Transforming the Map: Bringing High-Quality Visuals to Northern Patagonia (General Conesa, Argentina)

[DestinosInvisibles]

Hi everyone!

I’m writing to share a major milestone in my project, @DestinosInvisibles. Our mission is to put Northern Patagonia on the map, literally.

We have been working hard in General Conesa, Río Negro, and the results are overwhelming: over 37,000 views in our first week! This shows a massive interest in discovering these “hidden gems” of Argentina.

To take this to the next level, we have officially teamed up with a professional local photographer, Sergio. We want to prove that with the right equipment, we can provide world-class imagery for Google Street View.

I’m sharing some of our latest work below, including our historical “La Trochita” train. Our goal is to eventually use the Google Street View Trekker to capture our riverbanks and trails that are currently invisible to the world.

We have the support of our local government and a growing community that wants to show Argentina to the world.

I would love to hear your feedback! How can we further improve our contribution to the Local Guides community?

[MortenCopenhagen]

Are the 3 photos above AI generated and do you plan to add them to Google Maps?

[DestinosInvisibles]

Hi @MortenCopenhagen! Thank you for the quick and attentive response.

To answer your questions:

1. Absolutely not AI generated. I’m thrilled to confirm these are all 100% human-captured photographs. They are the work of a talented local photographer and supporter of our project named Sergio. His exceptional vision is what makes General Conesa, Northern Patagonia, look this epic. We team up with him specifically because his high-quality, professional photography is exactly the standard we want to set for bringing high-quality visuals to the map.

2. Regarding Google Maps: These specific photos (which include some artistic editing by the photographer) might be better suited for promotional purposes of the project or for Connect. However, our ultimate goal is to generate professional, Street View-ready contributions.

This is a crucial topic for us. We want to contribute geographical, high-fidelity imagery, not AI. How do you recommend we present our professional-grade contributions to Google Maps and Street View in a way that respects the platform’s standard?

We have the support of the municipality of General Conesa and a growing community passionate about this. Your guidance on how best to contribute this kind of professional human effort to the platform would be highly appreciated.

Thank you, Morten!

[MortenCopenhagen]

Hi @DestinosInvisibles

I’m happy to hear that. But I just wanted to let you know another reason why these 3 photos in my opinion should not be uploaded to Google Maps.

If you step back metaphorically and evaluate what the main object is, I see photos of dramatic skys. The clouds play the main role in all three. They take up the most space in the frames.

According to the photo guidelines, all photos should clearly show the places. Photos of sunsets, sun rises, rainbows are all distractions that make it harder to see the actual places. Clouds, lightning, and brewing thunder storms are not places in Google Maps. Maps users can expect to find anything like these images. Hence such photos should not be on Maps.

Notice that elements that could be a place on Maps are pretty much in the dark and therefore not helpful to people wanting to understand the places.

So people making wonderful artistic photos should carefully study the guidelines. Make sure the composition puts the place in focus.

You may want to run over my Storefront photography series.

And you may also want to check the rules about places that cannot be added to Maps. And the fact that geographical features can only be added to Maps by Google employees - we volunteers cannot. This might be important to know about when you want to map remote areas.

You may need to do some work to get more places added as one of your first steps, as it is very frustrating to create good photos only to find out there is nowhere to upload them to.

We discussed earlier if a consumer grade 360 camera would be good enough. I invite you to reflect on where Streetview images are displayed. Maybe 90% are viewed on tiny mobile screens. Where super high resolution is stripped away anyhow. So very few people use a desktop or laptop screen, and still a relatively cheap 360 camera makes excellent quality as @ErmesT shared an example of. Get your project started rather than hoping for pro gear.

Lastly, I noticed that your Maps profile shows no contributions. And you are reporting some views already. Please explain.

Cheers

PS please remove Google owned logos etc in the lower right corner of your first image before a Google Moderator ses them.

[Maximilianozalazar]

@DestinosInvisibles que lindo es Gral Conesa, también las Grutas.

[DestinosInvisibles]

Hi @MortenCopenhagen!

Thank you so much for the heads-up. I’ve already edited the post and removed the image with the logos—it was a total oversight on my part, and I’m grateful for your guidance to keep things according to the rules!

I completely understand your point about artistic vs. utility photos. We will definitely study your Storefront series to make sure our next contributions are 100% focused on being useful for Maps users.

However, I want to share the “heart” of this project. In a town like General Conesa, many people didn’t even know this technology existed. The massive repercussion we are seeing (those 37k views from our community tests and social media) is because people are excited to see “one of their own” working with Google tools.

Beyond just mapping, our goal is to educate. We want to show that Google provides opportunities for everyone, everywhere. We aren’t just looking for a camera; we are looking for the official validation that comes with it. Having that “OK” from Google is what will make major local institutions (like YPF or our regional government) take our development project seriously.

We want to bridge the gap between this “invisible” corner of Patagonia and the rest of the world. Thank you for being part of this learning curve for us!

Best regards!

[DestinosInvisibles]

“¡Muchas gracias, Maximiliano! Un orgullo que un referente como vos pase por acá. Conesa tiene rincones increíbles y estamos trabajando junto al fotógrafo Sergio para que todo el mundo pueda ver la belleza de nuestra Patagonia. ¡Un gran abrazo!”