Until recently I had been using GAIA GPS only to help find and follow off-road routes to photographic locations or to find new hiking routes I was interested in exploring and used a handheld Garmin GPS for location scouting. GAIA is excellent for finding routes, you simply use the map and zoom into the area you are interested in. Once on the map click the overlays dropdown and add public trips to show all of the routes other users have created and published from this area. When you first bring the public trips overlay it can be a bit overwhelming but zooming in greatly narrows the clutter. The Garmin was a good way to mark locations but it was time-consuming to enter enough relevant information through the joystick input. The saving grace was that once I was back at home I could download the data from the hand-held device into the Garmin app on my laptop for further work. This worked well for me for many years but after a while, I would forget what was at a location because the name I gave wasn’t descriptive enough.
When you find a good location you can also open the GAIA app on your phone and click he ⨁ symbol at the top and select “take picture”. This will bring up the camera of your phone and allow you to take a photo. Once you click Use Photo a waypoint will automatically be created for your on that location with a time and date stamp along with your photo attached to it. Now when you go back through your waypoints you will have a photo to remind you of exactly how the scene looked.
Since I always have my phone on me anyway using the GAIA app simplified what I need to carry. I no longer need to carry my Garmin handheld GPS, or worry about buying expensive maps, nor do I have to worry about having extra AA batteries. All of this and GAIA actually has more features and works better for my needs.
For a much more thorough write-up check out Sarah Marino’s post-https://www.naturephotoguides.com/blog/gaia-gps-favorite-apps-for-landscape-photography
