Author: John

Hit play go fullscreen and kick back to five minutes of the annual pulse of winter to summer. Here’s how to make it. Continue reading 5 Minutes in the Chill Zone

Here is a map of the ten most popular US National parks, by visitor count. Colleague Ted Burns suggested I update (from the original a few years ago) it with newer data; the new data only required a couple of swapped places and I am lazy so I did. Numbers come from this list and the shapes … Continue reading Updated Top Ten US National Parks

A while back I wrote an uncharacteristically formal thing for the “GIS&T Body of Knowledge” about multivariate maps. You can find it here. Expanding on that, here are a series of videos that describe, with more visual examples, what they are and how to make them. Part 1What the deuce are they? Why would you … Continue reading Multivariate Maps

If you are a map maker or work with map makers or have map-making friends, promise me you won’t buy any of those “detailed earth” stock photos. Make them yourself and have a blast in the meantime. Here are a couple links to a detailed process (part 1: terrain, and part 2: atmosphere). But here … Continue reading How to Create a “Detailed Earth” Graphic

These days, every Friday night my family piles in front of the tv and we watch WandaVision. The weirdest show we’ve ever seen. And it just keeps getting cooler. And cooler. Most of the fun is in trying to decipher all the encoded clues and just nerd out with YouTubers who comb through each episode … Continue reading Turn Your Neighborhood into a Cinematic Command Center Hexagon Map…Because.

Light is an amazing thing. Is it a particle? Is it a wave? It’s both?? How do we sense light with our eyes and minds and how do we represent light via a contraption like a monitor? And so on. We can only see a narrow band of the electromagnetic spectrum; biologically we are effectively … Continue reading Bending Llight & Blending Light

I made this map for colleague, Bojan Šavrič, who is Slovenian. But I thought it would be fun to share here, too, because why not? Here is a video showing how to get a perfect neatline without doing any math. And here is how to make that cute little reference globe there in the corner. … Continue reading An Imhof-Inspired Map of Slovenia

Here is a luscious topographic quadrangle of the Adirondacks printed in 1902 (surveyed in 1892!): And here it is with some hillshading blended into it… What’s going on here?! This is one of those things where you take an achingly beautiful vintage topo or geology map and then brew some modern 3D hillshade into it to make … Continue reading How to Make one of those Cool 3D Vintage Topo Maps in ArcGIS Pro

Well, 2020 looks to be winding down, if you can believe it. Thank goodness for the indomitable clockworks of celestial bodies, am I right? Lots has happened this year…as you may well be aware, but among the bizarreness I do take some joy and find satisfaction in making and sharing map how-to videos. I’m rather … Continue reading Mappy How-To Videos of 2020

It’s that time of year (as it was last year and the year before) when geographers cozy up to zoom chats with spatially-minded friends, replete with our finest topographically-themed virtual backgrounds, our Lego assemblages meticulously arranged within view, and only our most coveted geography tomes visible on the bookshelf (plus a handful outsider works like the Farside Gallery or knitting … Continue reading Make this Cassini Globe Ornament Please