During my stay at the Connect Live event in San Jose, I have had the opportunity to make an about 1 hour photo walk with @TheRealKristin and @Thefoodmad in a shopping mall.
I was so happy, that I could find other Local Guides who did like to join the unoffical meetup, I haven’t announced big, because I thought that only myself is such addicted.
In this post I like to tell you what is important for me, when doing such a photo walk. But please this are no official advises, but my subjective understanding or proposal:
In the beginning I’m logging in to the WIFI of the mall, as I need at least to post 4-5 pictures I use like a “anchor”. This means that one of the first places, a place close to changing the mall level and a place close to the end is uploaded to have it like a reminder.
When taking pictures, I try to have no recognizable people on the photo. Very careful I’m in case of employees. Quite often you have employees outside the shop, calling to someone or (not in a mall) are smoking.
I’m more focused on the overall view of the shop. So in fact I take the shop from a given distance and when not possible to catch the store name on the photo I do right after this a special shot of the name.
Very happy I’m with colorful cosmetic and clothing shops. Here I do as well several pictures and check after the upload what picture has been ranked best, so I delete the others (mainly one picture per shop is my role)
I really work in the row. When walking I do not miss a shop on the right or left, but I take from every POI a picture, EXCEPT of restaurants when there are to many faces I cannot blur later.
Not sure if it really has an impact, BUT when I do a picture of a shop and eg. on advertisement are people the camera mode recognize as faces, mainly this pictures go to the button. So, I try to avoid pictures with faces.
Depending on the country, you have sometimes quite “open minded” underwear advertisement. If there is shown to much skin, the picture will not be displayed. So eg. Victoria Secret is best to have a photo not with mannequin.
There a hot spots in the shopping mall. Means places you will get a good view rate in average if you take a good picture. These are mainly the international known companies (Swarovski, McDonalds, Lush…)
Make sure to make as well pictures who show the mall itself.
Ensure to making several photos of the cinema in a mall. If your photo get featured here, you will very fast collect around 100.000 views and more.
Especially for stores with expensive articles (electronic or jeweler) make sure not to display to much about their security system like cameras, guard…
Put a special focus NOT to have children in the photos (my ethic)
As well some stores have special signs, like accessibility, LGBT friendly, no dogs… . Try to show this signs on your picture.
After the photos are done, the second part of the game starts later. Since the order of the pictures is no more based on the date of the photo, but on the date of upload the process is much more challenging. I don’t like it, but as I understood it will remain in this way for a while.
Second part:
When starting a upload, I mental go back to the place and are looking for the first picture I did upload in this street or mall. Than I starting to make the upload shop by shop.
I do try not to edit the pictures. but in case I change only the lighting and blur faces. In fact blurring faces means that the picture will never been featured, except it is the first on the place.
Beside editing the picture itself, I sometimes cut the picture. So for example there is a trash bin on one side, I do cut out. As well, this leads quite often to the fact, that the picture is not featured.
While doing the uploads currently mainly via iOS, I have my Android beside me, to make the edits, as they are easier on the Android. As well on the Android I receive the information if my picture has been featured via a push information.
As well on the Android I check in case of question the surrounding and looking for street names and places with the same name around this area.
I would say, that in every mall about 5% of the stores are changing every year, so I create after Android and iOS search as well new places. In the example here @TheRealKristin did create one new shop, who was going to be open the next day and I have yesterday created two shops not been in the mall…
The 3rd part:
I go to my laptop and check how the uploads look like (like in the screen)
I check if there are any points who are uploaded, but not close to the region I did contribute to. Means I did a Starbucks upload, but as there could be displayed several Starbucks as they are near by, I could have uploaded to the wrong.
Sometimes it happens, that the shops in the mall (when the mall has eg. no agreement with Google) are all on the some place as the shopping mall POI. Than the editing starts… Here my upload in the row helps me to find the right order.
Part 4:
I switch to the public profile and check the photos, to see how many of my photos has not been displayed public. In case I think it is worth, I edit an existing picture or do an upload of an other picture I haven’t uploaded.
After this I delete ALL my photos for this area on my mobile phones…
Note: I’m not a 360 fan yet and I nearly do no videos… Pictures are my focus.
More information about pictures, you can find as well in the podcast from @JanVanHaver
Such amazing tips and dedication for contributing! When it comes to malls and shopping, I am only focused on what I am going to buy next. I rarely take pictures in the malls except when I am with a friend and we are having fun.
I am sure that many Local Guides will appreciate the information in your post and follow the steps that you have provided. Thanks for everything!
You are amazing my friend and off course addicted! Ahahahah!
It was so funny walking with you In SF and SJ… You never stop taking pictures! And when you stop, it is for uploading your pictures!
That is probably why you have won the award for most pictures. By the way congratulations . It is well deserved!
Now, let’s talk about you and your post!
During connect, I appreciated being with you. We have spent so much time together. We have almost done the same meet-ups. You are always ready to help, to share tips, very funny guy and good to have party with.
Here, once again, you shared great tips and it will help lot of people.
You are probably right about me saving money but if I take pictures of the shops and see the sale sign somewhere, that will be the end of my contributing. Jokes aside, thanks again for the informative tips.
@TorM the secret is out in open now. I really wanted to read the philosophy behind your way of uploading the pictures. I did had the privilege to had a walk with you on pier 39 and saw things in actions my self.
Hope i will put this in practice. Thanks for sharing the awesome tips.
You are indeed a star photographer in our community. It was great seeing you live in action during the meet-ups and Connect Live 2019. Always trying to make great photos! The hard work you put into uploading them is just admirable.
We all have a lot to learn from you, I’m sure your tips will help lots of Local Guides everywhere.
we took over twenty pictures in a mall, made with a htc and pixel3 and a pixel 3axl. I have only a few thousand views on all these pictures. Someone else who took a picture at a hospital in my city has 353875 views. My city does not have so many inhabitants either, but patients…
Ah! It was so fun and crazy going around with you and taking photos.
You really take it very seriously and do such a wonderful job - it shows through. The tips and tricks you shared with me will last a life time!
You are a super contributer to Google Maps and I’m so happy to have been able to share some time with you to learn more about an area of contributing that I didn’t even know existed.
Thanks again, and I look forward to seeing you again one day in the future and I can learn even more from you!
p.s. I hope your fam enjoyed the Hello Kitty pics from SJ!
Thanks for sharing so many details about your Photowalk. It is really really helpful.
I learned a few new things from this post. This about cropping an image should make it less likely to be featured is really surprising to me. I guess I need to be more careful about composing my shots in-camera rather than cropping later to get a shop to be in the center 1/3 of my picture. I really like this way because it allows me to angle my phone to avoid many tilting lines.
Normally I’m very conscious about framing my pictures so they will look good and have the shop sign/name all in the mid 1/3 of my picture. Since I believe the most frequent format shown on mobile phones is quite a bit wider (or less tall) than the normal Height to Width ration in my camera, I think it makes sense to crop them to fit this format better. At least when I scroll past my photo contributions on mobile the shop signs are in the shot. And I like that. Your opinion on this would we highly appreciated.
Also, I will try to show more patience and wait for the right moment where no people are in my shot.
Your problem with display order after the date and not so much the time of day is a bit strange. I use a Huawei P30 Pro and use the native camera app. I have never had that problem. All my pics are in strict chronological order.
I think I need to improve on spotting what you call hot spots.
My routine does normally not include taking more pictures than the “best” one. Odd ones I delete while on the Photowalk. That makes my life more simple. But admittedly I sometimes realize I missed one.
Thanks again. I hope you get the order problem solved.
Please remember that all what I write is my privat opinion.
Yes, patience is something usefull, but it is like hunting (at least I think so). I think you do right when the company logo is included.
I have seen a cinema is your top photo on maps This are exactly the hot spots you need as @Julien44 can confirm…
Your cronologic order is working??? Google told me, that they cannot resolve this problem currently… There are several reasons why they took out the Order…
May I ask what mobile you use? Is not working on my iOS or Android. Do you upload in the Computer?
As mentioned I’m on a Huawei P30 pro using the native camera app (which is amazing). I do touch up most of my pics using the native Gallery app. But a few pics need no touch up. The order gets a bit messy in the Gallery app (not the Google Photos app) when not all pics gets a touch up since the sorting order takes last edit timestamp into the equation.
Then I let Google Photos back up all pictures. I disabled Google photos to upload in the background and not before I’m done with the touch ups.
Then I use PC or my phone to upload pics to the correct places. Here I keep my gallery app open to see which pic is next (if I don’t just remember or can spot it while picking the previous pic). In maps I select from the folder on Google Photos with ALL my thousands of pics. This has the advantage that no new upload is needed from my device. So I use the correct chronological to ensure I’m not missing/skipping any pics.
This workflow works very well for me.
Let me know if you need more details about this. Maybe the order issue is isolated to IOS.
I rarely take pictures in the malls except when I am with a friend and we are having fun.
This are exactly the hot spots you need as 
.