or trackables. Once you do, you'll be given the option to add a photo to your log. Just make sure the unique tracking code isn't visible in the photo.