Mapping Geotagged Tombstone Photos

Now that I have started geotagging my tombstone photos using Google's Free Picasa, I want to use the latitude and longitude that is now embedded in the photo metatag to map the photos. Picasa is a free software download from Google that locates and organizes all the photos on your computer. In addition, Picasa allows you to upload your photos to the free Picasa Web Album. You can keep the album private or share with your family.

Organize your digital photo album with the free Picasa.

Google’s Picasa Web Album software has mapping support for geotagged photos. When a photo is uploaded to the Picasa Web Album, this feature shows a small map in the sidebar for each photo that has been geotagged. Here is an example of one geotagged tombstone photo in my Picasa Web Album with the map in the bottom of the right column. The map can be zoomed in or zoomed out.

I have been adding geodata to my tombstone photos via Picasa and Google Earth, but if you are just interested in mapping photos, there is a way to do so using Picasa Web Albums. Since this method is done online, the photo on your computer will not have the longitude and latitude written in its metadata. However, with this method, you can map an album at a time and create one album per cemetery or put all photos into a cemetery album.

Map your Tombstone Photos in Picasa Web Album:

• Select tombstone photos from one cemetery in Picasa and create a new Picasa Web Album by clicking on the Web Album button on the bottom toolbar in Picasa.
  
• Type a location into the Place Taken field. Be sure to click Show location on map.
  
• Refine the photo's placement using the drag-and-drop map. Entire albums can be dropped on a location rather than having to set each photo individually.

Whether you want to geotagged your photos on your computer (using Picasa and Google Earth) or are just interested in mapping your photos online, the photo mapping on the Picasa Web Album works the same.

One nice touch is that in the main Picasa maps view, rather than just displaying push pins to mark each photo, Picasa displays a small thumbnail of the image. My Web Album example only contains s one photo, but of course many photos from one cemetery can be added to the album and all would be shown on the map.

Each thumbnail can be clicked on for a larger photo display.

Another highlight of the Picasa Web Album mapping feature is the combination of maps and slideshows. If you select a photo in the map and click on play, the slideshow will move around the map according to the photo location.

I want the photos on my computer to have the geotag in its metadata so I am going to continue to use the Picasa / Google Earth geotagging. And I really like the integration with the Picasa Web Album mapping. I've been working on my tombstone photos, but of course mapping your photos can be done with any type of photo.