RePhoto for Urban Tree Surveys

The semester is coming to a close here at The University of North Texas. This will be my final post of the semester, but not of this project. I’ll be continuing this into the summer and fall. I’m not sure where it will go after that. But I want to still contribute to this project. I have more than enjoyed the process and studying I’ve been able to do as a part of this class. I can’t wait to see where this project goes in the future.

Enough of me, now for the project:

In my previous posts I talked about precision and what re-photography is to me. This final post will be a reflection of my thoughts on the project to this point and try to come to a closing point.

I feel like with what I’ve done so far in this project just scrapes the surface of what this work can be.

What we have proven to work this far is that by taking rephotographs of these trees we can visualize the changes happening to the trees and the area around the trees. These two things play important rolls in urban green spaces and urban forestry. But that’s the broad overview.

As I’ve said in previous posts my photography background has played an interesting roll in this project. I has bothered me since the beginning of this project how in accurate the “rephotos” are. At times I struggle to even consider this re-photography. I look at artists such as Mark Klett and how much time and effort he puts into recreating images with precision beyond anything we have even touch in this project. Stepping from that to using a mobile phone and a developing app is a hard transition for me. I want precision. I want control. I want to take exact images over and over again. With a mobile phone app I feel like the entire process of being exact is thrown out the window. When I think taking pictures with a mobile phone I think snapshot. I think convenience and accessibility. I don’t see precision and exact recreation. The cross between mobile snapshots and precises recreation of images is computational rephotography. To do computational rephotography on a mobile devise takes a lot of power where most mobile devices can’t handle that. If these practical hurdles can be overcome I think rephoto and apps like it need to utilize the methods of computational rephotography.

Precision is so important in my mind because shows a level of trust in the data you are collecting. In any collection of images of this kind there needs to be a level of consistency and precision in it. If there isn’t how can you trust the data you are collecting is accurate and truthful. One of the original goals of this project was to take images of trees next to reference objects and use an algorithm to calculate the physical measurements of the tree. With inaccurate rephotographs I wouldn’t trust those measurements. I think anyone who does data collection would agree with me that precision is key in having valid data. How is this any different?

As for the outcome of what this semester has produced. Following this post there are a collection of images, these images are GIF files help visual the changes in the trees and the surroundings of each tree. This Is what I came up with.

 

I have really enjoyed working on this project and I’m looking forward to seeing what this next year has to bring with more images and more precise photos.

Entry_101 Entry_73 Entry_180 GIFTree53 Entry_31Entry_157X101X41X37

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