Google Earth-PBase Galleries Photo Gallery by Pablo Yáñez at pbase.com

Google Earth-PBase Galleries

I hope to use this space to showcase just one of the myriad of ways that Google Earth can change and improve how we interact with any media type in which spatial relationships are important. A couple of weeks ago I looked around on PBase and was surprised to find that nothing similar to this was being done. So I decided to give it a trial run here and see how well this technology could be used to improve traditional photo galleries. For now, the links from each of the placemarks will take you to one of my PBase images from that location. I could have just as easily provided links from each location to audio/video files (music, oral histories,etc), scientific data, texts, database information, webpages for local guides, etc... you get the idea, just about any type of content!

For this test I have mainly selected landscape photos, since these have traditionally been meant to convey a sense of "place" to the viewer. I think it will be interesting to see if the use of the 3D interface will further strengthen the feeling of "place" that the viewer is left with after looking at the photographs by contextualizing them within the much larger "environment" available through Google Earth. In this case, the Google Earth interface is not meant to be artistic in nature, but rather serve as an informational backdrop to enhance the photographs.

Each of the images below will allow you to take a tour of that region in the world using Google Earth. By clicking one the images below, you'll be able to see the area covered by that tour and download a Google Earth data file (kmz) for that region.

Assuming you already have Google Earth installed, you are ready to start your tour. Each Google Earth placemark on the tour will contain at least one of my photographs (and in some cases more). To improve your viewing experience I would strongly recommend that before starting you turn off (uncheck) all layers and other "places", with the exception of the "Terrain" layer.

Hopefully, you will find this non-linear, and very visual way of interacting with my photos to be more interesting and informative than either traditional online or "studio" photo galleries.

When you are done with the tour(s), please, PLEASE, let me know what you thought of the experience. I'd like to expand this section in the near future and would be more than happy to incorporate any suggestions, fixes or other features.

Thanks,
Pablo Yanez

Again the steps to browse through the photos in Google Earth are:
1. Select one the the galleries below by clicking on the thumbnail photo.
2. Once in that gallery, you can download the Google Earth data file by clicking on the link provided BELOW the satellite image.
3. You should now be able to browse through photos and 3D geography using Google Earth

Tour of Portugal

Tour of Northern and Central Chile

Tour of the Lake Region and Chiloe Island

Tour of Chilean Patagonia

comment |

Lillian Rodriguez		03-Sep-2011 15:40
Such an interesting idea! Will give it a try! Congrats and VOTED

Kiriakos Korakis		24-Jun-2007 06:24
Amazing idea !!! V !!!

Louise		22-Jul-2006 03:23
It works well for me, I might give it a try!! I also use Smugmug, but haven´t tried this feature yet.

Pablo Yáñez		12-Mar-2006 16:12
Thanks for your comments. I've seen the Smugmug implememtation. And while it is nice to be able to see the 2D location of a photo, I would really like to see an implementation that would allow linkage to Google earth so locations could be viewed in 3D - as I think this really adds a lot the the mixed media experience of getting to know/understand a place.

Guest		11-Mar-2006 21:51
This is really wonderful! I have been to Chile and love your country. For more ideas, you might want to check out what they are doing over at smugmug as a built-in feature: http://maps.smugmug.com/ I am a member there, but I also visit pbase because there are many great photographers here as well. For example, notice how smugmug adds a thumbnail to each placemark and works in the browser. However, I like how yours works inside Google Earth. Keep it up!

Pablo Yáñez		10-Mar-2006 17:13
Keith, I guess I did not make my explanation clear enough (I'm doing a re-write as we speak). You need to download the Google Earth data file in the link provided below the satellite image. Once you download this file you can navigate from within Google Earth to any of the images included in the tour. Please let me know if you are still having problems. Pablo

KeeF		10-Mar-2006 15:40
its not working, am I being stupid? if I click on a thumbnail, it just takes me back to the intro

Guest		10-Mar-2006 05:26
Wow! That was FUN.

click on thumbnails for full image

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