just like any other map....North is always up......silly goose. [&:]

google earth
Also if you hunt farm ground ask the farmer. Farmers need to report their crops they usually have aerial photos.

If I remember right I think Rick James is the one who helped me so I will try and pass it on right. When you get the image up that you want on your computer screen you hit the Print Screen button. Then you go to your start menu and open up your standard Paint program, it may be under the accessories tab. Then when paint is up and the screen is blank go to the edit tab on top and hit paste. Now when you do all this you get every thing that was on the screen with the pic. To edit it, on the left side of the screen in paint you should have a toolbar and at the top of it should be a outlined box with dotted lines, click that. Then go to your image and click and drag that box over the image you want to save. After that is done hit CTRL and X at the same time, the image you want should have disapeared and your left with the stuff you dont want. Now go back up to the FILE tab and hit new and reopen paint with a fresh screen. Once paint is open and the screen is clear hit the CTRL and V and the image you want that was in the dotted lines will show up. Then you can resize it and paint it all up and such!! Sorry so long, hope it helps.

great job hotburn! I can't remember though if you have to hit control and printscreen or just print screen to save the pic.

Patriot15, when using yahoo for your map, click on yahoo maps at the main screen, type in the area that you want to go to. On the upper right hand corner is an area that says yahoo beta. Click that and then you'll see on the map where it says satellite. Click that and you will see an aerial photo of the location. I hope this helps.

GoogleEarth has a free client you download. They also have a professional version you pay, can't remember how much. The free client software works pretty well. You just have to be logged on while using.

Hi all --- this thread caught my attention and thought I would post about how I use aerial imagery, along with some resources (free) that you might want to use....

Google Earth(download to your computer)/ Google Maps(internet based)-- I like the color imagery, lower resolution,difficult to work with images in other software.
TerraServer -- Black/White imagery, older images, easy to use images into other software, images contain coordinate information, and much better resolution.

If you are interested in using GPS data to "overlay" the aerial imagery, then I prefer TerraServer imagery. Here is a quick rundown of what I do:

1. Locate your area of interest (wide zoom).
2. Zoom in to obtain high resolution/detail.
3. Right-click image and "Save As" to the harddrive.
4. Right-click the "WorldFile" link and "Save As" to the harddrive. Save as type jpeg or .jpg
5. Open Windows Explorer and locate imagery folder (where it's saved to). Open the world file and "save as" -- using the same name as the .jpg image you downlaoded, but change the file extension to .jgw
6. Go back to the webpage and pan over in any direction. Then follow steps 1-5 until you have a collection of imagery saved.

The software you can download for FREE to view, annotate, view gps data with the imagery is located here: http://www.esri.com/software/arcexplorer/index.html

ArcExplorer is a fully functional GIS software program that is very powerful. While I personally use a similar program (ArcView), ArcExplorer has MANY of the same functions that ArcView ($1500)has...

I will use the imagery to do as much scouting as possible, taking note of the kinds of terrain/tree cover and doing my best to identify it. After a while, it's fairly easy to identify Cypress Heads/Swamp from Oak Hammocks to open paries.

The final truth comes when I bring my laptop with me into the area... I hook up a GPS to the laptop, bring up the aerial imagery and this allows me to have real time navigation as I drive. The GPS point tracks over top of the aerial photos and you truly begin to understand what you are looking at on the computer screen.

Anyway -- I sure hope some of this helps those who might be interested. I went ahead and included an image of the setup I built in my truck. The laptop mount/stand is pretty much what Police use in their vehicles, but does require a bit of "beefing up" if the trails are bad/rough.

Take Care,

James

Google Earth worked for me.