You're the editor of The Paris News, and for your next edition you're scrolling through various wire services and picture libraries on the lookout for images shot in the locale. Despite entering specific keywords to limit your search to your particular geographic location, the results turn up images of French workers protesting at picket lines, Audrey Tautou attending a film premier at the Cinema Gaumont Marignan, and Nicolas Sarkozy welcoming the Russian president at the Louvre. Only at the bottom of the page do you find what you've been looking for, a report on Cody West, a 32-year-old farmer, driving a combine as he harvests his crop of milo, near Paris - Paris, Texas.

With the advent of geo-tagging, this kind of confusion should become a thing of the past. Despite the fact that the technology became fully operational in 1995, its use has mainly been confined to automotive navigation systems - or sat navs. But more recently, photographers, especially happy-snappers, have begun using the technology to organise their shots according to their location. Online services such as Flickr and Locr let users place their images on a map, making it easier to find them according to the country, city or even street where they were taken. It's been a long time coming, but agencies such as Getty Images, the Press Association and Reuters are now actively looking at rolling out the technology to its professional clients.

"We trialled geo-tagging within our workflow for the first time three or four years ago," says Dan Law, PA Images' production director. "At the time, it was very basic. We were using postcodes, but that didn't work particularly well. It wasn't always easy to get the right postcode for an area or street." Today, the agency is trying stand-alone GPS tracking devices, which automatically record your location while on a shoot. In the editing stage, the information gathered is synched with the time data contained in each image's EXIF records. Software such as Amod GPS Tracker and Aperture 3 can perform this task automatically.

PA Images is only trialling the technology at the moment, says Law. But the agency can already see multiple business opportunities around this extra data. "Any metadata is valuable," says Law. "It can add value to a picture. For example, if you are a picture editor you could specify which area you want pictures from. For the regional press, we could offer packages composed only of pictures of relevance to their particular area." The data could also be used to enhance augmented reality tools, or within iPhone apps, says Law. "You could get a live feed of pictures taken around you at any moment," or, he adds, of key events from the past 50 years. "All we would have to do is to go through our archives and add geotags to the most important pictures."

Greater interaction
The technology can also be used to bring interactivity to a project. This is what Carl De Keyzer has done for his Moments Before the Flood series. The Magnum photographer, who portrays the slow erosion of Europe's coasts, uses geo-tags to pinpoint where he took his photos on a map. The feature allows for greater interaction between the photographer and his viewers, who, in turn, can suggest new locations for future shoots.

But, as representatives from diverse news agencies tell BJP, editorial and sport photographers are set to benefit the most from the technology. "We think that the technology and capability looks great, so we will be using it in these areas," says a Getty spokeswoman. Reuters is also experimenting with geo-tagging, a spokesman tells BJP, but it hasn't been officially
deployed yet.

However, geo-tagging has its risks, warns Law. "One of the concerns we have is in regards to privacy. For example, after veteran broadcaster Ray Gosling announced that he had smothered a dying lover to death, one of our photographers went to his home to take pictures. For that kind of shoot, we're concerned about having the images geo-tagged. Certain individuals might choose to go to that location." At the end of the day, says Law, photographers and editors have to be sensible. "You have to make the decision about whether it's appropriate or not depending on the case."

So far the technology is still in its infancy in the photographic industry. Canon and Nikon, for example, do not have GPS-enabled digital SLRs available - EOS 1D and 1Ds users currently have to use a wireless transmitter device such as the WFT-E2 to be able to connect an external GPS receiver to their cameras. Nikon is more flexible, offering in recent models such as the D3s and D300s a 10-pin remote terminal that can be connected to a handheld GPS receiver. It also offers the GP-1 GPS receiver, which can be mounted on a DSLR's hotshoe.

Although geo-tagging has been around for years, says Gary Bailey, a photographer that has been experimenting with geo-tags for some time, the technology is still lacking because of compatibility issues. "When the hardware and software will automatically show the location, I feel it will be more widely recognised. Until then, the extra processing needed to use the feature is just another drain on a photographer's time - it is up to the individual photographer to decide if the benefits are worth the extra effort."