Pic Spocket

I am catching up on the blog with the gallery. I recently updated the Photo Album with the pictures of my trip in Monterrey, Mexico last August. Once again, I was there for work but stayed over for one weekend, where I had some time for a little bit of sightseeing.

On Saturday, I simply went walking Downtown where I could grab a few pictures. Overlooking the city is ‘Cerro de la Silla’ (meaning ‘Saddle Mountain’) which has a special shape acting as a symbol for the city. Unfortunately, there was a lot of humidity in the air during my visit, and never got a very clear view of it.

Quite interesting is the Paseo Santa Lucia, a riverwalk on the side of an artificial river just finished in 2007. It looks a lot like the riverwalk in San Antonia Texas actually. It starts right downtown, from the Macro Plaza. You can also ride in a small boat from one end to the other, which I did for the return trip.

At the other extremity of Paseo Santa Lucia, one can find Fundidora Park. It used to be a Foundry, converted into a Park. Horno3 which still looks like a very industrial complex actually hosts stores.

On Sunday, I went in a different direction to visit the caves ‘Grutas de Garcia’, near the town of Garcia, west of Monterrey. This seemed far from everything. The access to the caves is high in the mountains. You can hike to the entry, or simply take the cable car (which I elected to do!). The view from up there was inspiring.

Taking pictures inside the caves ended up being a small challenge due to the small amount of available light. I had my mini tripod with me, which allowed me to get some decent shots in the lot. Some rooms where really big. It’s hard to render the size in a simple picture.

One of the main attraction inside is the ‘la mano del muerto’ : the hand of the dead, shown below.

It seems like I may be back there before too long (big project for our company over there) so I am sure I will add some sub-albums to this one in the future.

As usual, many more picture in the album below, located in the TRAVEL section of our photo album,

I was in Germany 2 weeks in July, visiting the main factory of my company. During the weekend, I went to Dusseldorf for a one day photowalk.

The weather was gorgeous and the downtown area was nice to visit. There is a good walk to do on the side of the Rhine River. A bit further is the Rhine Tower, a 324 m high tower right beside the Parliament. This is the tallest building in Dusseldorf and becomes a symbol for the city. Also the architecture of the parliament was something to see.

I went up in the observation deck of the tower. It was really worth it: the view was impressive. We could see the town quite well, and got interesting views from the top.

Another interesting area is Media Harbor, for its architecture.

Some of my favorite pictures of the day are black and white conversions and Tone Mapped HDR images (combining several exposures), as shown above. As usual, many more pictures in the photo album below.

Also elsewhere on the internet:

• Link to PANORAMIC view from the tower (click on the image on top linked page)
• Rhine Tower, Dusseldorf tourism
• Rhine Tower, wikipedia

Here is the first test of the GPS Data logger in use. I brought it with me the other night when rollerblading with Craig, a good friend. We skated the park on the side of the Detroit River, in Windsor, in late evening after daylight was all gone. The result of the tracklog analysis is below. A single way is 4.8 km that we covered in 13 min 40 sec for an average speed of 21.3 km/h - Not bad! We usually skate about 2.5 to 3 times that distance.

 The output below was easily created from the GPS track log. It took less than 2 minutes to generate after the log file was retrieved on the computer.

Windsor River Side: One Way in rollerblades
Click link for larger interactive map

Did you ever looked at an old picture you took, and then wondering in which city you took it? Or what is the name of the building, monument, church (or other point of interest)  in the picture? Everything is so clear when you just come back from a trip. It’s a different story a few years later.

 This is where “Geotagging” pictures can help. In the digital age, a bunch of information can be carried over in each picture file. Several bits of information are already included in the picture file by your digital camera every time you press the shutter. Recorded information typically includes date, time, exposure information (shutter speed, aperture, ISO, etc), focal length, etc.

Geotagging pictures means that the GPS coordinates are attached to the image file so that location on earth where this picture was taken is also saved. It is also very easy to create interactive maps showing a marker where pictures were taken. That is nice to show the path followed during a Hike for example.

It is my belief that in the next 8-12 years, it will be quite common for digital cameras to have a GPS chipset and to include the latitude and longitude information with each picture taken when a GPS fix is obtained.

In the meantime, a separate piece of hardware is required. This is my last gadget acquisition: a GPS Data Logger. The unit I bought is an AMOD AGL380. This is a small device that you carry with you and that simply records your position at fixed time intervals. The AGL3080 can log coordinates every 1, 5 or 10 seconds. It simply writes a TEXT file in the NMEA format. The nice thing about the AGL3080 is that no drivers are required to retrieve the log to your computer. It simply registers as a USB memory stick device when connected. Therefore it works as well for PC and MAC computers.

AMOD AGL3080 with AAA battery (it needs 3) and pen for size comparison

The idea is that you carry it around when you take pictures. The time of the camera must be synchronized with the GPS time. After your photo outing, the pictures and logs are loaded on your computer and then you use a special program (I have still to pick one) to compare the time stamp on each picture with the GPS log and write the GPS coordinates in each picture file.

This unit is marketed as a “Phototracking” device. Of course, the GPS Data Logger can be used for other things than geotagging pictures. I soon will post an example where I used it during a rollerblade outing to track position, speed and elevation. The information obtained in interesting.

I am heading to France with my camera gear and I am bringing the GPS data logger along with me for its first real test.

The ‘new’ version of the website was online a year ago already! As promised, I’ve put updates on a regular basis. 33 posts were made, almost 3 per month in average. Not too bad.

Over 1500 pictures were uploaded in the photo album during this year.

Come back every once in a while to follow us! And please feel free to leave us comments so that we can see how to improve the site (content, navigation, etc.)