Today it's easy to have photos placed on a map thanks to geotagging, which is embedding geographical metadata (location, elevation, time, date, etc.) within photograph metadata (exif). This is done automatically each time a photo is taken, especially with a smartphone.
However, when taking photos with a device that doesn't have gps built-in, no geolocation data is being saved and photo can't be easily linked with location.
To workaround this limitation, there are a couple solutions:
1. use a camera that has a gps module built-in (there are only a handful of those)
2. use a camera with a dedicated, external gps module (cumbersome, expensive, device is specific to particular camera model/brand) or use camera's bluetooth connectivity to connect to smartphone and pull geo metadata into the photos
3. use a separate, standalone gps tracker to continuously log your position and embed geo data in photos in post processing.
Options 1 and 2 are quite limiting with regards to what camera can be used (only cameras with built-in gps or bluetooth).
Option 3 is most flexible, however, it comes with couple limitations.
Main issue is that you have to keep a separate gps device on you at all times, remember to turn it on, remember to keep it charged, etc. Also, memory storage in such a device is limited and gps tracks cannot be downloaded easily without a PC.
Next issue is that this particular device (Holux GPSport 245) is quite old (2011, got it in 2012) and company making it no longer exists, there are no more firmware updates, and software supplied with the unit is buggy and sometimes fails to connect to device or download the log.
Fortunately there is a solution for that as there is an opensource software alternative: GPS Babel. It works on Linux and Windows, however, I've managed to connect and download the log only on windows so far.
Another issue is that some older gps devices don't record date/time correctly. This is because the date includes a week number which is a 10-bit integer value, which means it can count from 0 to 1024 weeks. Such a device works properly until week counter reaches 1024. When hitting this number, week counter rolls over, and starts again from 0. First time this happened was in August 1999, next time was 1024 weeks later which is April 2019, next time will be 1024 weeks later which is November 2038. This results in incorrect date being logged on some devices.
To work around this limitation you can simply download your gps log from tracker, and adjust (shift) all timestamps by exactly 1024 weeks (assuming your device was manufactured before previous rollover date - April 2019).
There is already a script to do that.
Finally, in order for geotagging to work, you have to keep your camera time and date in sync with gps signal/device. This will allow for precise photo placement on the map. It's probably enough to check and adjust camera time settings once every couple days - smartphone time should be enough as it is already synced to gps time. (I could use my GPSport device to read the time and sync camera time, however, since week rollover, unit no longer displays time on the main screen, or anywhere else)
Once all of this is in place, you can then import your photos to Adobe Lightroom as usual and then import gpx file on top of that - Lightroom will then read data from gpx file and embed geo data in photos based on their timestamps.
btw: geo data can also be embedded in videos and other media as well
Summary:
Once I get back from my trip, with photos on my memory card and gps track logged in my logger, I will then need to:
- download photos and gps track to a computer (Windows)
- adjust gps track data by 1024 weeks offset (Linux or Windows)
- import all photos to Lightroom (Windows)
- import gps track to ligtroom thus geotagging the photos (Windows)
