Useful online resources for location shoots
I thought it might be handy to make a small collection of web-based resources for outdoor photography and similar activities. Some of these resources are right here on GarfNet. The rest are dotted around the worldwide web. I thought it would be useful to have links to them here, all in one place.
Working online…
Maps
OpenStreetMap
A useful free alternative to both Google and Ordnance Survey is provided by the OpenStreetMap project:-
OpenStreetMap started life in Britain but now covers the entire planet. It is founded on some pretty solid web-friendly logic For example the path after the URL is simply
- https://openstreetmap.org /#map=[zoom-level]/[latitude]/[longitude]
So the URL for Havant railway station would be:-
Traffic maps
Traffic England, Traffic Scotland and Traffic Wales provide quite useful traffic maps with (mostly) live cameras on most of the nations’ trunk roads. Unfortunately three different sites, all of which function quite differently form each other. Still, that can be helpful at times:-
- https://www.trafficengland.com/#map-menu-live-traffic
- https://www.traffic.gov.scot/
- https://traffic.wales/road-cameras
Handling Ordnance Survey grid references
The following site converts OS grid references to a marker on an online map…
If you scroll to the bottom of the page it also converts the grid reference to standard longitude & latitude.
Tide timetables
If you are photographing a beach or tidal river, tide times can be a crucial factor. Aside from the obvious safety concerns, beaches and riversides can assume a totally different look at low tide compared to high tide. This site provides quite good up-to-date coverage for the whole of the British Isles, based upon OpenStreetMap mapping…
Weather
Some years back I wrote a weather viewer based on METAR data, c/w a recent mobile friendly update. It still works quite well but has been massively superseded by sophisticated visual web applications such as Ventusky.
OpenWeatherMap
Then there is the excellent weather service provided by OpenWeathermap Although it is based in London, OpenWeatherMap covers the entire planet, using a huge number of automatic localised weather monitoring stations. OpenWeatherMap also provides the data source for many desktop and mobile weather widgets.
Like Openstreetmap, OpenWeatherMap’s URL’s are very web-friendly. Every station has a unique number. When you search for a station, its unique number is added to the main URL thus:-
- https://openweathermap.org/city/[stationID]
For example the station in the centre of Havant is
- 2647317
Its URL becomes
Internet radio
These will provide direct DASH and HLS radio streams for BBC national and local radio stations. These can be handy if you want to know what the weather and traffic is doing three counties away.
These streams can be played directly or added as a playlist to any good media player, such as VLC. I Have also built a rudimentary player for these streams. It is a bit buggy, but it works:-
- GarfNet Internet Radio Player – this thing still needs some polish, but it works. https://garfnet.org.uk/radio
Working offline too…
These will work on-line and offline.
Mapping applications
OSMAND+
OSMAND+ Excellent alternative to Google maps, based upon OpenStreetMap, using open source software, that does not give up your location to a foreign corporation in a foreign jurisdiction. Free, open source, with no hidden nasties. Maps download locally and updated monthly. Which means it works even when you don’t have a live internet connection. It also integrates nicely with your device’s GPS/GLONASS/Beidou sensors:-
It’s also easy to take a screengrab to use to illustrate an article or send to other members of your team. This one was for my recent photo-jaunts to the stork nests at Knepp, and the nearby Kings Mill, smock windmill, Shipley in West Sussex..
OSMAND is also available on Google Play, but the FDroid version is better because all the map downloads are free, and the source-code checked for obvious nasties.
SatStat
While you are at it, you might find SatStat handy for actually locating and managing positioning satellites.
Marble
If you use Debian GNU/Linux, or one of its derivatives (such as Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Mint, KDE Neon et al) then you mght find KDE Marble a useful addition to your mapping arsenal. This is a desktop application. However it is possible to import and export data to/from Marble and OSMAnd+. To install Marble on Debian-based systems:-
sudo apt install marble
There are also versions for Android and MS Windows. You might also wish to refer to the KDE Marble official site and its corresponding Wikipedia page:-
A few other free applets that I find handy while I’m on the road. YMMV…
These free responsive tools work quite well on both desktop and mobile devices. No installation required. If you don’t have roaming data on your phone, these applets will also work off line. Simply load into a separate tab in your browser before you leave the house. Just don’t close the tab while you are away from the internet! 😉
- Depth of field calculator – for most popular lenses and cameras. https://garfnet.org.uk/dof
- Scientific calculator – useful if say you wish to calculate height of a building or similar using h = d.tanΘ or similar: https://garfnet.org.uk/calc
- Units converter – handy if you live in a country such as the UK, where metrication is still not complete and is unlikely to be any time soon: https://garfnet.org.uk/converter
HTH 🙂
