Whenever I go anywhere new, I keep an eye out for information boards, so I can smap them.
Smapping is the process of taking a digital photograph of a map that you won’t have access to later, except if you take a snap of it.
My first smap was of the Durham train station ‘You Are Here’ glass-encased map.
Smapping also works nicely with maps and guides that other people want to take away and read.
At first sight, squinting at a tiny digital camera screen might seem a frustrating and fruitless exercise – until you remember that you can zoom in, making the map detail many times larger than real life if need be.
(Of course, if you don’t speak the language it’s in, more detail might not help you too much).
Smapping also works for taking a record of something you want to read later.
The main disadvantage is that your smap runs on batteries. So take plenty of them.
The final reward of being a compulsive smapper is that your photographic record is stuffed full of automatically-gathered facts and figures to work into your diary write-up or post-holiday bragging. All without using a scrap of paper.
(All maps property of map illustrators/sponsors, as displayed).
