Augmap

I imagined Augmap as a way to inspire exploration by marking permanent or semi-permanent personal points of interest on a map. Organizing each entry by a related theme encourages updates over time and across distances. Whether you're traveling within a small town or across the country, you can continuously curate your Augmap collections. These collections can also be collaborative. More than one person can tap into the entry by setting permissions on the Google spreadsheet and using DO Camera just like the entry's author.

The best way I can currently describe this is as a map-centric image gallery. Every entry has a short description of the collection you are viewing. As new, relevant pieces are discovered, they are photographed and added to the gallery entry in real time. I wanted to create a unique web feature outside of social media that would drive traffic to someone's personal website. Augmap is not aimed at pro photographers, although I'd welcome them to use it just the same. This interesting collection can be a portal into discovering someone's body of work in any medium through a common interest you have. That said, I am working out the best way to tease new Agumap entries to social media without revealing the full content.

I've used Google docs, IFTTT, DO Camera, and Couch CMS to make adding to entries as easy as taking a photo. I'm also showing off what I've learned in the way of CSS animation.

Aesthetically, I like the aspect ratio of photos taken with DO Camera (199 : 112 vs normal iPhone ratio of 162 : 121). It’s probably just an oversight on their part more than anything else, but we’ll call it a feature. The aspect ratio reminded me of the images produced by Jeff Bridges’ camera of choice when he snaps candid photos on film sets. If you haven’t seen them, definitely check them out. His photos inspired me to buy a couple of snap on wide angle smartphone lenses and take advantage of the unusual-to-phones aspect ratio. I was thrilled when Instagram broke out of forced square images, but the square was also part of their initial identity. I wanted to create a noticeable, if not recognizable, identity for Augmap photos.