Global Geo-Referenced Field Photo Library

 

A picture is worth a thousand words, and a geo-referenced (geo-tagged) field photo is even better. Everyday, researchers, students and citizens use GPS cameras and smartphones to take photos in the fields, as part of their efforts to document their observations of landscapes, agriculture, forests, natural disasters, and wildlife. This Geo-Referenced Field Photo Library is a community- and citizen- science data portal for people to share, visualize and archive geo-referenced photos from the fields in the world. Users can upload, edit, query and download geo-referenced field photos in the library, and use the photo-based thematic geospatial datasets for the studies of land use and land cover change, the impacts of extreme weather events, and wildlife conservation, etc. Users who provide photos can decide whether individual photos are to be shared or not. A registered user can upload photos into the library and has access to more field photos in the library than a guest user. 

	Share your field photos,
		 Show your footprint of travel, and 
			Support monitoring of our Planet Earth!

Please read this article 'A Library of Georeferenced Photos From the Field', AGU, EOS, 12/6/2011 [pdf]

Please invite other people to participate in this community and citizen science effort and distribute this one-page flyer [pdf]

Field Photo Demo

User's Guide

  • About your GPS camera and smartphone [pdf]
  • How to use Field Photo Library (upload, edit, query, download) [pdf]
  • IGBP classification system [pdf]
  • How to take field photos for monitoring land use and land cover changes [pdf]
  • How to take field photos for monitoring water quality and harmful algae blooms [pdf]

Smartphone Apps

  • IOS:

    • "Field Photo 2" Iphone app is now available in Apple Store, please download and install it. It is FREE!!

  • Android:

    • "Field Photo 2" Android app is now available in Google Play Store, please download and install it. It is FREE!!

Field Photos Projects

  1. Latest Field Photo Weekend
    2.

    "Field Photo Weekend" September 1-3

    Here’s your chance to join hundreds of other CoCoRaHS observers to see what our landscapes look like on Labor Day Weekend. If you have participated before, this is a great chance to go back to your favorite spots and see what has changed. All you have to do is:

    • Take your camera or smartphone
    • Find a landscape in your community (streams, lakes, rivers, reservoirs, a forest, a crop field, a pasture, etc.)
    • Take a single photo or a panorama in four different directions (N, E, S, W) from where you are standing. And then take one looking down.

    There are four ways to post your photos

    • Use the “Field Photo” App on your phone, which can be downloaded from the “Apple Store” and “Google Play Store”. Enter metadata to describe the landscape and add #CoCoRaHSMay18” as a keyword.
    • Email your photos with your location to: fieldphotos@southernclimate.org. When uploading your photos please include the words #CoCoRaHSMay18 in the notes field. Remember you don't have to email your photos this weekend, just take them, but we do encourage you to email them soon afterward.
    • Upload photos directly to the (CEOM) Center for Earth Observation and Modeling's photo archive website: “http://www.ceom.ou.edu/photos”.
    • Or post your photos on your phone or online to our new partners at iSeeChange.org, a climate and weather journal that collects stories about change.

    Field Photo Weekend is a partnership between CoCoRaHS, the Southern Climate Impacts Planning Program (SCIPP) and the Center for Earth Observation and Modeling (CEOM) to help ground truth through photos, what is going on with our landscapes throughout the country. It's not just drought we are looking for either, it could be flooding, fire, or whatever state the landscape is now in. For detailed instructions, click here: INSTRUCTIONS.

    As you have seen in past campaigns, Field Photo Weekend added a new partnership last year with ISeeChange, to help tell stories about the photos you’re taking. If you have an interesting observation about the landscape you are photographing ISeeChange would like to hear from you. They take observations and questions from citizens about the changes citizens are seeing in the environment and then write stories about the underlying science. Plus you can send photos and stories anytime. Check it out at ISEECHANGE.ORG

    In a few weeks this weekend's photos will be posted and you'll be able to see your photos and those taken by other volunteers. Reference the VIEWING PHOTOS.

    Remember you don't have to email your photos this weekend, just take them, but we do encourage you to email them soon afterward. That address again is: fieldphotos@southernclimate.org. When uploading your photos please include the words #CoCoRaHSMay18 in the notes field.

    Finally, please view the SHORT ANIMATION about our Field Photo Weekends. It captures all you’ll need to know and we think you will find it very helpful.

    Thanks in advance for participating during our final event of the year . . . Thank you very much for your photos!

Acknowledgements:
The Geo-Referenced Field photos in this Field Photo library come from many people and projects. Their contributions make this library possible and grow over time. Thanks.