BACKGROUND

In late 2007, the Waukewan Watershed Advisory Committee commissioned us to digitally photograph the shorelines of all major water bodies in the watershed. These included Lake Waukewan, Lake Winona, Hawkins, Bear and Otter Ponds, the Snake River and several smaller ponds and streams. The purpose of this project was to document the current state of buildings, docks, beaches, foliage, development and vegetation within close proximity to the shorelines, thus providing a baseline for future development and planning. In addition, such a collection of images would provide a historical record for future generations of lake lovers and property owners, and assist in future investigations of environmental and/or property disputes. The Town of Meredith and the Watershed Committee are to be congratulated on their foresight and preparation for the future preservation of the watershed.

Images were to be obtained in the spring of 2008 as soon as the ice melted and the snow cover was gone, but before leaves and foliage obscured the view of ground details. As it turned out, the winter of 2007-2008 was extremely harsh, and the ice didn't fully melt until the last week of April. With buds already on the trees, we had about a 10 day span to obtain the hundreds of images we needed for this project, and many of those days were too wet or too windy to fly. We were fortunate to obtain all the photos we needed within the relatively short time available.

A collection containing hundreds of images is useless, however, without some sort of intuitive indexing. Using GPS coordinates, we located the exact position where each photo was taken. With a specialized software package, we then manually adjusted each location to more precisely match the target of each image, and assembled them all into a user friendly online map (courtesy of Google Maps).

HOW TO USE THE MAP & PHOTOS

Clicking on the link below will bring up a map of the entire watershed. You may zoom in on any point by double-clicking on it, or by using the scroll wheel on your mouse. You can also drag the entire map in any direction (Left click & hold). Using the selection box at upper right, you can also add roads, satellite views or topographical maps to the view.

Each orange balloon indicates a photo is available for that area. Clicking once on the balloon will bring up a small image of that spot, labeled with the image file name. Clicking on the open image will bring up a larger one in a new window. This image is still not full size. If you're using Vista, your cursor will change to a magnifying glass with a "+" in it. Click on the photo to fully enlarge it.
If you're using an older style of Explorer, place your cursor on the lower right of the image until a appears, then click on that. Scroll around within the image to explore the details. (The date and location of each photo is embedded along the bottom edge of each image.)

A NOTE ABOUT THE IMAGES

The equipment we use produces an average JPEG image size of 8-10 MB. Since images that size take a very long time to download, we have reduced all the images here to about 300KB, or less than 5% of their actual resolution. We have also increased color saturation and edge sharpening. While these enhancements bring out more visual detail, they don't necessarily make for aesthetically pleasing photos. If you'd enjoy viewing more scenic shots of Lake Waukewan (most with leaves!), please visit our Lake Waukewan album.

In addition to the close up shoreline photos, we shot and assembled several panoramic views. These along with several high altitude watershed overviews can be accessed from the ADDITIONAL PHOTOS page.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE WATERSHED MAP AND PHOTOS

CLICK HERE TO VIEW PANORAMIC AND OVERVIEW IMAGES