Photospots lives
December 5th 2009
Photospots is the website I wrote so that photographers could share their favourite locations. Today I launched a significant new version (the whole thing rewritten from scratch) with a load of new features.
More details are on the Photospots blog.
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Photospots Progress
November 8th 2009
As I mentioned previously I have started a quite significant update of Photospots. In fact I have started coding it from scratch so I will be in a better place to create updates in future. This post is a quite note on the progress being made for anyone that visits from the site.
Better Maps
The first and most important addition, and the one which has taken up most of my time so far, is that Photospots will now feature two mapping solutions. Google Maps, which covers the world as a whole and includes terrain and satelite imagery, and Ordnance Survey maps which cover the UK and include much more information about paths and trails once you get off the roads.
This is quite significant for the UK users as there is often no way to find trails using Google except through satelite images which isn't very precise.
Users will be able to switch between the two map types Seamlessly whether they are adding new content to the map, or just viewing content.
Additional information
As well as new maps it will be possible to add more information to each Photospot.
A photospot could be a single place to stand to get a good shot, but it could also be a series of locations. The new version means you can specify not just the location and places to park, but you will also be able to show the difference between free and paid parking areas, add specific view points, and add waypoints for a route around the area, if appropriate.
Additional external references
As well as the above, it will be easier to add photographs from flickr, as a flickr viewer will be integrated into the new Photospot page, and it will be possible to add multiple external resources, i.e. links to websites that visitors might find useful.
I still have a lot of work to do to get it ready, but the new site should be a significant improvement over the old. As always, I am open to suggestions about ways to improve the site so if you have any ideas let me know.
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The Next Project
October 20th 2009
For some time I have had a, somewhat neglected, website for sharing good photography locations. With a good number of holidays left to take this year I figure it was about time I took another look at it.
Photospots was the first application I created using google maps. I created it when I started taking photography seriously as a hobby and I wanted to record the places I found that offered interesting locations.
When I created the site it got very complicated very quickly. A mass of javascript code, my first attempt at Ajax, and limited PHP abilities meant it was really hard to maintain. I have wanted to updated it for a while but this complexity, really knowing I needed to start from scratch, has rather put me off.
Finally, last year (or was it earlier this year? I forget) I rewrite the entire site to run as a plugin to Habari. It was better, looked clean, easy to use, and easy to maintain. Then my hard drive died on me and all my local development work, including photospots went with it.
When I started developing this site I realised that if I was thoughtful about the way I went about creating it I could use the same code as the basis for a newly revised photospots. So that is what I intend to do.
I don't imagine the basic functionality will take long to replicate, meaning that what I am left with is time to add new and improved information and functionality for anyone using the site.
So here's the question, if you are a hobbyist photographer, if you routinely think about taking a trip out in your local area to get some great shots, what information would you want about potential places to visit?
I have some great ideas, but I always welcome more.
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