The Adventurer in You

I feel like you’re missing out. 

You’re really, really missing out on something amazing.  As an amateur photographer I’m always finding photographs of places that make me say, “Whoa!  That is an incredible place, I wonder where that is…”  Come on, you know you say it every day when you go strolling through Instagram.  We all do.  People are always finding cool things to shoot.  And the worst part is, half the time, they keep it to themselves.  As if they’re afraid that you’ll somehow steal their glory.  They don’t want you to know about their secret little place.  But how ridiculous is that? 

One of the biggest complaints I’ve had with Instagram for a long time now is, you can’t search geotags to see shots people have taken in those places unless you yourself have taken a shot there, and added the geotag.  But, you can’t search for geographical locations.  You can however, search hashtags.  But if you’re like me, maybe you don’t even put hashtags on your photos.  So you’re left with what?  Hardly anything.

As stated before, I move a lot.  4 states in 2 years actually.  Every time I move to a new location I always look forward to the adventure ahead of me.  I can’t wait to get out there and find new things to take pictures of.  But, if you don’t know anyone, how do you know where to go?  You could ask the dude down at the Kwik-E-Mart, but that likely will turn into some wild scenario that includes homeboy offering to sell you weed.  And he probably won’t know anything about where cool places are to shoot anyway.  So you’re left with what?  A Google search?  Sometimes that kind of works, believe me I’ve tried.  But even then, even if you find a cool image of some cool waterfall somewhere…  Does Google give you an address?  Coordinates to plug into your GPS?  No, not at all.

When I moved to Denver back in January, I was faced with all of these questions.  So what did I do?   I opened up the iPhone app, Trover.  I found all sorts of great places to shoot.  Including some architectural dream down in Colorado Springs, and the always awesome giant blue bear down at the Convention Center in Denver.  Trover is a phenomenal, PHENOMENAL app that is constantly being updated.  In fact, there was just an update today that reminded me I needed to tell you all about it.  Here at Juxt, we’ve talked about Trover before, but I haven’t personally talked about it.  I’ll just put it out there, I love Trover. 

What Trover offers you, is everything you’re looking for as an adventurer.  Trover will pull your current location and show you in a list, grid, or map view of every picture that has been uploaded by fellow Trover users that is around you, starting with the closest.  It even adds the exact measurement (in miles) of how far away it is.  For example, say you see the epic waterfall you had no idea that existed, in your local pictures.  You can just simply click on it and see the exact location with a pin on a map.  Then just click on the map, and it’ll open up the location in your “Maps” app and give you the directions to that incredible waterfall.  Trover prides itself “to find & share life’s hidden gems.”  And most, if not all of the users there take that very seriously.  They want to share with you where all of theses incredible finds are located.  They’ll give you a history of the picture, or just simply a story of how they found it. 

And for storytellers like me, I love a story behind a picture.  To top it off, this app doesn’t seem to appeal to teenyboppers taking pictures of themselves in the mirror.  For the most part, Trover users are very, VERY legitimate photographers that are more than happy to tell you where their amazing gem was found.

But let’s say, you already know the area you’re in.  In fact, you grew up there, there isn’t a single thing anyone could show you that you haven’t already seen.  Well, then maybe you should go traveling via Trover.  Just plug in a city or keyword, and Trover will drop a pin for you in said location and let you search all on your own.  I’ve come across places that I never knew existed.  I’ve found so many new places that have now flown to the top of my “Must See” list.  Because most of the time, you might know of some place that maybe you saw a picture of at one point; but now you actually have a precise location of where it is!  How amazing is that?!

I’m constantly being floored by Trover.  It is an app on the rise, and you should be there at the ground floor.  So if you’re like me, and you love a new adventure with at least a little bit of help of where to go next, download Trover.  And if you’re like me, and you’re tired of not knowing where to go shoot next, download Trover.  And if you’re STILL like me, we should probably hang out sometime!  Sounds like we’d get along famously!

Download Trover here!