I get to travel quite a lot. Last year I have been on 3 continents and I have visited 8 countries. At least this is what my 2018 Google Maps recap stated!
Whenever I visit a new place, my colleagues and family can see me take a lot of pictures. This peculiar habit started somewhat 2 years ago when I received an email from Google Maps inviting me to share a picture of the hotel I had just stayed in near Paris. I thought: “Well, why not?”. So I shared this first picture and it soon became addictive. I have recently passed the 1000-photo mark and counting! Whenever I enter a new place, I just take my smartphone out and take some photos.
Then I forgot about this picture until I received emails about the number of views. First a few dozens, then 100 (what?) and then several hundreds (wow!). It made me realize that I had a kind of super power: if several hundreds persons had viewed my picture, it meant that it was helpful. Who does not like to feel helpful? Then I decided that I would contribute with more pictures. This has taken me to a strange journey where I feel like being part of a secret brotherhood of everyday heroes who put information together to make their fellow humans know what to expect.
I have 2 kinds of favorite pictures.
- Taking a photo as soon as I enter an hotel room. In these photos, the room is made like any guest will see it. This is why I like to take a picture, so that anyone can see what the room should look like in the owner’s view. This way, you can make decision to book a room or not based on how the bedroom looks like. So, which one of the following hotel rooms might be your favorite?
- The other kind of picture I like to publish is when I am able to find an original angle. Sometimes it is easy to find a nice point of view. I especially love it when you can see or guess lines on a picture. If I look at the number of views these pictures get, they may not be the most useful to the community. But I hope that those who like to see nice pictures are sensitive to it and may say “hey, this guy tried to convey something different about this place, I like that!” And when I am able to do this with a picture of my local regular supermarket, I feel like I have made a decent job.
So that’s what gets me motivated to share on Google Maps. Anyone else feels like a photo super hero?