We’re Cutting Back the Amount of New Content Being Published. We’re Not Stopping It.

When I say we’re taking a break from blogging, that does not mean that we’re going to completely stop publishing content. Instead of weekly posts, we will be cutting back to 1-2 posts per month for the duration of the summer. New content will be published on the first and third Fridays of every month. Everything will still be published at the same time, on Fridays at 15:00 UTC (11 AM EDT/8 AM PDT). We’ll resume our once per week schedule in September.

Again, we’re not completely stopping publishing new blog content this summer. We’re simply reducing the amount of new content we’re publishing to the blog. Pretty much all of the blog content we’ll publish will come in the form of short tutorials and stories from the road as we travel across Canada and parts of the western United States.

Just a few of the amazing places this new chapter has already taken me.

Finally, taking a break from blogging is not a bad thing. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. The time we’re freeing up this summer is being devoted to expanding and diversifying our content, as well as getting the business fully back up and running in this exciting post-COVID chapter. If you want more of our content this summer, please check out our YouTube channel, Pinterest feed, or the Matt Gove Photo website for additional content this summer. Now, here are the details.

1. I Just Need a Break

I have always used my photography and video adventures as an escape during tough times. When the pandemic hit two years ago, it took away that escape. As a result, I really leaned on blogging to fill that void while we were all stuck at home. It was a great escape, and gave me something I could be passionate about throughout the shutdowns. And the results speak volumes. Over the past two years, we’ve grown both readership and engagement nearly an order of magnitude (a factor of 10).

As rewarding as it is to see those kind of results, I’d be lying if I told you it was easy. It takes an incredible amount of hard work and dedication to achieve just a fraction of those results. And after three straight years of pushing out weekly content, I simply need a break from the weekly grind of writing posts. This is exactly why we have put so much emphasis on evergreen content. It allows us to take these kinds of breaks, while at the same time continue to grow the blog.

2. I’m Adding Complimentary Content and Diversifying My Content Strategy

While blogging is my preferred method of content distribution, it’s important not to put all of our eggs into that one basket. Indeed, we launched new YouTube and Pinterest channels this spring. We’ve also updated our websites as an additional platform to distribute content. But it doesn’t stop there, either. As GIS professionals, you can probably guess, we’re also adding a bunch of interactive maps. Our goal is to make it incredibly easy to browse, find, and consume the location-specific content that you need to plan your next adventure.

In addition to videos, we’ll also be publishing online courses, books, guides, and much more over the next several months. Cutting back on blogging this summer will allow us to focus on growing our new channels so we can deliver even more quality and value to you.

3. I Need to Dedicate Some Time to Growing Other Areas of My Business

These two years of the COVID-19 pandemic have been a transition period for both myself and my business. We’ve undergone a lot of changes and have even started a new chapter. And with that transition being nearly complete, I need to dedicate some time to growing these new parts of the business.

In addition to all the new content channels, we also opened the Matt Gove Photo Store last year. We also unveiled a new Matthew Gove Web Development product catalog, shifting our focus to GIS, data science, and visual media.

With so much of my time last winter dedicated to getting my house sold, some areas of my business didn’t get as much attention as I would have liked. Cutting back on the blogging for the summer will allow me to really start getting those more neglected aspects of the business fully back up and running.

Conclusion

Cutting back on blogging for the summer is not a decision I make lightly. But it’s the best decision for both myself and the business going forward. Diversification will allow us to create more content that is tailored exactly to what you want to consume. And best of all, the quality and value of that content will only be better.

In the meantime, please subscribe to our YouTube channel, give us a follow on Pinterest, and sign up for our email newsletter. Keep an eye out for our next post on the first of July. And, as always, if you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us anytime. Happy Summer!

Top Photo: Winter Sunrise in the Rocky Mountains
Boulder, Colorado – February, 2022

The post We’re Taking a Break From Blogging This Summer to Formally Begin This Life-Changing New Chapter appeared first on Matthew Gove Blog.

Last time, you learned how to import GIS shapefiles into Adobe Illustrator. Today, you’re going to use those imported shapefiles to create a custom map in Adobe Illustrator.

Where We Left Off Last Time: Importing GIS Shapefiles into Adobe Illustrator

In the previous tutorial, we began the process of creating custom maps in Adobe Illustrator. That tutorial focused on importing GIS shapefiles into Adobe Illustrator, which consisted of several steps.

1. Load several shapefiles into QGIS to create vector outlines
2. Export those vector outlines from QGIS into SVG Format
3. Import the SVG Map into Adobe Illustrator
4. Scale and Position the Map to Fill our Illustrator workspace

What We’re Going to Learn Today: Finishing Your Custom Map in Adobe Illustrator

Today, we’re going to finish the process of creating a custom map in Adobe Illustrator. In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to do the following:

• Extract parts of the vector and sort them into layers
• Add titles, labels, and the background imagery
• Set up your map for animation

At the end of the day, you’ll wind up with a beautiful final map product that looks like this:

1. Extract Your Custom Map Features from the SVG File in Adobe Illustrator

To make it easier to manage your custom map assets in Adobe Illustrator, put each feature (or group of features) into their own layers. We covered this briefly in the previous tutorial, but I want to go over it in much more detail. First, let’s recall where we left off. We had just imported the SVG (vector image) file into Adobe Illustrator using File > Place.

Before we do anything in Illustrator, make a list of the features you will be extracting from the SVG file. For the Utah National Parks, we want to extract the following:

• The Utah State Boundary
• Zion National Park Outline
• Bryce Canyon National Park Outline
• Capitol Reef National Park Outline
• Canyonlands National Park Outline
• Arches National Park Outline

If it helps, you can also make a list of everything you want to exclude from the final map. For our map of the Utah National Parks, we only need to exclude the rectangle that bounds the SVG image, which is outlined in blue in the above screenshot. Don’t worry about colors at this point. We’ll address them shortly.

Scale and Position Your Custom Map in Adobe Illustrator Before Extracting Any Features

Before you extract any features from the imported SVG file, I highly recommend that you scale your custom map and move it into its final position on the Adobe Illustrator artboard. You can always make minor to its position and scale as you go. However, it’s much easier to do any major moving and scaling while it’s still just a single entity.

To scale the SVG file in Illustrator, simply grab any of the anchor points on the corner or side of the SVG file and drag it to its desired size. To prevent image distortion, hold the Shift key down as you scale it, which maintains the original aspect ratio.

The green rectangles in Illustrator mark the boundaries of your artboard, so scale it to fill as much of the artboard as possible. If you need to scale the SVG beyond the boundaries of the Adobe Illustrator, that’s perfectly fine. Illustrator will crop everything to fit the artboard when you go to export it.

Additionally, make sure that you leave room for any titles, subtitles, and labels you’ll be adding to the map later. You should also center the map horizontally in the frame. Your scaled and centered custom map of Utah should look something like this in Adobe Illustrator.

Extract Each Feature of Your Custom Map into Its Own Layer in Adobe Illustrator

On the initial extraction, you should put each feature into its own layer in Illustrator. We do this for two reasons.

1. It best sets the map up for animation
2. It’s much easier to merge multiple layers into one than it is to separate one layer in several.

To begin your feature extraction, first open the Layers panel. Click on the carat to reveal the components of the SVG layer.

Despite there being so many components, the features you want to extract are only going to be in a small subset of those components. The easiest way to find your map features is to click on the eyeball next to each component in the layers panel. If your feature disappears from the map, that’s the component you need to extract.

To extract the component you’ve identified, create a new layer to put it in. Don’t worry about the order of layers for now. The new layer button is in the bottom right corner of the main Adobe Illustrator window. Give it an easily identifiable name, such as “Zion Boundary” or “Canyonlands Outline”.

Click and drag the component from the original SVG file to the layer you just created. You should see the feature now listed under the new layer. Do note that your feature may be divided into several components in the SVG layer. In that case, drag each component of your feature to your new layer.

To confirm everything copied correctly, click the eyeball to show and hide your new layer. Your feature should disappear from and reappear on the map.

Finally, repeat the process for each feature you will be putting on your final map. Once everything is extracted into their own layers, you can hide or delete the original SVG layer. We will not be using it anymore.

A Note on Dealing with Complex Features

If you have a complex feature you are trying to extract or if two features you want on your map are combined into a single component of the SVG file, you can still extract them. Use Illustrator’s Eraser tool to delete any unwanted parts of the SVG components. You can separate multiple features from a single SVG component with Illustrator’s Direct Selection Tool. Please consult the Adobe Illustrator documentation for more details.

2. Add a Background Image

Next up, we’ll add the background image. In our Utah National Parks map, the background image is of the hoodoos at Bryce Canyon from my trip in 2017. Your background image should be a high enough resolution to fill the artboard of your Adobe Illustrator project. Remember that while Illustrator is a vector editing program, your images still consist of pixels. If you scale them up beyond their full resolution, they will become pixelated and grainy.

Before you add your background image, though, you will need to do a couple things. These are both optional, but I highly recommend doing them.

1. Crop your image to match the aspect ratio of your artboard in Adobe Illustrator. For videos, that aspect ratio is 16:9. I do this mainly for my own sanity so I don’t accidentally put features outside of the artboard boundaries that will get clipped off.
2. If you plan to use a background overlay that’s any color other than black or white, make your image black and white. Colored overlays can do wonky things to the colors of your image, often with undesirable results. If you’re using your own branding, black and white images help ensure that the map stays the recognizable colors of your brand.

Use Illustrator’s File > Place function to embed your background image into Illustrator. The features you imported in the previous step may disappear from view, but don’t worry. They’re just underneath the image. We’ll correct that shortly. Then, drag each corner of the image to the corners of your artboard to fill it.

3. Add a Background Overlay

A background overlay is a solid color, semi-transparent overlay that goes on top of your background image. Its primary purpose is to make the content of your map easier to read. Not only does it increase the contrast, but it also makes the background image much more subtle. Remember, you want your viewers’ eyes to be drawn to the content, not to the background image.

Use the slider below to see the difference between having a background overlay vs having nothing. The difference in readability is night and day.

Background Overlay Setup in Adobe Illustrator

You should put the background overlay either in the same layer as your background image or in its own layer. The easiest way to add the background overlay is with Illustrator’s Rectangle Tool.

After creating the rectangle in Illustrator, drag the corners so the rectangle fills the artboard.

Background Overlay Color and Opacity

Your background overlay should never be anything besides a single color. It will be too distracting otherwise. If you want to use a secondary color, make the text and content of your map that color. Remember, color can be very powerful for invoking emotions in your audience. Use it wisely.

So what color should you make your background overlay? I recommend one of three options.

1. Your Primary Brand Color
2. Black
3. White

Unless you want to put more emphasis on your background image, you should use your primary brand color for the background overlay. For example, Coca-Cola would use red, UPS would brown, and John Deere would use green.

Start with the opacity set at 75 to 85%, and adjust it as needed. You should be able to see your background image through the overlay and be able to immediately recognize what it is. However, you don’t want the background image to distract from the content on your map.

Interestingly, you may have a situation where you want to emphasize the background image a little more. It comes up more often than you’d think. I use it on the title screens of pretty much all of my videos.

In that case, you should use a black or white background overlay, and set the opacity to 30 to 50% to start. Like before, you’ll need to adjust it as necessary. I also recommend using a color background photo, because the black or white overlay won’t distort the colors of your image.

4. Add Any and All Map Titles, Subtitles, Labels, and Branding

The final elements to add are the title, labels, and branding. Like the background overlay, most of these should go either in the same layer as the background image and/or overlay, or in their own layer. However, there is one distinct exception. All feature labels should go in the same layer as the feature itself, or in their own layer. If you plan to animate the feature labels independently of the features themselves, each label must go in its own layer.

Use the text tool in Adobe Illustrator to add text to your custom map. Set the font to either match your brand fonts, which I highly recommend, or, to an easy-to-read font. The last thing you want is your viewers struggling to read the beautiful map you put such effort into.

5. Arrange the Layers in the Correct Order

Now that we’ve got all of the elements of our map in place, it’s time to put the layers into the correct order so you can see all of your features. If you’re not familiar with the concept of layers, it’s very similar to making a sandwich. For example, the layers of a ham sandwich, from top to bottom, would be something like this:

• Bread
• Mayo/Mustard
• Cheese
• Veggies
• Ham
• Mayo/Mustard
• Bread

Likewise, we can arrange the layers of our map in a similar order. From top to bottom, the layers of our map are as follows.

• Features and Feature Labels (unless they overlap, the order of each individual feature layer does not matter)
• Titles, Subtitles, Labels, and Branding
• Background Overlay
• Background Image

To rearrange the order of your custom map layers in Adobe Illustrator, open the Layers panel. Then, all you have to do is click and drag the layers into the correct order. Make sure you don’t accidentally put one layer into another. However, if you do, a Ctrl/Cmd-Z is all it takes to undo your mistake.

6. Set the Colors of Your Custom Map Features in Adobe Illustrator

All right, we’re almost there. All that’s left is to set the colors of our map features. And thankfully, that’s an easy, straightforward task. On the map, hold down the Shift key and click on all of the features you want to color to select them. To set the color, go to the properties tab and set the fill and stroke colors. You can also add opacity to each feature if you wish. On the Utah National Parks map, we left the opacity at 100% for all features.

Congratulations, you’re all done! You should have a final map that looks similar to the one below.

Conclusion

Creating a custom map in Adobe Illustrator is a fantastic way to increase brand awareness. And now, you’re completely ready to take the next big step into the world of map animation. You’ll learn all about that in the next installment of this series.

Additionally, custom maps are much easier to read and will put you leaps and bounds ahead of your competitors who are still using Google Maps. They’ll also make you look way more professional. Are you ready to get started with your own custom, branded maps? Get in touch with us today and get started with a free info session.

Top Photos: Hoodoos in the Late Afternoon Sun
Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah – May, 2017

The post How to Create a Custom Map in Adobe Illustrator appeared first on Matthew Gove Blog.

Which begs the question…why are so many people still using Google Maps screenshots in their videos, presentations, and other content? Yes, Google Maps is an incredible tool, but they were not designed to be used in videos and presentations. Worst of all, they tend to flash on the screen for such a short time that it’s next to impossible to tell where you are, where you’re going, or what you’re doing. In which of the following maps can you locate Utah’s “Big 5” National Parks faster?

Creating custom maps in Adobe Illustrator can fix all of that. Put your own branding and style on the map. Remove everything that’s not relevant to the story you’re trying to tell. Give it a breathtaking design. Make it uniquely you. It’s such an easy way to look very professional and really stand apart from everyone still using Google Maps.

Finally, and best of all, you don’t have to spend a fortune to achieve incredible results with your maps. In this tutorial, the only thing you’ll need to pay for is Adobe Illustrator. Everything else is available free of charge. Let’s go.

What is a Shapefile?

A shapefile is simply a geospatial vector data format. Vector data formats in GIS and mapping applications are incredibly fast and efficient because of their small file size. You can put an enormous amount of data into a pretty small file, which also makes vector data formats ideal for web-based applications.

ESRI originally created the shapefile for its ArcView GIS software back in the early 1990’s. Today, shapefiles are widely used and nearly universally supported throughout the GIS world. However, I do want to point out that despite their widespread use, they are still a proprietary format. As a result, if you prefer open source file formats, I recommend using either GeoJSON or CSV to store your data. Both can be used as vector formats and you can import them into Adobe Illustrator using the same method we’ll use for shapefiles below.

Shapefiles exist for just about every type of feature out there. You can store data as points, lines, or polygons. Indeed, I’ve used them for everything, including severe weather warnings, road trip routes, National Park boundaries, and much more. Because of their widespread availability, both ESRI and government entities (federal, state/province, and local) maintain extensive databases of shapefiles. If you can’t find what you’re looking for there, you should be able to find it with a quick Google search. While this tutorial only uses the geometry of the shapefiles, you can easily add your own data either directly into the shapefile or through region mapping.

Why Import Shapefiles into Adobe Illustrator?

If you’re just looking to plot data on a map, then by all means, a GIS program is the best way to go. However, GIS programs definitely have their limits. That’s where Adobe Illustrator comes in. When you import your shapefiles into Adobe Illustrator, you get much finer control over the final map design and look. The end result is a much more polished and professional-looking map, especially if you’re putting them into videos or presentations.

Furthermore, Adobe Illustrator provides the bridge to animating your maps. If you’re a content creator or giving a presentation, fully animated maps will put you in a class above your competition who are still using screenshots of Google Maps in their videos and presentations. Don’t believe me? Have a look at the maps below. Which one is easier to identify the “Big 5” National Parks in southern Utah?

While GIS software does support the bare basics for animation, you can make far more powerful animations even just using Illustrator itself. However, to unlock its full potential, you’ll need to use something like Adobe After Effects.

Unfortunately, animation is a topic for another day. We’ll cover that in a future tutorial. Let’s get back to learning how to import shapefiles into Adobe Illustrator.

1. Download and Install QGIS, a Free GIS Program

As a content creator myself, I know how critical it is to keep the cost of doing business to a minimum. And as a GIS specialist, I also know how expensive some proprietary GIS software can be. As a result, I’ve designed this tutorial so that the only piece of software you need to pay for is Adobe Illustrator.

If you’ve used ESRI’s ArcGIS before, you may be aware that Arc has an “Export to Illustrator” option built into it. That will export your shapefiles directly into a .ai Adobe Illustrator file. However, the desktop version of Arc also costs a bare minimum of $700 per year to use. Instead, we’ll use QGIS for this tutorial. QGIS is open source and, best of all, completely free. And unlike Arc, it runs on MacOS, Windows, and Linux. You can download QGIS here.

2. Prepare Your Shapefiles in QGIS

Before we can import our shapefiles into Adobe Illustrator, we first need to prepare them in QGIS. Using QGIS will ensure that each feature appears on your map in its proper location. You can try to eyeball the correct location once it’s all imported into Illustrator, but trust me, that never ends well.

Create a New Project in QGIS

First, you’ll need to create a new project in QGIS into which you’ll load your shapefiles. You’ll also need to change the default map projection, which will prevent your shapefiles from becoming distorted.

First, open QGIS and select Project > New Project. This will open a blank project. Then, in the bottom right, click on the text that says “EPSG:4326”. QGIS will open a window so you can select a new projection.

In the search bar, search for “Pseudo-Mercator”. You’ll likely see multiple results returned. Select the result labeled “EPSG:3857”.

Click OK to confirm your changes. The text in the bottom right should change from “EPSG:4326” to “EPSG:3857”.

Finally, if you want to include a basemap to confirm your features are both properly projected and in the correct location, double click on the OpenStreetMap option in the browser on the left-hand side of your QGIS dashboard. Please note that you should only use the basemap should a reference and never import it into Adobe Illustrator with the rest of your shapefiles.

Load Your Shapefiles into QGIS

When you prep your shapefiles in QGIS for import into Adobe Illustrator, you can include as many or as few as you want. When you export them to Adobe Illustrator, they’ll all get exported as a single-layer entity, so you don’t need to worry about keeping track of a ton of layers.

Adding shapefiles to your QGIS project is easy.

1. Select Layer > Add Layer > Add Vector Layer from the top menu. A window will open.
2. Under the “Source” section, you’ll see an input labeled “Vector Dataset(s)”. Click on the three dots to the right of the text input.
3. Navigate to the folder with your shapefiles and select all the shapefiles you wish to load into QGIS. You only need to select files with the .shp extension.
4. Click the “Add” button at the bottom of the window to add them to your QGIS project.
5. Repeat steps 2-5 until all of your shapefiles are loaded into QGIS.
6. Close the window.

Once everything is loaded into QGIS, make sure that all of the features in the shapefiles that you want to import into Adobe Illustrator are visible. You may need to re-arrange the layers in the Layers panel on the left hand side if you can’t see something.

Finally, hide any features or sublayers in the shapefiles that you do not want to import into Adobe Illustrator. Simply uncheck the feature in the Layers panel to hide it. If you need finer control for removing an individual item, you can easily do that once we import it into Illustrator.

Don’t Worry About Appearance in QGIS

Don’t worry about what the map looks like in QGIS. There’s no need to adjust colors, line thicknesses, or anything else. We’ll do that in Illustrator. Adobe Illustrator gives you much better and finer control over the look of the map than QGIS does. The one exception would be if two features are blocking each other and you need to remove the fill of one so you can see the other.

Finally, if you’ve used a basemap, uncheck it from the layers panel on the left to hide it. The basemap will create all kinds of headaches if you import it into Illustrator. Alternatively, if you’re having issues with white features on a white background in QGIS, just change the background color. You can easily delete that solid background once you get it into Illustrator.

To change the background color, follow these steps.

1. In the top menu, select Project > Properties. A window will open.
2. Click on the “General” tab in the upper-left.
3. In the fourth row down from the top, click on the white box to the right of “Background color” and select the background color you wish.

3. Create a Layout in QGIS to Easily Export Your Shapefiles into Adobe Illustrator

First, zoom and pan the map in your QGIS project to the exact level and position you want to display it in Illustrator. It doesn’t need to be exact, but you should include a little more than you intend to use. It’s easy to clip off the extra after importing the map into Illustrator.

Once your map is zoomed and positioned correctly, it’s time to create a layout so you can export it out of QGIS. In the top menu, select Project > New Print Layout. Follow the prompts to create your new layout. For best results, make sure the layout size is set to either US Letter or A4. Then click the “Add Map” button on the left-hand side.

Finally, click and drag your map so it fills the blank layout. You should see your map appear. If you didn’t get the entire page filled, simply click and drag each corner of the map out to the corners of the blank layout.

Congratulations, you’re ready to export your map out of QGIS. Don’t close the layout window just yet, because you’ll still need it in the next step.

4. Export Your QGIS Layout into SVG Format

Scalable Vector Graphics, or SVG, is an open-source XML-based framework for defining two-dimensional scalable vector images. It’s the most common type of vector image used in web-based applications today. The main advantage of vector images is that they can be scaled infinitely up or down without losing quality or becoming pixelated. As a result, you can cram a huge amount of data into a very small file. And best of all, Illustrator can automatically convert your .svg image into its default .ai format on import.

To export your shapefiles into .svg format, go back to your layout window. In the top window of the layout window (not the main QGIS dashboard), select File > Export Image as SVG. Follow the prompts to save the .svg file to your local hard drive.

One thing to be aware of is that QGIS may give you a warning about some SVG’s not being exported correctly. I have not had any issues with SVG exports, but if your SVG’s do not export correctly, simply export your shapefiles as a .pdf file instead. In the layout window, select File > Export Image as PDF. PDF files are also a vector format, and you follow the exact same steps to import everything into Illustrator, regardless of whether your file is an SVG or PDF.

5. Place Your Exported SVG File into Illustrator

All right, we’re almost there. All that’s left to do is to import our shapefiles (in SVG/PDF format) into Adobe Illustrator. Once that’s done, let your creative side take over and have some fun.

First, open Adobe Illustrator and create a new file. You can use any size artboard you want. However, because I create these maps for use in my travel videos, I’ll use a 4K (3840×2160) artboard.

Second, create a new layer that will hold only your SVG file. Putting the SVG file into its own layer allows us to filter, parse, and extract specific elements of the SVG file into our Illustrator project. Then, once we’ve extracted everything, all we have to do is delete or hide the SVG layer to remove all of the extras.

Linking vs. Embedding Images in Adobe Illustrator

When you import any kind of image into Adobe Illustrator, you can choose whether to embed the file in Illustrator or just link to it. Linking the image file means that Illustrator will reference it from wherever it is on your computer. If you move or delete the image, it will disappear from your Illustrator project. Embedding, on the other hand, copies the image into Illustrator and saves it as part of the .ai file. That way, if you move or delete the original image file, it will still be in your Illustrator project.

Because your exported shapefile vectors are so small, I highly recommend you embed the SVG into Illustrator. Embedding the SVG into Illustrator is easy and straightforward.

1. In the top menu, select File > Place.
2. Navigate to the SVG File you exported from QGIS. Click “Add”.
3. Click anywhere in your Illustrator window to place the SVG.

You should now see the SVG file that you exported from QGIS. However, it’s probably not in the right place in the Illustrator window, nor is it scaled correctly.

A Note on Moving and Scaling Your SVG File in Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Illustrator automatically separates the features in your SVG file to mirror the original shapefile. That’s a good thing, as it makes incredibly easy to separate out each element in Illustrator. However, if you’re not careful, you can easily move or scale features of your map out of place. Thankfully, it doesn’t take much to prevent things from moving out of place.

The easiest way to move or scale the SVG as a whole is to lock all of the other layers first. Because the SVG is in its own layer, then all we have to do is just hit Control + A on Windows or Command + A on a Mac to select all. With the other layers being locked, you’ve selected your entire SVG file without bothering anything else in the Illustrator file.

Second, make sure you hold down the Shift key when scaling the SVG. Doing so maintains the aspect ratio of the SVG. Without it, your map will become distorted and misshapen.

Positioning Your Map in Adobe Illustrator

it’s best to center your map in your Illustrator project, filling as much of the artboard as possible. However, make sure you leave room, particularly at the top, for any titles, headers, labels, and legends you would like to include.

At this point, it’s still perfectly fine if parts of the map extend beyond the boundaries of the artboard. We’ll delete those parts in the next section. And remember, you’re working with vectors, so you can infinitely scale them up or down without losing quality or pixelating.

6. Organize the components of the SVG into Layers in Adobe Illustrator

Depending on what you’re using the Illustrator map for, this can be one layer or many. It’s entirely up to you. However, do note that if you’re animating the map, every individual item or group of items that you’ll be animating as a single unit needs to be in their own layer. In other words, you can’t animate pieces of a layer. You can only animate the whole layer.

Additionally, if you have roads or routes on your map, make sure that you join the pieces of each route together so the route can be a single entity on the map. Having a route in several pieces can be an absolute nightmare if you’re trying to animate it. But even if it’s just going to be static, it’s still much easier to manage a single route than several pieces of it. To join paths in Illustrator, select each element of the paths you want to join and go to Object > Path > Join.

How to Extract SVG Components into Adobe Illustrator Layers

1. Click the New Layer button on the bottom right of the Illustrator window to create a new layer.
2. Go through the components of the SVG layer and find the ones you want to extract. This may take some trial and error by showing and hiding each piece.
3. In the Layers panel in Illustrator, click and drag that component from the SVG layer to the new layer.
4. Adjust the line width, colors, fills, strokes, opacities, etc. to set the final look or design of the feature you just moved.
5. Add any features to the layer that were not in the SVG file. These are most often the feature labels you can add with Illustrator’s text tool.
6. Repeat steps 1 through 5 for each feature layer you wish to create.

When you finish extracting the SVG components you’re using in your Illustrator map, there will likely still be features left over in the SVG layer that you’re not using. Putting the SVG file in its own layer makes it very easy to clean up the leftovers. If you know you’re not going to be using anything else in the SVG layer, you can go ahead and delete the layer. On the other hand, if you know you’re going to be using the leftovers or are not sure, simply hide the SVG layer so you can access it later.

Conclusion

Being able to export ESRI shapefiles into Adobe Illustrator opens up a whole new set of opportunities for content creators, artists, and other creatives to use maps. Creating professional branded, elegant, and easy-to-read maps in Adobe Illustrator will put you leaps and bounds ahead of the masses that are still using screenshots of Google Maps in their videos and presentations.

In future tutorials, we’ll go over how to put the full Illustrator files together like you see in my travel videos. Then, learn how to animate your maps using both Adobe Illustrator and After Effects. In the meantime, we’d love to help you get started with your creative maps and animations. Please get in touch with us today to discuss your project and how we can bring your mapping visions to life.

Top Image: Warm Later Afternoon Light Provides a Dramatic Contrast Against Grey Winter Skies
Canyonlands National Park, Utah – December, 2021

The post How to Import Shapefiles into Adobe Illustrator appeared first on Matthew Gove Blog.

Before you begin, however, you need to figure out the point-of-view you from which you will tell your story. Will it be first person from the one of your characters’ points of view? Or perhaps you prefer to tell it through the third person as an ousider. There are plenty of viewpoints you can use to tell your story. Regardless of what you pick, your decision will influence all elements your story.

Use Freytag’s Pyramid to Write Better Story Elements

Freytag’s Pyramid is a five-part dramatic structure showing the elements and flow of a story. It’s the brain child of 19th century playwright Gustav Freytag. He theorized that there are five key stages of a story that are used to conceptualize or write an engaging story from start to finish.

Below, we’ll go over each stage of Freytag’s Pyramid in detail. I’ll also share some real-world examples of Freytag’s Pyramid in action. Finally, we’ll use the example of climbing a mountain as the perfect metaphor to demonstrate Freytag’s Pyramid.

1. The Protagonist

One of the most important elements in your story, the protagonist is the main character, or good guy in your story. They’re the one who will be going on the journey that your story tells. While many stories have just a single protagonist, yours certainly doesn’t have to. You can have multiple protagonists, or a group of people that function as a single protagonist. For example, if you were telling the story of a trip you took with a tour group, the group would essentially function as a single protagonist.

In the context of travel stories, you (the traveler) are nearly always the protagonist. And since traveling is literally going on a journey, you should be able to pretty easily identify the parts of your journey and how they relate to the parts of stories we’ll cover below.

Interestingly, there is one notable exception, which you’ll find if you’re traveling for a cause, such as to do volunteer work. In that case, the protagonist is often the people or group that you’re helping with your volunteer work. However, you shouldn’t overlook the fact that volunteer work can have a profound impact on the volunteers as well. In that case, I encourage you to include yourself as a protagonist and share your side of the story. On the other hand, you can also re-tell the same story from your point of view. That can be a very powerful way to raise awareness to causes you’re passionate about back home.

2. The Antagonist

Sometimes referred to as the ”anti-protagonist”, the antagonist is the bad guy in your story. The antagonist actively opposes and provides resistance to your protagonist on their journey. One of the most famous protagonist/antagonist pairs is Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader in the Star Wars series.

In many stories, the antagonist is a person or a group of people. However, the antagonist can be anything that stands in the way of the protagonist accomplishing their goal. This is particularly true for telling stories about travel.

But Wait…Travel Stories Don’t Usually Have Clear Cut Good Guys and Bad Guys the Way Star Wars Does. How Do You Identify the Antagonist in Your Travel Stories?

Good question! For travel stories, antagonists don’t always take the traditional forms that they do in many Hollywood movies, or even in the world of news or sports. In fact, in some contexts, the antagonist can be one of the more difficult elements of your story to identify. Take solo travel as an example. You’re just out documenting your adventures, and having a blast doing it. How can there possibly be bad guys when you’re having so much fun?

It turns out that you’re right, in that there are physically no bad people getting in the way of you having fun. Instead, the antagonist takes on different forms. Often times, the travel itself – the act of going from Point A to Point B – is the antagonist. Here are just a few examples of possible sources of resistance, or antagonists, you may encounter while traveling.

• Traffic Jams
• Border Crossings
• Language Barriers
• Natural Barriers such as Mountains or Rivers
• Bad Weather
• Vehicle Breakdowns
• Missed Buses, Trains, or Flights

Interestingly, if you’re traveling for a cause and/or doing volunteer work, the antagonist is the hardship of the group you’re helping out. Some examples include poverty, hunger, war, disease, natural disasters, and much more.

3. A Conflict

We’ve all heard it a million times. Every story needs a conflict. You can’t have a story without one. Yes, it needs to be said. And no, I won’t beat that dead horse any more than I already have.

The conflict is where the protagonist and antagonist cross paths in your story. Remember, each side has opposite goals, so there is a natural conflict there. Your story can have a single conflict, or it can be comprised of a series of conflicts. That’s completely up to you.

How to Identify Conflicts in Your Travel Stories

Like antagonists, conflicts in travel stories don’t always come to life in traditional ways. Indeed, it’s no surprise that so many travel bloggers, photographers, and video storytellers struggle to find conflict in their story. It turns out that you may need to dig down to find the conflict, but it’s there.

If you’re having trouble identifying the conflict in your travel story, go back and re-read the previous section about the antagonist. Look at the bulleted list of examples of antagonists in travel stories and see if you can identify them in your story. Once you know who or what your antagonists are, finding your conflict is easy. Any time you run into or have direct interaction with those antagonists is where your conflict occurs.

Don’t Forget to Provide a Hook for Your Audience

Have you ever binge-watched a show on Netflix? I know I have. And do you know what makes a show bingeworthy? The hook. It’s one of the most critically important elements of your story. Bingeworthy shows are incredibly good at ”hooking” the audience in, leaving them not just wanting to see what happens in the next episode, but craving it. And introducing conflict is one of the best ways to ”hook” your audience.

The best audience hooks usually take the form of teasers, plot twists, secrets, and cliffhangers. Go back and watch one of the shows you’ve binge-watched in the past. Pay particular attention to how they end each episode. They often introduce a new conflict without providing any idea of how it will be resolved. And do you know when they’ll resolve it? In the next episode. That’s how they keep bringing their audience back. And you should try to do the same thing when you tell your stories. At the very least, it will make the story more engaging, dramatic, and gripping.

Finally, you should introduce the first three elements we discussed here (the first or primary protagonist, antagonist, and conflict) before your main character even sets off on their journey. Giving your audience the proper background to the context of your story will better engage them, and keep them coming back for more.

4. Rising Action

As soon as your protagonist sets off on their journey, the rising action begins. Throughout the rising action, each step of the protagonist’s journey should put them into more and more direct contact with the antagonist, as well as the conflict. As a result, there is an increasing escalation each step of the journey. By the end of the rising action, there should be a dramatic build-up to the climax. But don’t reveal too much. You don’t want to give anything away before the climax. Use powerful words, vivid imagery, and/or dramatic music in your final build-up to the climax.

Climbing a mountain is the perfect metaphor for the rising action. Your journey up the mountain starts out pretty easily. The weather’s nice, the terrain isn’t steep, and you feel good and fresh. As you make your way up the mountain, though, conditions begin to change. Not only does the terrain get steeper, but the weather starts to turn. Winds pick up and temperatures start to drop. Furthermore, there is less air to breathe at higher elevations, tiring you out that much quicker.

The most difficult part of the ascent is the final push to the summit. The terrain is treacherous, making for slow progress. Icy winds and heavy snow only compound the problem. Finally, the rarified air leaves you gasping for breath every step. But you keep pushing forward because you know there is an incredible reward at the summit. That’s exactly how the final build-up to the climax of your story should work.

Short Example of a Rising Action in Action

In the short video below, you’ll find an announcement video I made for the next chapter of my life and business. In the first 30 seconds of the clip, I go over my history and accomplishments as a still photographer. At the end of that rising action, you’ll see a build-up to the big reveal that I’m adding video to my arsenal of visual storytelling. Take special note of the music, imagery, and words being used. Notice how the tension and drama builds up a lot quicker right before the reveal than it does at the beginning.

5. Climax

This is the moment everyone’s been waiting for, and the most exciting of your story elements. Tension is high coming out of your rising action as the audience sits on the edge of their seats, eagerly waiting to see what happens. Then you make the big reveal.

The climax is the most pivotal and exciting part of the story. It’s the moment you reveal the resolution to your protagonist’s conflict. As the action of the story transitions towards the conclusion, you transition from the rising action to the falling action. You don’t want the climax right at the beginning of your story, but it can go anywhere in the middle or towards the end.

You should maximize tension, drama and emotion at the end of the rising action right before you reveal the resolution to the conflict. As a result, use your most vivid imagery and most powerful language to show your story’s climax. But your story isn’t quite over, yet. You’ll likely still have some loose ends to tie up, which you’ll take care of in the next section.

Going back to the metaphor of climbing a mountain, the climax occurs when you reach the summit. You can finally exhale, take a break, and soak in the spectacular views. It’s a well-earned reward after a grueling hike up the mountain. However, you shouldn’t relax too much. Your journey is only half-way done because you still have to get back down the mountain.

6. Dénouement or Falling Action

Now that you’ve unveiled the resolution of your story, it’s time to tie up those loose ends left over from the climax. Ironically, the word dénouement literally translates from French as ”the untying of the knot.” However, the context of dénouement refers to the conflict as a knot that you’re untying. Don’t confuse it with the fact that you’re also tying up loose ends in your story.

In addition to tying up loose ends, the dénouement should also begin to establish the main characters’ new normal. Reveal any last secrets or fates that were left over from the climax. The dénouement should not just end the story. It should validate it.

Unlike the rising action, tension, drama, and emotion should drop throughout the course of the dénouement, opposite to how it rose throughout the rising action. Using the mountain climbing metaphor, the dénouement is the descent back down the mountain after you summit. Just like the final push to the summit is the hardest part of the ascent, the first part of the descent is the hardest part of the way down. The descent gets easier as the further down you get. The terrain gets less difficult, the weather gets warmer, and there’s more air to breathe as you drop in elevation.

Finally, if you’re planning anything further, such as another chapter, episode, or sequel, plant the hook to that next segment at the end of the dénouement. Leave your audience quenching to come back and see what happens next.

7. The Characters’ Lives After This Journey

While many storytellers end their stories after the dénouement, I prefer to have one extra element, especially if there will not be any further chapters, episodes, or sequels. In this section, we dive in and fully immerse ourselves in the protagonist’s new day-to-day life. Bring the story full-circle and show your protagonist’s new normal and how the journey changed them.

• Did they learn a lesson from the experience?
• Do they have a new outlook on life? Why or why not?
• How else have they changed? What else are they doing differently?
• What, if anything, of relevance lies ahead for them?

Conclusion

Following Freytag’s Pyramid is one of the easiest and most effective ways to tell a story that engages, hooks, and even grips your audience. Without those elements, you really don’t have a story to tell. Storytelling is an art form, and it’s not uncommon to struggle with it, especially when you’re first starting out. But just remember, while telling is literally in the word storytelling, you want to show your audience, not tell them. And once you master the art of storytelling, it’s amazing the doors it will open for you.

Top Image: A Snow-Packed Road en Route to Grand Canyon
Flagstaff, Arizona – January, 2017

The post How to Use Freytag’s Pyramid Elements to Tell an Engaging, Gripping Story appeared first on Matthew Gove Blog.

In 1868, John Muir booked his first passage to California. As soon as he visited what is now Yosemite National Park, his quest to preserve nature for future generations was born. On 1 March, 1872, his efforts led to his first major accomplishment. That day, President Ulysses S. Grant signing into law the bill that established Yellowstone National Park as the first national park not just in the United States, but also the world.

The Father of the National Parks

Muir was nearly singlehandedly responsible for creating Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks in the 1890s. He also heavily influenced the creation of Mt. Rainier National Park (1899) and Grand Canyon National Park (1919). Unfortunately he didn’t live long enough to see it, but his actions led to the U.S. government establishing the National Parks Service in 1916. Today, you’ll see John Muir’s name all over parks, attractions, and nature preserves all over the western United States. In fact, there’s even an entire National Historic Site in California, as well as a peak in the High Sierra named after him.

One of the most famous John Muir quotes about nature states that ”I care to live only to entice people to look at Nature’s loveliness.” While we didn’t base our mission statement off of that quote, it echoes much of the same sentiment both our mission and vision statements do. John Muir’s quotes about nature have inspired us in so many ways. And we hope that they can help inspire you, too, to get out in nature, expand your horizons, and become a better global citizen.

1. On Life’s Paths

“Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt.

This quote encompasses my life in so many different ways. From hiking to my adventures on back country roads, scenic drives, and beyond, quite a few of the paths I’ve taken in life are dirt. As an escape from both the monotony and the stressors in life, those dirt paths are my happy place.

Additionally, don’t be afraid to break out of the stereotypical mold and live the life you want. Don’t stay on the paved road. Be adventuresome. Get out on the dirt and off the beaten path. You’ll be amazed at the places it can take you.

2. On Travel

“The world is big and I want to have a good look at it before it gets dark.”

They say that once you’ve caught the travel bug it’s hard to let it go. In addition to his quotes about nature, John Muir had a deep passion for travel. Indeed, he managed to travel to all corners of the United States, from Miami to Barrow, Alaska, and from California to New York City. What’s even more impressive is that he did it long before cars and airplanes even existed. Instead, ship and rail were John Muir’s primary modes of transportation during the prime of his life in the late 1800’s. Regardless of what era you live in, travel is one of the best ways to step out of your comfort zone, experience new cultures, and expand your horizons.

3. On Reaching the Top

“Doubly happy, however, is the man to whom lofty mountain tops are within reach”

The Sierra Nevada mountains had a particularly special place in John Muir’s heart. With his deep love for the mountains, it’s no surprise that he said that you’re at your happiest when you’re near the top of tall mountains. And having climbed quite a few mountains over the years, Muir is 100% correct in this statement. But it goes deeper than standing on the summit of a mountain.

This John Muir quote is also a great metaphor for life. Regardless of whether you’re setting career goals, health goals, personal goals, or any other goal, set them to your highest aspirations. Like making an ascent up a tall mountain, these goals are not meant to be easy. Because you can start to taste it once you get close to the summit. And once you’re standing on top, it’s pure heaven.

4. On the National Parks

“This national beauty-hunger is made manifest…in our magnificent National Parks…Nature’s sublime wonderlands, the admiration and joy of the world.”

You don’t appreciate the true beauty and magnificence of the national parks until you step foot in them. As President Franklin D. Roosevelt said, ”There is nothing so American as our national parks. The fundamental idea behind the parks is that the country belongs to the people, that it is in process of making for the enrichment of the lives of all of us.” Stepping into a national park such as Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Yellowstone, or Grand Teton gives you that true feeling of American liberty and freedom.

But while the United States came up with the concept of the national parks, the magnificence of nature’s sublime wonderlands have spread far beyond the borders of the United States. From Patagonia’s Torres del Paine to Tanzania’s Serengeti to Thailand’s Khao Sok, you can admire nature’s most beautiful creations in national parks all over the world. Because if the National Parks don’t inspire you to get out in nature, I don’t know what will.

5. On Learning

“One day’s exposure to the mountains is better than a cartload of books.”

It wasn’t until I started traveling that I realized how important real-world experience is. While book learning is important, it’s nowhere near as enriching, fulfilling, and even defining as real-world experience. I got my first taste of it while storm chasing as a meteorology student at the University of Oklahoma. But it doesn’t really hit you until you have to watch an EF-5 tornado packing winds over 200 mph tear through one of the most densely-populated areas in the state. At its closest, the tornado passed less than 4 miles from my house.

Or how about living near the U.S.-Mexico border during the Trump presidency. I didn’t trust anything I heard on the news, so I went down to the border to see for myself what it was truly like. I wanted to see how the issue impacted life and opinions on both sides of the border. The experience was eye-opening.

The more you travel, the more you expose yourself to experiences like these. And that in turn drives you to travel for deeper reasons. It piques your interest about new cultures, exotic destinations, and a broader outlook on the world. Because we as a society have grown far too close-minded over the past decade. Don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone and experience the world from a different point-of-view. While the experience may only be a brief fleeting moment in time, the lessons, on the other hand, last forever.

6. On The Universe

“The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest of wilderness.”

If you’re feeling lost for any reason, heading out into nature is one of the best ways to get back on track. You’ll come back refreshed, reinvigorated, and re-motivated. Because often the best way to clear your mind from a forest of thoughts is to go pass through a literal forest of wilderness.

7. On New Beginnings

“Between every two pine trees is a doorway leading to a new way of life.”

This is one of my favorite John Muir quotes because getting out in nature has always been my escape during tough times. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, it took the travel photography and nature adventures away from me. All of a sudden, I had no escape from the tough times. As a result, the lockdown made me re-prioritize and reconsider what I wanted my life to look like. So I decided to set off on this incredible next chapter to go off and explore the world.

The lesson here is that if you’re feeling lost or in need of a fresh start, head out into nature. It cleanses the soul, gives you a new perspective, and sows the seeds of new beginnings.

8. On Man

“God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools.”

John Muir said this in 1897. However, I find this quote to be even more relevant in modern times, with the various climate crises we face today. Because humanity continues to prove time and time again, that we all seem to be fools. And unfortunately, we’re destroying the planet as a result.

9. On The Mountains

“The mountains are the foundations of men as well as of rivers, of glaciers, of fertile soil. The great poets, philosophers, prophets, able men whose thoughts and deeds have moved the world, have come down from the mountains – mountain dwellers who have grown strong there with the forest trees in Nature’s workshops.”

If you’ve ever been to the Sierra Nevadas, or any other majestic mountain range for that matter, this quote should instantly reverberate. The beauty of the mountains seems to provide that connection between you and some higher power. You just don’t get that same feeling in any other landscape. And when you look at photos like these, it just leaves you in awe of its incredible beauty.

10. On Imagination

“The power of imagination makes us infinite.”

No matter what line of work you’re in, don’t be afraid to be creative. In fact, you should embrace it. Think outside the box if you have to. It’s a great way to stimulate your brain. I find that when I get stuck on a problem, I’ll step away from it and do something creative. More often than not, when I come back to it, the solution comes right to me.

The best thing about creativity and imagination is that there are really no limits to what you can do with it. Indeed, people have made careers out of creativity that were unthinkable even just 10 years ago. So go embrace the power of imagination. You’ll be amazed where it can take you. For me, being able to combine the creativity in photography, video, and design, with my technical skills in math, data, and GIS, has allowed me to open some really unique doors and do a lot of things many other people haven’t. Where will your creativity and imagination take you?

Bonus: On Going into Nature

“And into the woods I go, to lose my mind and find my soul.”

There is something truly refreshing about going off into nature. The solace of the bright blue skies and the crisp wind blowing through the trees seems to reinvigorate you. Whether you’re looking for inspiration for your next project, or simply trying to escape the stressors of day-to-day life, head out into nature. It really does refresh the mind and cleanse the soul. And you’ll be in a much better state from it.

Conclusion

John Muir was one of the true pioneers of nature conservation, and his quotes about nature reflect his deep passion for the environment. His contributions to the national parks have reverberated not just throughout the United States, but around the world. Indeed, he was influential in the creation of the first national park in the world.

Establishing Yellowstone National Park sparked a massive nature conservation movement around the world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Without John Muir’s efforts, the world’s national parks may not exist today. The next time you see John Muir quotes in a national park, or anywhere else out in nature, make sure you stop and appreciate everything he did that made today’s outdoor recreation opportunities possible.

Want to learn more about the national parks? Check out our new Matt Unmapped travel series. We’ll visit many national parks, not just throughout the United States, but around the world. Don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel, either.

Top Photo: Majestic Sierra Nevada Mountains Tower Over Lake Tahoe
South Lake Tahoe, California – February, 2020

The post How to Cleanse Your Soul in Nature: 10 John Muir Quotes appeared first on Matthew Gove Blog.

EXIF stands for Exchangeable Image Format. It’s a standard that defines the data or information related to any media you capture with a digital camera. It can include data such as:

• Image Size
• File Name and Location on Your Computer
• Camera and Lens Make/Model
• Exposure Settings (Aperture, Shutter, ISO, etc)
• Date and Time the Photo was Taken
• Location and Elevation Where the Photo was Taken
• Photographer’s Name and Contact Info
• Copyright Info
• Software Used to Post-Process the Image
• Much More

Why Do You Need to Edit EXIF Data?

Regardless of whether you need to add or remove EXIF data, there are plenty of reasons to edit it. In my nearly two decades doing photography, here are some of the more common reasons I’ve had to edit EXIF data.

• Strip out sensitive information when you post photos publicly on the web
• Add location data or geotag images for cameras that don’t have GPS
• Add or update titles, descriptions, and captions
• Rate, label, and tag images
• Add or update your contact info and/or copyright information

If you’re planning to sell your photography in any way, shape, or form, you better have fully populated EXIF data. For example, let’s consider stock photography websites. They use the EXIF data embedded in your images to return the most relevant images in search results. Without fully-populated EXIF data, your images won’t be returned in their searches, and you won’t make any sales as a result.

Available Tools to Bulk Edit EXIF Data

Thankfully, there are numerous tools available so you can edit your photos’ EXIF data. They all support bulk editing, so it doesn’t matter whether you’re updating one photo or a million.

• Photo editors and organizers such as Adobe Lightroom
• EXIF Editors are available for all operating systems, including iOS and Android. Many are free.
• Python

Do be aware that while many EXIF editors advertise themselves as free, they often come with heavy restrictions if you don’t want to pay for the full software. Because of these restrictions, Python is one of the few tools that can edit EXIF data both for free and without restrictions. In this tutorial, we’re going to use Python to add EXIF data to a series of images.

Python Image Libraries

In previous tutorials, we’ve used Python’s Pillow Library to do everything from editing and post-processing to removing noise from and adding location data to photos. And we’ll show in this tutorial that you can use Pillow to add, edit, and remove EXIF data. However, there’s a better Python tool to manage and edit your EXIF data: the exif library.

So what makes the exif library better than Pillow? For that, we have to look at how the computer stores and reads EXIF data. In the computer, EXIF parameters are stored as numeric codes instead of English words. For example, instead of “Camera Make”, the computer just sees 271. Likewise, the computer sees 36867 instead of “Date/Time Image Taken”.

To edit the EXIF data using Pillow, you need to know the numeric key for each field you want to edit. Considering that there are thousands of these numeric keys in use, you’ll spend an incredible amount of time just searching for they numeric keys you want. On the other hand, the exif library uses human-readable keys to edit the EXIF data. We’ll go over how to use both libraries, so you can decide which one you prefer.

Install the Pillow and Exif Libraries (If You Haven’t Already)

Before diving into EXIF data, you’ll need to install the Python Pillow and Exif libraries if you haven’t already. With pip, it’s a couple quick commands in a Terminal or Command Prompt.

pip3 install pillow
pip3 install exif

Import the Image Property from both the Pillow and Exif Libraries into Your Python Script

In order to run code from the Pillow and Exif libraries, you’ll need to import the Image property from each library into your Python script. To avoid name conflicts, we’ll call them ExifImage and PillowImage. From the Pillow library, we’ll also import the ExifTags property, which converts the numeric EXIF tags into human-readable tags.

from exif import Image as ExifImage
from PIL import Image as PillowImage
from PIL import ExifTags

Images for this Demo

I’ve included three images with this tutorial, but you can add as many of your own as you please. One set has the metadata intact, which we’ll use for reading the metadata. I stripped the EXIF data out of the other set, so we can add it with Python. I also took the images with three different cameras.

Back Up Your Images Before You Begin

Before you do anything with the Python code, make a copy of the folder containing your original images. You never know when something will go wrong. With a backup, you can always restore your images to their original state.

Reading EXIF Data with Python

First, we’ll loop through the images and extract the camera make and model, the date and time the image was taken, as well as the location data.

The steps to read the EXIF data from each image and output it to the terminal window are as follows.

1. Open the image
2. Extract the value of each metadata tag displayed in the table above
3. Print the human-readable tag and the value in the terminal window.

Define the Universal Parameters You’ll Use to Extract EXIF Data in the Python Script

In our Python script, the first thing we need to do is define the universal parameters we’ll use throughout the script. First, we’ll create a list of the image filenames.

images = ["baseball.jpg", "cape-cod.jpg", "stonehenge.jpg"]

Next, define the EXIF Tags for the Pillow library that will extract the data we want. Remember, that Pillow uses the EXIF numeric tags.

PILLOW_TAGS = [
    271,    # Camera Make
    272,    # Camera Model
    36867,  # Date/Time Photo Taken
    34853,  # GPS Info
]

Finally, create a variable to store the EXIF tags for the Exif library. The Exif library uses human-readable tags, so please consult their documentation for the full list of tags.

EXIF_TAGS = [
    "make",
    "model",
    "datetime_original",
    "gps_latitude",
    "gps_latitude_ref",
    "gps_longitude",
    "gps_longitude_ref",
    "gps_altitude",
]

Read EXIF Data with the Pillow Library

To extract the EXIF data from all of the images at once, we’ll loop through the images variable we defined above. We’ll print the image filename and then set the image path inside the with-metadata folder.

for img in images:
    print(img)
    image_path = "with-metadata/{}".format(img)

Next, open the image with Pillow and extract the EXIF data using the getexif() method.

pillow_img = PillowImage.open(image_path)
img_exif = pillow_img.getexif()

Now, we’ll loop through the tags. Pillow has a property called ExifTags that we’ll use to get the human-readable definition of each numeric tag. Do note that you’ll need to wrap it in a try/except block to skip properties that are not set. Without it, you’ll get an error and the script will crash if a property is not set. For example, the Cape Cod and Stonehenge images do not have GPS/location data. Finally, print the human-readable tag and the value to the Terminal window.

for tag in PILLOW_TAGS:
    try:
        english_tag = ExifTags.TAGS[tag]
        value = img_exif[tag]
    except:
        continue
    print("{}: {}".format(english_tag, value))

Final Pillow Code

Put it all together into nice, compact block of code.

for img in images:
    print(img)
    image_path = "with-metadata/{}".format(img)
    pillow_img = PillowImage.open(image_path)
    img_exif = pillow_img.getexif()
    
    for tag in PILLOW_TAGS:
        try:
            english_tag = ExifTags.TAGS[tag]
            value = img_exif[tag]
        except:
            continue
        print("{}: {}".format(english_tag, value))

When you run the script, it will output the info about each photo.

baseball.jpg
Make: samsung
Model: SM-G965F
DateTimeOriginal: 2019:03:25 18:06:05
GPSInfo: æ0: b'Øx02Øx02Øx00Øx00', 1: 'N', 2: (33.0, 25.0, 50.0), 3: 'W', 4: (111.0, 52.0, 53.0), 5: b'Øx00', 6: 347.0, 7: (1.0, 6.0, 0.0), 27: b'ASCIIØx00Øx00Øx00GPS', 29: '2019:03:26'å

cape-cod.jpg
Make: Canon
Model: Canon EOS R5
DateTimeOriginal: 2022:03:22 20:58:52

stonehenge.jpg
Make: NIKON CORPORATION
Model: NIKON D3000
DateTimeOriginal: 2022:02:16 21:36:08

A Quick Word on Interpreting the GPS Output

When you look at the GPS output, you’re probably wondering what the hell you’re looking at. To decipher it, let’s break it down and look at the important components. FYI, Pillow returns latitude and longitude coordinates as tuples of (degrees, minutes, seconds).

1: 'N', 
2: (33.0, 25.0, 50.0), 
3: 'W', 
4: (111.0, 52.0, 53.0),
6: 347.0,

Here’s what it all means.

1. 'N' indicates that the latitude coordinate is in the northern hemisphere. It returns 'S' for southern hemisphere latitudes.
2. (33.0, 25.0, 50.0) contains the degrees, minutes, and seconds of the latitude coordinates. In this case, it’s 33°25’50″N.
3. 'W' indicates that the longitude coordinate is in the western hemisphere. It returns 'E' for eastern hemisphere longitudes.
4. The (111.0, 52.0, 53.0) tuple contains the degrees, minutes, and seconds of the longitude coordinates. Here, it’s 111°52’53″W.
5. 347.0 is the altitude at which the photo was taken, in meters.

Remember, it’s the baseball picture that’s geotagged. If we plot those coordinates on a map, it should return the Chicago Cubs’ Spring Training ballpark in Mesa, Arizona. Indeed, it even correctly shows us sitting down the first base line.

Read EXIF Data with the Exif Library

Extracting EXIF data from your photos using the Exif library is very similar to the Pillow library. Again, we’ll start by printing the image filename and set the image path inside the with-metadata folder.

for img in images:
    print(img)
    image_path = "with-metadata/{}".format(img)

Next, we’ll read the image into the Exif library. However, unlike Pillow, the Exif library automatically extracts all the EXIF data when you instantiate the Image object. As a result, we do not need to call any additional methods or functions.

with open(image_path, "rb") as input_file:
    img = ExifImage(input_file)

Because the Exif library automatically extracts the EXIF data, all you need to do is just loop through the tags and extract each one with the get() method. And unlike the Pillow library, the Exif library also automatically handles instances where data points are missing. It won’t throw an error, so you don’t need to wrap it in a try/except block.

for tag in EXIF_TAGS:
    value = img.get(tag)
    print(“{}: {}”.format(tag, value))

Final Exif Library Code

When you put everything together, it’s even cleaner than using the Pillow library.

for img in images:
    print(img)
    image_path = “with-metadata/{}”.format(img)
    with open(image_pdaath, ”rb”) as input_file:
        img = ExifImage(img_file)

    for tag in EXIF_TAGS:
        value = img.get(tag)
        print(“{}: {}”.format(tag, value))

When you run the script, the output from the Exif library should be identical to the output from the Pillow library, with one exception. The Exif Library breaks down the GPS data into its components. You’ll still get the same tuples you do with the Pillow library, but it labels what each component of the GPS data is using English words instead of numeric codes.

baseball.jpg
make: samsung
model: SM-G965F
datetime_original: 2019:03:25 18:06:05
gps_latitude: (33.0, 25.0, 50.0)
gps_latitude_ref: N
gps_longitude: (111.0, 52.0, 53.0)
gps_longitude_ref: W
gps_altitude: 347.0

cape-cod.jpg
make: Canon
model: Canon EOS R5
datetime_original: 2022:03:22 20:58:52
gps_latitude: None
gps_latitude_ref: None
gps_longitude: None
gps_longitude_ref: None
gps_altitude: None

stonehenge.jpg
make: NIKON CORPORATION
model: NIKON D3000
datetime_original: 2022:02:16 21:36:08
gps_latitude: None
gps_latitude_ref: None
gps_longitude: None
gps_longitude_ref: None
gps_altitude: None

Writing, Editing, and Updating EXIF Data Using Python

To demonstrate how to write and edit EXIF data, we’re going to add a simple copyright message to the all three images. That message will simply say ”Copyright 2022. All Rights Reserved.” We’ll also add your name to the EXIF data as the artist/photographer.

Universal Tags We’ll Use Throughout the Python Script

Just like we did when we read the EXIF data from the image, we’ll define the artist and copyright tags we’ll use to edit the EXIF data in each library. We’ll also store the values we’ll set the tags to in the VALUES variable.

PILLOW_TAGS = [
    315,     # Artist Name
    33432,   # Copyright Message
[

EXIF_TAGS = [
    “artist”,
    ”copyright”,
]

VALUES = [
    “Matthew Gove”,    # Artist Name
    ”Copyright 2022 Matthew Gove. All Rights Reserved.”  # Copyright Message
]

How to Edit EXIF Data with the Pillow Library

In order to edit the EXIF data, you need to open the image with the Pillow Library and load the EXIF data using the getexif() method. This code is identical to when we read the metadata. The only difference is that we’re loaded the image from the without-metadata folder.

for img in images:
    image_path = “without-metadata/{}”.format(img)
    pillow_image = PillowImage.open(image_path)
    img_exif = pillow_img.getexif()

Now, all we have to do is loop through the tags we want to set (which are in the PILLOW_TAGS variable) and set them to the corresponding values in VALUES.

for tag, value in zip(PILLOW_TAGS, VALUES):
    img_exif[tag] = value

Finally, just save the changes to your image. For the purposes of this tutorial, we are saving the final images separate from the originals. When you update your EXIF data, feel free to overwrite the original image. You can always restore from the backup we made if needed.

output_file = img
pillow_img.save(output_file, exif=img_exif)

That’s all there is to it. When you put it all together, you have a nice, efficient, and compact block of code.

for img in images:
    image_path = “without-metadata/{}”.format(img)
    pillow_image = PillowImage.open(image_path)
    img_exif = pillow_img.getexif()

    for tag, value in zip(PILLOW_TAGS, VALUES):
        img_exif[tag] = value

    output_file = img
    pillow_img.save(output_file, exif=img_exif)

How to Edit EXIF Data with the Exif Library

Editing EXIF data with the Exif library is even easier than it is using Pillow. We’ll start by loading the image without the metadata into the Exif library. You can cut and paste this code from the script that reads the EXIF data. Just don’t forget to change the with-metadata folder to without-metadata.

for img in images:
    image_path = “without-metadata/{}”.format(img)
    with open(image_path, ”rb”) as input_file:
        exif_img = ExifImage(input_file)

Here’s where it gets really easy to edit the EXIF data and set new values. If you have a lot of EXIF data to edit, by all means put everything into a loop. However, for simplicity, you also do this.

exif_img.artist = “Matthew Gove
exif_img.copyright = “Copyright 2022 Matthew Gove. All Rights Reserved.”

Then save the file. Like we did with the Pillow library, we’ll save everything to a new file for purposes of the tutorial. However, feel free to overwrite the images when you use it in the real world.

output_filepath = img
with open(output_filepath, ”wb”) as ofile:
    ofile.write(exif_img.get_file())

Put it all together and you can update and edit your EXIF data with just 10 lines of Python code.

for img in images:
    image_path = "without-metadata/{}".format(img)
    with open(image_path, "rb") as input_file:
        exif_img = ExifImage(input_file)
    
    exif_img.artist = "Matthew Gove"
    exif_img.copyright = "Copyright 2022 Matthew Gove. All Rights Reserved."

    with open(img, "wb") as ofile:
        ofile.write(exif_img.get_file())

Confirming Your EXIF Edits Worked

The final step in editing your EXIF data is to confirm that the Python code actually worked. In the script, I copied logic from when we read the EXIF data to confirm that our edits were added and saved correctly. Indeed, when you run the script, you’ll see the following confirmation in the Terminal window. Alternatively, you can open the photo in any photo editor, such as Adobe Lightroom, to confirm that the new EXIF data has been added to it.

PILLOW
=======
baseball.jpg 
Artist: Matthew Gove
Copyright: Copyright 2022 Matthew Gove. All Rights Reserved.

cape-cod.jpg
Artist: Matthew Gove
Copyright: Copyright 2022 Matthew Gove. All Rights Reserved.

stonehenge.jpg
Artist: Matthew Gove
Copyright: Copyright 2022 Matthew Gove. All Rights Reserved.

################################

EXIF
======
baseball.jpg
artist: Matthew Gove
copyright: Copyright 2022 Matthew Gove. All Rights Reserved.

cape-cod.jpg
artist: Matthew Gove
copyright: Copyright 2022 Matthew Gove. All Rights Reserved.

stonehenge.jpg
artist: Matthew Gove
copyright: Copyright 2022 Matthew Gove. All Rights Reserved.

Download the Code in This Tutorial

You can download the code we wrote in this tutorial from our Bitbucket repository. Please feel free to play around with it and update it to suit your needs. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments below.

Conclusion

Python is an incredibly powerful tool to update and edit your EXIF data. And best of all, it’s one of the few EXIF editing tools that is completely free, without any restrictions on what you can do with it. It’s fast, easy-to-use, and infintely scalable. EXIF metadata is not the sexiest aspect of photography by any means. But it is one of the most critical. When you don’t manage it correctly, you are literally costing yourself both time and money.

If you want help getting started with your EXIF data, please get in touch with us today. As experts in both photography and data science, there are not many people who know the ins and outs of EXIF data better than we do. Alternatively, if you would just like to see more tutorials, I invite you to please join our email list and subscribe to our YouTube channel. See you in the next tutorial.

The post How to Bulk Edit Your Photos’ EXIF Data with 10 Lines of Python appeared first on Matthew Gove Blog.

The Basics of the Google Algorithm

I don’t even begin to know the intricacies of Google’s algorithm, but the bottom line is that Google looks for sources that have two things: reputation and value. It promotes what it determines to be the highest value content from the most reputable sources. As a result, Google will consider a blog with high volumes of traffic and engagement rates that has been around for years a much more reputable source than a brand new blog that has barely any traffic.

To be successful with organic search traffic, every piece of content you publish should work to build your reputation and provide incredible value. That value will slowly grow your reputation over time, as blogging success is very much a long-term game. Don’t expect to see any kind of success overnight.

While this blog has existed in various forms for the better part of 15 years, we’ve only been doing it seriously for the past two and a half years. In 2021, we finally started to see our efforts pay off, but there’s still so much potential and growth we have yet to unlock. And that’s exactly what our next chapter aims to accomplish.

Traffic Volume Analytics

There are three key metrics you should be tracking to monitor your blog or website’s traffic volume. Traffic volume is simply the amount of users and visitors that visit your site.

So what is the relationship between these metrics? A single user can initiate multiple sessions. In fact, they start a session whenever they visit any page on your website. Likewise, a single session can consist of multiple page views.

User Acquisition Analytics

Knowing where your users are coming from is critical for your success. It’ll tell you whether your marketing and SEO efforts are working. Furthermore, it’ll help you optimize when to post new content so you can maximize the number of people that consume your content. Finally, identify flaws in your website’s design, holes in your workflow, and leaks in your funnel. Then you can easily fix them so you can accomplish the goals, sales, and conversions that matter most to you.

Where Are Your Users Coming From?

Google Analytics breaks down traffic sources to your website or blog into 10 channels, which are just categories. In Google Analytics 4, these sources are listed under “Default Channel Grouping.” On the other hand, they’re listed under “Top Channels” if you’re using Universal Analytics.

If you’ve implemented your SEO correctly, the vast majority of your traffic should come from Organic Search. Indeed, the analytics show that about 90% of the traffic to this blog this past week came from organic search. Even though we don’t run paid ads and are not terribly active on social media outside of YouTube, we plan to further diversify those sources over the next six to nine months as our marketing efforts ramp up.

Drill Down Even Further into Your Analytics

You shouldn’t stop there when it comes to evaluating the sources of your traffic. To go further, look at the Source/Medium metric in your analytics. They will tell you exactly where your traffic is coming from. And you may be surprised at the results. Even though most of our traffic this week came from Google, that’s not always the case.

For example, you may find that the majority of your search engine traffic is coming from Bing or DuckDuckGo instead of Google. Or maybe you’re getting more conversions from Twitter and LinkedIn instead of Facebook and Instagram. Will that affect your marketing or SEO strategy?

How Are Visitors Finding Your Blog?

Google Analytics provides a wealth of information about how your users are finding your blog. But to unlock its full potential, you’ll need to tap into Google Search Console. The search console analytics will tell you exactly how your website or blog is performing in Google’s search engine. Most powerfully, it will tell you the exact search terms or queries people are using to reach your site.

As you consistently add more content, you should see these metrics slowly creep up over time. Remember that SEO is a long game. You won’t see immediate success overnight. So what do these analytics mean?

Keep in mind that Google Search Console only covers Google searches. Because the majority of our traffic comes from Google, the search console is a key part of our SEO efforts. However, you shouldn’t stop there, though. Take advantage of analytics from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and wherever else you get traffic from. Without that data, you’re essentially running blind. Only then will you get the full story of how your visitors are finding you.

What Geographic Location Are Your Users Coming From?

Knowing the geographic location your users are coming from can be very beneficial to your marketing and content schedule. It can also help you identify new potential markets to push into.

Like most location-based data, this information is incredibly valuable. And I’m not just saying that as a GIS expert. Drill down in your analytics to determine exactly where in each country your content has the highest consumption rates. With Google Analytics, you can see as specific as which city or town your traffic is coming from.

So what exactly can you do with all of this data? The list is endless, but there are a few things that come to mind at first.

• Identify geographic regions for which to tailor your content
• Target new geographic regions into which you can expand your business
• Plan your next trip, photo shoot, blog post, or other content creation
• Target certain types of advertising for different geographic regions
• Add support for languages in countries from which you’re getting lots of new traffic

When are Users Visiting Your Website or Blog?

Google Analytics provides two easy ways to track which days of the week and what time of day your visitors are coming to your blog. First, you can use the grid you see to the right to identify exactly which days and times your blog gets the most traffic.

Why is this information important? It allows you to optimize what days and times you release new content. Take a look at the chart to the right. It shows that we’ve been getting the most traffic between about 8 and 11 AM on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Try scheduling your content releases to coincide with the peak traffic to your website or blog. To get the best idea of when you should release your content, change the timeframe of your traffic grid. Look at data from the past 1, 3, 6, and 12 months. If traffic patterns are consistent throughout those time periods, schedule your content to be published right before your peak traffic.

In the example above, it looks like we should probably change our publishing schedule. I would consider publishing either Monday afternoon or Tuesday at 5 or 6 AM. It may take some trial and error to get right, but it’s well-worth the effort.

Additionally, if the grid confuses you, you can always publish the same data on a good old fashioned bar chart. On a dashboard, create a bar chart showing Users that is grouped by Day of Week Name. It won’t give you times of day, but it’s clear as day which day of the week generates the most traffic.

What Devices Are Your Visitors Using?

By implementing a proper responsive web design, your website or blog should be optimized for screens of all sizes. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that your traffic will be evenly split between desktop, mobile, and tablets. Most websites and blogs will see the majority of their traffic coming from desktop devices, a metric which includes laptops.

Once you have a baseline established, keep monitoring your analytics. If those metrics start to change, it’s time to figure out why. User behavior will shift and evolve over time. However, if you notice a big shift all of a sudden, there’s likely something wrong with your website or web design that is driving users of a particular device off of your website.

Drilling down, you can monitor plenty of details in your blog analytics. At the very minimum, keep track of what screen size, browser, and operating system your visitors are using. That way, you can make sure that your blog is best optimized for the devices that are giving you the most traffic.

Visitor Behavior

Now that you know the volume and source of traffic to your blog, let’s have a look at how people are behaving when they’re on your site. Using Google Analytics, you can pinpoint the exact elements that visitors are clicking on and interacting with. Use this knowledge to optimize your goals and funnels, and in turn, maximize your conversions.

Are Your Visitors Engaged?

You can have all the traffic in the world, but until you can engage your visitors, it’s meaningless. However, as we begin to shift from Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4, you need to know the difference in how each version measures engagement rate.

If you’ve used Google’s Universal Analytics, you’re probably familiar with the bounce rate. The bounce rate is simply the percentage of sessions where users only viewed a single page and triggered a single request to the Analytics server. However, if you have a single page website or landing page, the bounce rate can be very misleading. Because there are no other pages to visit, the bounce rate will always be 100%. Unfortunately for you, Google interprets that as a completely disengaged page that is not providing any value.

Google Analytics 4 Makes Tracking Engagement Much Easier

Thankfully, the engagement rate in Google Analytics 4 is a much more accurate way to measure visitor engagement. Google has done away with the Bounce Rate and replaced it with the Engaged Sessions Rate. To be considered engaged, your visitor must do one of the following during their session.

• Actively engage with your website or blog for at least 10 seconds in the active window or tab.
• Successfully complete a conversion
• Visit two or more pages

As a result, single pages no need to worry about being shunned for having a high bounce rate. By actively engaging the user or completing a conversion, they can be considered engaged without requiring the user to visit a second page.

What Are Visitors Clicking On and Interacting With?

Google Analytics provides a very valuable tool that can measure how users are interacting with your website or blog. Use Google Tag Manager to set custom events to track what your visitors are engaging with. I use custom events to track nearly every clickable item throughout all of my websites, but especially on the home pages. Because the home page is one of the primary landing pages, we need to ensure that users can find the content they’re looking for.

If something on your page is getting a lot of interaction, double down on it. On the other hand, maybe something else is not getting any clicks or engagement. The analytics will tell you why, so you can fix it or replace it with something that does.

What Pages are Your Visitors Navigating To on Your Blog? How are They Flowing Through Your Website?

Google Analytics shows you exactly how visitors are flowing through your website. It’s a great way to plot multiple conversion funnels on one chart. Unfortunately, it can be intimidating if you’re not familiar with flow charts and data analytics.

In addition to visitors’ progression through your funnel, you’ll see the number of sessions and drop-offs at each step. Depending on what kind of website you’re running, your baseline Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) will be slightly different. For example, a blog will have a pretty high drop-off rate after the first landing page or interaction. Think about how you read blogs. You enter your search term into Google, and click on a result. You read the article, and then navigate back to the search results to visit the next article. Turns out that’s what most other people do too. That’s why blogs tend to have high drop-off rates.

On the other hand, e-commerce websites have a much more specific and highly-tuned conversion funnel because the conversions are sales. They should have much lower drop-off rates than a blog. Furthermore, you should look at the percentage of drop-offs, not just the raw number of drop-offs because the numbers can be misleading. More popular pages will have more drop-offs simply because they get more traffic. That doesn’t necessarily mean there is a problem converting visitors.

Regardless of what kind of website you have, look for pages that have a high percentage of drop-offs. You’ve just identified the leaks in your conversion funnel. Once you know where the leaks are, you need to figure out why they’re leaking. Most likely, you’re missing a clear next step or call to action.

How Long are Visitors Spending on Each Page of Your Website or Blog?

If you’re running a blog, you should have a pretty good idea of how long it takes to read or skim a particular article. Your analytics should reflect those times. If most visitors are only spending a few seconds on your page, you are either not making a good impression or your content is not providing enough value. Longer times that still come up well short of your expected read times often indicate readers are losing interest in your content mid-way through. I actually set up scroll events to track how far users scroll down through each post before leaving.

On this blog, I know that most people can skim or read our posts in anywhere from two to five minutes. Indeed, the analytics from March, 2022 reflects that. You won’t hit your targets every single day. However, as long as most of your data falls within that target range and the misses are close, you’re doing fine.

Unfortunately, the Average Session Time in Universal Analytics can get skewed if someone reads your article, and then leaves it open in their browser. If you see session durations spike really high for just one day, that’s likely from people leaving your site open in their browser. However, you should always check your session times against bounce rates. If high session times coincide with a drop in bounce rate, congratulations! Your site is actively and highly engaging visitors. It means that visitors are spending high amounts of active time on your blog and navigating to multiple pages on the site.

Because Google completely redefined engagement in Google Analytics 4, you’ll find more accurate metrics there. Combined into a single “Average Engagement Time” metric, you no longer need to compare two different metrics to obtain an accurate measure of engagement on your blog. It’s much easier to interpret and understand than the combination of session duration and bounce rate you need to use in Universal Analytics.

What Landing Pages are Visitors Landing On? What Page are They Exiting from?

Knowing the entry and exit points of each funnel on your website or blog is critical to your success. And best of all, you don’t need the complicated flow charts from earlier to identify them. I actually created a custom dashboard in Google Analytics to track the information on both this blog and all of my websites. It’s certainly not the sexiest thing in the world, but it contains a ton of information.

Let’s go over what those four tables are telling you. The top two are just overall summaries of page views and user engagement. Likewise, the bottom tables have the most valuable information. The bottom left table tells me where visitors are entering this blog during a given time frame. It lists the most popular landing pages, and the percentage of new sessions from users who have never been to my site for each landing page.

On the other hand, the bottom right table shows where visitors are leaving the blog. Like we discussed earlier, don’t forget that popular pages will get more exits than your less-visited pages. And that does not mean that they are a failure. Instead, you’ll want to consider exit percentages as well. To calculate those percentages, simply divide the number of exits by the number of page views.

exit_percentage = exits / pageviews

Unfortunately Google Analytics does not provide the exit percentage. If you want to add a calculated field, you’ll need to put everything into Google Data Studio. We’ll cover that in a future tutorial. But for now, I find that a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation works fine for me.

An Important Lesson from My Blog

You may recall that up until quite recently – less than a year ago – this blog was nothing more than a feed of posts that supplemented the Matt Gove Photo and Matthew Gove Web Development websites. It lacked the home page, the Start Here page, the portfolio, and all of the bio sections. As a result, we suffered from high bounce rates, low engagement, and poor search performance. At the end of July, 2021, one simple update changed everything.

We decided to transform the blog from just a feed that supplemented our other websites until a full-fledged website and valuable resource that could stand on its own. We added the Home Page and the Start Here pages. After optimizing all of our old posts to align with our new SEO strategy, we pumped every page, menu, and sidebar full of links to supplemental valuable content, as well as calls to action for the next steps in our conversion funnel.

After this one, albeit major, upgrade to the blog, we saw results in the analytics less than a month later. Remember with the Bounce Rate, lower is better.

Additionally, we saw traffic increase nearly an order of magnitude, or about 800%, between August and December, 2021. As a result, our Google search performance shot way up as well.

The lesson here is to use your blog or website’s analytics to identify, where holes in your conversion funnel, why users are leaving your site, and how you can patch those holes to both retain and grow you follower base. Get your content in front of as many people however you can. Remember you need to publish content that has value. You can’t just spam people asking them to visit your blog.

While 2021 was a significant step forward for our blog, we hope there are many milestones to come as we grow both this year and beyond. This is still just the beginning for us. We can’t wait to share more of this incredible journey with you.

Conclusion

Data analytics are one of the most important components of a successful website or blog. When implemented correctly, your blog analytics will tell you what’s working and what’s not. In fact, they’ll even guide you down the path to success. Because without blog analytics, you’re literally flying blind. In today’s hyper-competitive environment, you simply can’t afford to.

We’ve only scratched the surface of the power of blog analytics. In addition to Google Analytics, we’ll cover how to use Google Search Console and Data Studio in the context of blogging in future posts. While we’re at it, we’ll go over the critical analytics to track for e-commerce sites as well. If you would like more of these tutorials, please subscribe to our newsletter, and leave any questions or thoughts you have in the comments below.

The post Bloggers, Are You Taking Advantage of These Powerful Analytics? appeared first on Matthew Gove Blog.

1. Contrary to Popular Belief, Maine is not the Easternmost State in the United States

If you want to see the first sunlight in the United States, you have to head to Maine, right? Well, not quite. While Maine is certainly easy and convenient to get to, it’s doesn’t see the day’s first sunrise in the United States. For that, you paradoxically have to go west. So far west, in fact, that you actually go east.

So where is the United States’ first sunrise? Believe it or not, it’s actually in Alaska. And it’s not in the main part of Alaska, either. You have to venture to the westernmost parts of the Aleutian Islands. Because those islands stretch so far west, they actually stretch into the Eastern Hemisphere. Excluding territories, the Aleutian Islands are the only part of the United States located in the Eastern Hemisphere. That means you’ll see not just the first sunrise in the United States, but one of the first sunrises in the entire world.

And Alaska’s claims don’t stop there.

2. Alaska is the Easternmost, Westernmost, and Northernmost State in the United States

At the eastern end of Semisopochnoi Island in the Aleutians, you’ll find the easternmost point in the United States (179.777°E). Interestingly, Semisopochnoi Island is actually closer to Russia than the main part of Alaska. But it’s far from the closest point to Russia. That belongs to Little Diomede Island in the Bering Strait. Little Diomede sits just 2.5 miles (4 km) from Big Diomede, it’s Russian counterpart, despite a 21-hour time difference between the two islands.

Only 65 miles (105 km) to the southeast of Semisopochnoi Island, you’ll find the westernmost point in the United States in the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge (179.143°W). Consisting of several uninhabited islands, the refuge is one of the most remote outposts on America’s northern frontier. But you can go further. The furthest, westernmost, and remotest post in the Aleutian Islands is Attu Station. At 172°E, Attu Station sits just 475 miles (770 km) from Ust’-Kamchatsk (Усть-Камчатск) on the Russian mainland. That’s a stark difference from the 1,500 miles (2,400 km) you’d have to travel to return to Anchorage.

Thankfully, things are much less complicated if you look north and south. It’s pretty clear that Alaska is the northernmost state in the United States. The town of Utqiagvik, which was formerly called Barrow, is the northernmost town in the United States. At 71.18 °N, it’s also one of the northernmost towns in the world. Only Canada, Russia, Norway, and Greenland have population centers further north.

And for the southernmost state…

3. Key West is not the Southernmost Point in the United States

While it’s true that Key West is the southernmost point in the Lower 48, it’s not even close to being the southernmost point in the United States. For that, you’ll need to look six degrees of latitude further south and a long way west. At the southern tip of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, you’ll find Ka Lae, the actual southernmost point in the United States.

Additionally, if you include territories, you can go a lot further south. The southernmost point in a US territory is located at the Rose Atoll in American Samoa. The tiny island covers just 0.21 square kilometers and reaches latitudes of 14.6°S.

4. Los Angeles County Has a Larger Population than 41 States

It’s hard to believe, but Los Angeles County does actually have a larger population than 41 states. With a population of 10.04 million as of 2019, LA County is by far the most populous county in the United States.

And what are those 9 states that have a larger population? Here they are, ranked by population.

5. You Can Get on a Plane in Anchorage, Alaska and Be Anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere in Less Than 10 Hours

Amazingly, Anchorage is the only city in the world that can lay claim to this fact, even if you include the equivalent in the Southern Hemisphere. So what makes Anchorage so special? First, it has a major international airport that processes most cargo and many passengers bound for the United States from east Asia.

Not only does Anchorage have a major international airport, but it’s also the closest major international airport to either pole. Anchorage’s proximity to the North Pole makes it very quick and easy to fly over the pole to reach the other side of the world.

Consider an “over-the-pole” flight from New York City to Tokyo or Beijing. At the very minimum, you’re looking at 13 to 14 hours of total flight time. That’s because half of that time is spent getting from New York up to the pole.

When you start in Anchorage, you’re already most of the way to the pole. As a result, a direct flight from Anchorage to Frankfurt, Germany covers basically the same distance as a flight from Boston to Los Angeles.

6. Maine is a Particular Geographic Oddity

The state of Maine is best-known for its rugged outdoors, diverse wildlife, and world-famous seafood. However, being wedged between New Hampshire, Québec, and New Brunswick means that it’s got its fair share of geographic oddities.

• Maine is the closest US State to Africa. Quoddy Head, Maine sits just 3,154 miles from El Beddouzza, Morocco. For comparison, Florida is more than 4,000 miles from its nearest point on the African continent.
• If you take a road trip through the Lower 48, passing through each state only once, you always end in Maine. That’s because Maine is the only state in the continental United States that borders only one other state.
• More French is spoken in Maine than any state in the United States. When French explorers landed in eastern Canada back in the 1600’s, many of them settled in what is present-day Maine. Their descendants are still there today. It doesn’t hurt bordering two French-speaking Canadian provinces, either.
• Maine is the single largest producer of blueberries in the United States.
• Nobody knows how Maine got its name. All they know is that the name first appeared in writing in 1622.
• Despite the mystery behind its name, Maine was part of Massachusetts until 1819.
• Maine is larger than the other 5 New England States combined.
• If you visited one island per day, it would take you more than 9 years to visit every island in Maine
• At 3,478 miles, Maine’s coastline is longer than California’s (3,427 miles)
• Maine is home to the only desert in New England (40 acres outside Freeport). It formed 11,000 years ago, when a glacier deposited large amounts of sand on the site.
• Portland, Oregon is named after Portland, Maine. The Oregon city’s name was decided on a coin toss between Portland and Boston.

7. The United States is Home to the Shortest River in the World

The Roe River in Montana is only 200 feet long. That’s a stark contrast to the Missouri (2,341 miles) and Mississippi (2,202 miles), the United States’ two longest rivers.

8. Nebraska is the Only Triply Landlocked State in the United States

A triply landlocked state means that you have to pass through at least three other states (and/or Canadian Provinces) to reach the ocean. Nebraska is the only state in the United States that can make the claim of being triply landlocked. Don’t believe me? Have a look at some of its neighbors. Do note that in the table below, there may be more than one way to reach the ocean. The table lists the fewest states you need to pass through to reach the ocean.

9. Hawaii’s Mauna Kea is Taller Than Mt. Everest

The summit of Mauna Kea is only 13,796 feet above sea level, less than half the elevation of Everest’s summit (29,032 feet). However, Mauna Kea extends deep into the depths of the Pacific Ocean, while Everest is completely landlocked. The Pacific Ocean has a mean depth of over 14,000 feet, and the Hawaiian Trough reaches an average depth of over 18,000 feet.

As a result, when you account for the underwater part of Mauna Kea, it’s much taller than what you see on the Big Island in Hawaii. Mauna Kea is actually 32,808 feet tall, surpassing the height of Mt. Everest, despite the stark difference in elevation at each respective summits.

10. The Statue of Liberty Should Be in New Jersey, not New York

When you think of New York City, the Statue of Liberty is probably one of the first things that comes to mind. Lady Liberty is so quintessentially New York. But did you know that she should actually be in New Jersey, not New York?

When France gifted the Statue of Liberty to the United States in 1885, the US Geological Survey placed Liberty Island in New York’s 8th Congressional District. However, when you look at a map, you’ll see the Statue of Liberty is actually in New Jersey Waters. Regardless of what the state line says, the statue remains part of both the State and the City of New York.

Bonus: America’s Four Most Sprawling Cities Are All in Alaska

Alaska’s large size and small population means that its cities and towns have plenty of room to spread out. Indeed, Alaska has one of the lowest population densities in the United States. What surprises most people is that Alaska is home to the country’s four most sprawling cities.

From a strictly surface area to population ratio, the Alaskan Cities sprawl far more than Los Angeles, Phoenix, Houston, and every other major city in the Lower 48. For example, the City of Juneau is larger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined. And the winner, Yakutat, is larger than eight other states.

Bonus #2: You Can Get a Taste for Driving on the Left Side of the Road Without Leaving the United States. Just Head to the U.S. Virgin Islands.

It’s incredibly rare for a state or territory to drive on the opposite side of the road from its parent country. But the United States has one. The other country that boasts a few of them is the United Kingdom.

The US Virgin Islands is the only jurisdiction in the United States where you drive on the left. But unlike other locations that drive on the left, most cars in the USVI are imported from the mainland US, and still have the steering wheel on the left side of the car.

The United States purchased the Virgin Islands from Denmark in 1917. At the time, traffic in Denmark drove on the left. To keep the islands’ residents happy and prevent animosity towards the US, the federal government kept traffic in the Virgin Islands on the left side of the road.

While Denmark switched to driving on the right in 1967, along with much of the rest of Europe, the Virgin Islands never did. To this day, the US Virgin Islands continues to drive on the left. For what it’s worth, so do the British Virgin Islands.

Conclusion

Whether you’re trying to figure out how to drive on the left in the Virgin Islands or trying to catch the day’s first sunrise at its easternmost point in Alaska, the United States has plenty of geographic quirks and oddities to explore. But we’re just scratching the surface here. The US is a big country, and I could easily write another whole post or two about its weird geography. Have you been experienced any of the United States’ weird geography in your travels? Let us know in the comments below.

Top Photo: Afternoon Sun Illuminates a Beautiful Canyon Landscape
Canyonlands National Park, Utah – December, 2021

The post Weird Geography: 10 Bizarre and Unusual Facts About the United States appeared first on Matthew Gove Blog.

An Introduction to the Lightroom Map Area

Adobe Lightroom comes with a really nice map interface to browse, explore, and view your photos. Unfortunately, if your photos aren’t geotagged, the feature is worthless.

Lightroom’s map feature lets you browse, explore, and view your photos and videos on an interactive map. You can also easily edit and geotag your photos from the map, as well as create collections, tag keywords, and much more.

Are You One of the Many Travel Photographers Struggling to Geotag Your Photos in Lightroom Without a Built-in GPS?

If your photos and videos are already geotagged when you import them into Lightroom, the map gets set up automatically. However, many cameras still don’t have built-in GPS. You can buy a GPS adaptor to mount to the top of your camera, but they come with plenty of drawbacks. First, with a GPS mounted to the top of your camera, you won’t be able to mount a flash or a mic there. And what if you have multiple cameras? At $200-300 a pop, the cost of outfitting each camera with a GPS unit can snowball out of control incredibly fast.

Alternatively, you can use a smartphone app that your camera manufacturer makes. When you snap a picture, the app uses the GPS in your phone to record the location and sends it to your camera over bluetooth. While I have not used these apps much, be aware that smartphones usually disable the GPS when it’s not actively in use to conserve battery. Unfortunately, if you phone’s GPS goes into standby or sleep mode during a photo shoot, it will often send the last location the GPS registered, which may not necessarily be your current location. As a result, many people have complained that these apps are not accurate or reliable for geotagging photos and videos.

So where do you go from here? This is where my method comes in. This method is by no means anything bleeding edge or earth-shattering. In fact, a quick Google search will reveal that it’s widely used throughout the photography and filmmaking industries. And best of all, it only requires one GPS regardless of how many cameras you have. However, there are still a few places it can trip you up. As a result, I want to use my background in GIS and data science to make sure that you fully understand both what the data is and what you’re doing with it. You unfortunately won’t find that in many other tutorials.

How to Use Handheld GPS (or Smartphone) to Geotag Your Photos and Videos in Adobe Lightroom

The strategy to geotag photos in Adobe Lightroom without a built-in GPS is staggeringly simple. While you’re out on your photo or video shoot, use a handheld GPS to record your movement. Then, in post-production match the timestamp on the GPS track to the timestamp on your camera to get the latitude and longitude coordinates for the geotag. Once you add the latitude and longitude to the metadata, Lightroom will automatically look up and add the city, state/province, and country that correspond to those coordinates.

Software You’ll Need

The only software you need to geotag your photos without a built-in GPS is Adobe Lightroom itself. Additionally, depending on what GPS and computer models you’re using, you may need additional software to pull the track off the GPS. If you have a Garmin GPS, don’t worry. All of their software is available free of charge. For example, my handheld GPS uses Garmin’s Basecamp software to offload the track data. On the other hand, the GPS I use in the car mounts like an external hard drive, so I can copy the track to my local disk using the Finder or File Explorer.

The track files you pull off your GPS are stored in GPS Exchange, or GPX format. GPX is an open source, non-proprietary file that stores GPS data for software applications. Data is stored in XML format, which is light-weight and usable in both desktop and web-based applications. In addition to latitude/longitude coordinates and timestamps, GPX files can also store speed, elevation, waypoints, routes, points of interest, and much more.

You can view GPX files in numerous desktop and web-based applications, ranging from Google Maps to QGIS and ArcMap to even the Matt Gove Photo maps. However, for the purpose of geotagging photos, the easiest application to view your GPX files is actually Lightroom. You can preview your track right in the Lightroom map before you geotag your photos.

Sync the Clocks on Your GPS and Camera Before You Head Out in the Field

Before you head out for your shoot, your single most important task is to sync the clocks between your handheld GPS and each camera you’ll be using. If the clocks are not synced, your photos and videos will not be geotagged in the correct location.

If your travels keep you confined to a single time zone, feel free to sync everything to your local time zone. However, if your travels take you across multiple time zones, you should sync all of your devices to UTC. Also called Zulu Time, UTC is the modern standard that the world uses to regulate time. It differs from Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), as GMT is based on the Earth’s rotation, while the more accurate UTC is based on the atomic measurements.

If your camera or GPS does not offer UTC as a time zone, set it to London (make sure daylight savings is off) or Iceland. In addition, Dakar, the capital of Senegal, is on UTC year-round.

Once you get out in the field where you’ll be shooting, simply turn on your handheld GPS and throw it in your bag, or put it somewhere that will be out of the way, but with you all day. Make sure the batteries are all charged at the beginning of the day. Finally, don’t forget to carry a spare set of batteries if you’re expecting a lengthy shoot.

Add Location Data in Post-Production in Adobe Lightroom

Now that your shoot is finished, it’s time to geotag your photos and videos in Lightroom. Before we get started, though, there’s another important note about time zones that if not done correctly, will result in your photos not being geotagged correctly.

A Word of Caution About Time Zones in GPX Data vs EXIF Camera Metadata

If you’ve synced your GPS and cameras to UTC, be aware of the difference in how GPX files handle time zones vs the camera’s EXIF metadata. GPX files have the time zone embedded in them. EXIF metadata records the time in the time zone that your camera is set to, but does not actually record the time zone itself in the metadata. In other words, the GPX file sees the time stamp as “2022-04-11 15:21 UTC”, while the EXIF metadata in the camera only sees “2022-04-11 15:21”.

Why is this important, you ask? Because when you offload the GPX file to your computer, your computer automatically converts its timestamp back to local time. For example, let’s say I’m on the east coast of the US, which is 4 hours behind UTC. The computer all of a sudden now sees the GPX timestamp as “2022-04-11 11:21 EDT”, while it still sees the EXIF metadata as “2022-04-11 15:21” (which it incorrectly assumes is also EDT because the EXIF data does not include the time zone). If you try to sync your photos to the GPX track, they’ll all be four hours off!

Thankfully, re-aligning the time zones is incredibly easy in Adobe Lightroom. When you load the GPX file into Lightroom, it will ask you if you want to correct the time zone. If you’ve synced your cameras to UTC, simply take the UTC offset of your local timezone and reverse the sign. For example, if you’re on the US east coast, which is UTC-4, set the time zone correction to +4 hours. This tells Lightroom to add 4 hours to the “2022-04-11 11:21 EDT” GPX timestamp, syncing it back up with the “2022-04-11 15:21” timestamp on the camera.

Still confused? If you don’t want to deal with having to adjust timezones in Lightroom, there’s an easy alternative. Simply set your computer’s time zone to UTC before you import anything into Lightroom. Once you’re finished geotagging your photos, set the time zone on your computer back to local time.

Import the GPX File and the Photos and Videos From Your Shoot into Lightroom

To import the GPX File into Lightroom, first open the map viewer. At the bottom of the window, you’ll see a bar to select the map style, a zoom slider, a lock, and a track button, which is circled in green below.

Click the track button and select “Load Tracklog” at the very top of the menu. Navigate to the tracklogs you just pulled off your GPS. Click OK to load them into Lightroom.

Now, you’ll set the time zone offset as we discussed in the previous section. If you’re working in your local time zone (or have set your computer’s time zone to UTC to match the camera and GPS), you don’t need to add any offset to the track. Remember, if you synced the camera and GPS to UTC, simply take the UTC offset of your local time zone and flip the sign. In other words, set the offset to +4 hours for Eastern Time (UTC-4) or +7 hours for Pacific Time (UTC-7). Click OK to confirm the time zone offset.

You should see the trackline from your adventure appear on the map. Do note that if Lightroom detects that your tracklog time zone does not appear to match the time zone of your photos, it will highlight the trackline log time in red. In that case, click the track button at the bottom and select “Set Time Zone Offset” to set the correct time zone.

Once you’ve confirmed that the track loaded correctly, then import your photos and videos just like you always have.

Geotag Your Photos in Lightroom with the Click of a Button

Now that both the track and your media are all in place, it’s time to geotag them in Lightroom. In the filmstrip at the bottom of the window, select the photos and videos you want to geotag. Then, click on the track button once again, and select “Auto-Tag XX Selected Photos”, where XX is the number of photos you selected.

You should see a bunch of points appear on your trackline. Hover over them and you’ll see your photos. If they’re not quite in the right position, you can drag them around to put them in the right place.

Don’t Have a Handheld GPS? Use a Smartphone Instead.

If you don’t have a handheld GPS, there are plenty of smartphone apps out there to generate a GPX file of your adventure. In the past I’ve always used the AllTrails app, which is available for free for both Apple and Android devices. AllTrails is designed for hiking and biking, but you can use it to track any activity. Here are directions to export your track from the AllTrails app. Make sure you export it as a GPX track, and not a GPX route.

Alternate Methods to Geotag Your Photos in Lightroom without a Built-in GPS

While geotagging photos and videos in Adobe Lightroom using a GPX track is by far the easiest and most accurate way to add location data to your images and videos, it’s not the only way.

First off, Lightroom offers several ways to add location data manually. You can directly edit the metadata of your images directly in Lightroom, or use the map interface to geotag your images. You can find plenty of tutorials for manual geotagging with a quick Google search. For more information, here is Adobe’s official documentation.

Unfortunately, there are quite a few drawbacks to geotagging your images manually. While it works fine for a few photos, it’s impossible to scale up to large photo albums, collections, and libraries, unless you have a serious amount of both time and will to put into it.

You can also geotag your photos using Python. We’ll cover this in a future tutorial, but you can use Python’s Pillow library to add location to your images’ metadata. You’ll need to loop through your image files, add the appropriate location metadata (lat/long coordinates or city/state/country), and then save the files. Be aware that this can get very complicated if you have a lot of photos taken in a lot of different locations. However, unlike manually adding location data, using Python is infinitely scalable, both up and down.

Conclusion

Geotagging photos is a critical part of both the workflow and staying organized as a landscape and travel photographer. With so many cameras still lacking built-in GPS functionalities, it becomes even more critical to know how to geotag photos in Adobe Lightroom without built-in GPS. Using GPX track files is by far the best alternative to built-in GPS that’s out there. Except for a few spots time zones can trip you up, the method is foolproof, accurate, reliable, and only requires one GPS, regardless of how many cameras you have. In my book, though, the benefits of having a geotagged library far outweigh the occasional hiccup from a mislabeled time zone.

Interested in more of these tutorials? I’n addition to the blog entries, I’ll be posting them to YouTube and sending them out via our email newsletter as well. Please subscribe to our email newsletter and our YouTube channel for the latest tutorials, and get exclusive deals to our online store that are not available anywhere else.

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A Brief History of the Cyrillic Alphabet

The Cyrillic Alphabet is actually one of the newer alphabets in the world today. It was developed in the 9th century during the First Bulgarian Empire. In contrast, we first saw the Latin Alphabet in the 7th Century BC, about 1,500 years earlier. While the Cyrillic Alphabet is named after Saint Cyril, historians continue to hotly debate whether Cyril himself or one of his students actually invented it.

Today, the Cyrillic Alphabet remains prevalent across the Slavic world. From central Europe to central Asia, you’ll find the Cyrillic states stretching from the Balkan states in Europe all the way to Mongolia. Not surprisingly, most Asian nations that use the Cyrillic Alphabet are former Soviet Union members.

Look to the Cyrillic Alphabet to Explain the Pull Between Russia and the West

Long before the war between Russia and Ukraine broke out, you could clearly see the tug between Russia and the west in eastern Europe. Just look at the languages of the Slavic nations in eastern Europe. Poland is the perfect example. Mieszko I, who ruled the Polans tribe during the 10th Century, created the Polish language specifically for the Cyrillic Alphabet. Unfortunately for him, most Poles were converting to Catholicism, while the Orthodox Church was responsible for spreading the Cyrillic Alphabet. As a result, the Polish Language adopted the Latin alphabet used in the Catholic Church instead.

In 1772, the Russian Empire seized about 80% of Poland-Lithuania, which encompassed much of what is today the Baltic States, Belarus, Poland, and Ukraine. Over the next 40-plus years, the Russians introduced a Polish Cyrillic, and relentlessly tried to “Cyrillify” Poland. The Catholics fiercely resisted because they did not want to convert to the Orthodox Church. As a result, the only way the Russians succeeded in introducing the Cyrillic Alphabet to Poland was to introduce the Russian language. In the 1970’s, the Soviet Union tried once more to get Poland to adopt the Cyrillic alphabet, but was again unsuccessful.

To this day, Polish remains one of the few Slavic Languages that never adopted the Cyrillic Alphabet. And geography continues to play a major role in that. On one hand, as a member of both NATO and the European Union, Poland’s strong ties to the west are undeniable. But on the other hand, it’s hard to not look east from a linguistics perspective. Would Polish be any easier or any better off using the Cyrillic Alphabet? The two are a seemingly perfect match, after all. But that’s for the historians and language scholars to debate.

The Cyrillic Alphabet’s Roots Lie in Greece

While Greece has never used it, that’s where you’ll find the Cyrillic Alphabet’s deep roots. The Cyrillic Alphabet solved numerous linguistics issues for the Slavic people living in central and eastern Europe between the 5th and 9th Centuries. At the time, they used the Greek alphabet, which presented one major problem. There were numerous phonetics – both written and oral – in Slavic languages that don’t exist in the Greek Alphabet. As a result, the Cyrillic Alphabet is essentially just the Greek Alphabet with a few added letters to cover those missing Slavic phonetics. Can you spot the similarities?

When I first learned the Cyrillic Alphabet, I had a deep knowledge of the Greek Alphabet, from both my background in mathematics and taking a year of Ancient Greek. If you already know the Greek Alphabet, learning Cyrillic is very easy. If you want to learn the Cyrillic Alphabet, I highly recommend learning the Greek Alphabet first. However, I must note that while I know the Cyrillic alphabet, I claim no knowledge of anything more than just the basics of any language that actually uses it.

Cyrillic Letters Derived Directly from the Greek Alphabet

A Strategy for Learning the Cyrillic Alphabet

If you’re interested in learning the Cyrillic Alphabet, you should break it down into four steps. The first two are easy, but the second two are more of a challenge. Don’t fret, though. The Cyrillic Alphabet itself is very easy to learn. The languages that use it? Well, that’s a whole. different story.

First, start with the Cyrillic letters that both look and sound the same as their counterparts in the Latin Alphabet and in English. Then, learn the Cyrillic letters that are directly imported from the Greek Alphabet.

Now that you have a base established, then you can jump into the trickier letters. We’ll start with the letters that look like Latin letters, bur are not. When I first learned the Cyrillic Alphabet, I kept wanting to pronounce these like their Latin counterparts. Once you can break through that barrier, you’re pretty much there.

The Trickier Letters of the Cyrillic Alphabet

Finally, finish up with the Cyrillic letters that were added for Slavic phonetics. Hopefully these letters won’t be too hard to learn, as they bear little to no resemblance to anything in either the Greek or Latin alphabets.

Most Slavic Languages Add Their Own Letters to the Cyrillic Alphabet

One of the most fascinating aspects of the Cyrillic Alphabet is that it leaves room for each language to add its own letters. There is really no equivalent to that in any languages that use the Latin Alphabet. The closest thing any western language has to that is the Spanish enye (ñ) or the French cédille (ç). But the Slavic languages take it so much further with the Cyrillic alphabet. Believe it or not, some languages have added 10 or more letters to the Cyrillic alphabet.

The geography of the Slavic languages is absolutely fascinating. The Central Asian nations, all of whom are former Soviet Union states, have added the most letters to the Cyrillic alphabet. Even the more traditionally Cyrillic languages, including Russian and Ukrainian, have added their own letters. This not only adapts the Cyrillic alphabet to better fit their own native languages, it also helps each nation distance itself from Russia and its Soviet past.

Some nations have even gone as far as converting their language from the Cyrillic alphabet to the Latin alphabet. Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Azerbaijan all reverted back to the Latin alphabet as soon as the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan also announced recently that they would begin transitioning from Cyrillic to the Latin alphabet starting in 2023.

It’s Incredibly Difficult for Former USSR States to Completely Abandon the Cyrillic Alphabet

This is where it gets complicated. Unfortunately, many former Soviet states have found that they can’t sever those ties completely. Why is that? Nearly every nation that made up the former Soviet Union has retained Russian (the official language of the USSR) as either an official or unofficial language. And that includes Ukraine.

Part of what is driving the war between Russia and Ukraine is Russia’s insistence that Ukraine adopt the Russian language. And while it’s easy to say, oh, Ukraine is its own sovereign nation, they should just tell Russia to piss off, it’s far more complicated than that. And it all ties back to the former Soviet Union. Because Russian was the official language of the USSR, nearly one third of Ukraine’s population speaks Russian as their native language. You can’t just alientate 1/3 of your own citizens.

So why is Russia so mad at Ukraine they decided to induce such a horrific war? Part of it is because other than the three Baltic States and Azerbaijan, Ukraine is the only former Soviet Union member that does not use Russian as one of their official languages. Have a look at these language statistics from Ukraine, broken down by oblast (their equivalent of states and provinces). Can you see a correlation between use of the Russian language and where the heaviest of the fighting is taking place?

Kyiv or Kiev: Why There is So Much Debate About the Spelling of the Ukrainian Capital

If you’ve watched the news recently, you’ve probably heard the debates over how the name of Ukraine’s capital is both spelled and pronounced. Is it spelled Kyiv or Kiev? As for which one is correct, well, it depends who you ask. Kyiv is the transliteration of the Ukrainian language spelling, while Kiev is the transliteration of the Russian language spelling. While Kiev was the official spelling during the Soviet Union, the United States adopted Kyiv as the official and preferred spelling in 2006. They actually retired Kiev as an alternate spelling in 2019 in an effort to persuade western media to use the Ukrainian spelling.

Interestingly, from a strictly nuts and bolts perspective, the spelling difference is no different than comparing the spellings of any location in any two languages. It gets complicated and becomes a hot-button issue once you take into account the history, politics, and culture of Russia and Ukraine. Without those aspects, it would be no different than doing this.

What About the Ukrainian President’s Name? How Do You Correctly Spell It?

Is it Zelenskyy, Zelensky, or Zelenskiy? You’ve probably seen it spelled all three ways on the news. To understand the correct spelling, we must look again to the Cyrillic alphabet and the long history between Ukraine and Russia. In Ukrainian, he spells his name Володомир Зеленський.

It turns out that when you use the Cyrillic alphabet, his name is spelled nearly identically in Russian (Володомир Зеленский) as it is in Ukrainian. So how does that help us in the Latin alphabet? You have to look at how the Cyrillic alphabet is transliterated in Russian vs Ukrainian. More specifically, the last two letters of his name. In Ukrainian, while и and й are pronounced differently, they both transliterate to the letter “y”. On the other hand, in Russian, и transliterates to the letter “i” and й transliterates to the letter “y”. So just like Kyiv, this once again boils down to the Russian vs Ukrainian spellings.

So what’s the verdict? According to the man himself, the Ukrainian spelling (Zelenskyy) is the correct one. And the third spelling? Zelensky is simply an anglicized version of the Ukrainian spelling, as the double-y does not exist in English.

Zelenskyy’s History Doesn’t End There

Because Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union during Zelenskyy’s childhood, he actually grew up speaking Russian, not Ukrainian. In fact, he used the Russian spelling of his own name (Zelenskiy) up until 2018. And why is that timing relevant? Because he became president of Ukraine in 2019. That’s just more proof that the long, intertwined history between Russia and Ukraine runs deeper than we can imagine. It took becoming president of Ukraine for Zelenskyy to finally distance himself from Russia.

Learn to Read the Cyrillic Alphabet with Geographic Names

Once you get a basic grasp of the Cyrillic alphabet, it’s time to build on that knowledge and get comfortable reading the Cyrillic alphabet. I find the best way to do that is to remove any aspect of having to bounce back and forth between languages and focus only on the transliteration. For that, we’ll look at the names of places, which we’ll transliterate directly from English.

We’ll start with the easy ones, where all letters except for one or two match the Latin alphabet. Cover up the right hand column and see if you can correctly identify each location. These are all major cities and states in the US and Canada.

The Easy Ones

The Medium Ones

Now that you’ve mastered the easy ones, let’s up the difficulty. These will be a little more complex, but you should still be able to figure them out from looking at them.

The Hard Ones

Now, it’s time for a challenge. The places have short names, but don’t look anything like their Latin counterparts. Remember, these are all names of states and major cities in the United States. If you’re struggling, start by focusing on letters you know.

The Extreme Ones

The ultimate challenge. These are places with long names whose Cyrillic transliterations look nothing like their English names. However, I’ll give you a hint. The last one is a major city in western Canada. The rest are all states and major cities in the United States.

Conclusion

The Cyrillic alphabet offers a fascinating, but powerful glance into the history of Ukraine, Russia, and the rest of the Slavic world. For Russia and Ukraine, it is the thread that ties their long, storied, and even twisted histories together. Yet paradoxically, it causes rifts and divisions that run deep enough to kick off the most brutal and horrific war Europe has seen since World War II.

I’ve always said that the more we understand about each other, the more accepting we’ll be of opposing viewpoints. Hopefully, this introduction to the Cyrillic alphabet has given at least enough of a glance into the history and culture of not just Russia and Ukraine, but the entire Slavic world. Because the history and culture of this region is fascinating. It would be such a shame to ruin it with disinformation. Слава Україні.

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