In Yuko Shimizu’s blog post her role of reference was Google Maps. It was kind of surprising for me at first that someone used that as a referenced. It then took me a second to realize that was a pretty genius resource to use as a reference since you can look up pretty much anywhere in the world and explore it from all dimensions without leaving the comfort of your home. The stages that Yuko went through to develop her work were at first pretty straight forward and common for someone that just wants a general reference of an area. But she then realized that Google images gave her just that; a general reference. She then realized that Google Maps has street view so that she can explore streets virtually and get details that she could not with just photos. Even if she were to visit the locations in person there are certain angles and dimensions that she could not view. So using Google Maps as a virtual reference for scenery is a great idea.