DIGITAL IMAGING:   A TOOL FOR PLANNERS

Peter Matson

Newsletter Co-editor

Realizing that most of us receive more e-mail messages than we have time to read, I still want to take this opportunity to plug the Chapter listserve.  Most of the questions and responses going back and forth on the listserve are in the form of text, references to other documents, or web links.  Lately, I have found it very helpful to request digital photographs of development examples or planning concepts that might be useful for presentation documents. 

My first glimpse of the usefulness of photographs in presentations was from Miles Rademan at Park City .  I was an intern, at the time (1989), finishing my last year at BYU before trading colors and heading to the U of U.  Every time I visited Miles in his office, he was sorting slides of images he had taken or collected from his many travels. Years later, I attended a Utah APA conference presentation where Miles made a presentation with the support of a broad range of photographs.  It seemed that one of the main purposes of his trips was to observe and capture images of towns, villages, neighborhoods, and cities.  These images helped me understand his enthusiasm for place making, the good and bad examples of urban design, and how the built environment affects people.  

His enthusiasm for planning and design was always well presented because his photographs made me feel like I experienced a small part of his trip.  I realized the effectiveness of capturing a moment, a building, a streetscape, or a trail in relaying a concept or idea to others.  Since that “exposure” to the effectiveness of photographs in presentations, I have evolved into what my wife calls a “digital photo junkie”!  I started small, but soon realized that bigger and more expensive equipment meant better quality digital images.  I now carry a digital camera almost everywhere I go so that I am prepared for those moments when I am struck by a unique sense of place.

My digital image library now totals several thousand images of the good, the bad, and the ugly of development examples throughout Layton , northern Utah , the Wasatch Front, and other states around the country.  My wife gets perturbed when we have to stop the car to take a picture of a housing project, an historic building, a quaint neighborhood, or even a telecommunication tower.  Over the last several years, I have used many of these images in Planning Commission and City Council presentations to help illustrate goal and policy recommendations for many different planning documents and studies.

How many times have you been traveling and have seen a nice development project or a nice landscape/xeriscape project and wished you had your camera with you?  A small digital camera with three megapixals is now quite reasonably priced and can be a great way to capture a moment to illustrate a planning concept.  Digital imagery is an amazing luxury that should not pass us by in this digital age. 

If we as planners, throughout the State of Utah , have access to each other’s images through the Chapter listserve, we can draw upon a significant resource.  An image file can be easily e-mailed to be used in a planning presentation or document.  The next time you send out a request on the Chapter listserve, remember to request digital images related to your question.  Beware of the power of digital imaging -- it can be addictive!