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By Greg Bartlett

Have you taken your holiday pictures? Can you remember exactly where you were when that photo was taken? You can? What about the next one? Looks quite similar doesn’t it? The headache of trying to remember the exact location of a holiday snap is amplified many times if you have to take photos for a living. Travel photography can be a stop-start affair because extensive notes need to be taken about where the pictures have been taken. GPS tracking can simplify the issues.

GPS tracking systems are very good at providing accurate information about location. They receive satellite data and as long as they can see the open sky, they can work out where they are on the planet. Orbiting satellites accurately transmit time-stamped packets of data every few seconds. The receiving devices can compute their own location using the information from four of these satellites. The satellite data consists of information in relation to the exact time and the position of the satellite in its orbit relative to the Earth.

Rosco is a well known photographer who is slowly building a name for himself as a travel photographer. His eye for detail and the superb images he produces are very highly valued. So he was thrilled when he landed a lucrative contract which involved a lot of travelling and taking shots at different locations. His work involved travelling to several European capitals and taking candid shots of the tourists in these different cities. But to his horror, Rosco came back with nothing! Well he came back with three cameras full of images but the airline lost the bag which had his notes!

Some well known firms are now producing cameras which incorporate a camera with a GPS tracking unit. The two do not need to be connected to each other in order to work. As long as the device can see the sky, then it records location data every few seconds. There is no need to stop and jot things down. Back at home, the images and the information can be downloaded directly to the computer.

Rosco survived his contract and went back to take more photos with the new camera. Now there was no more trouble with taking notes or with trying to decipher his own handwriting. And he got the most exciting photos when he did not have to worry and could take all sorts of shots at any time. Whew! Thanks to GPS tracking devices!