Location Scouting: Do you and if so, what's your method?

Donnie

Donnie

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So, I was watching Nigel Danson's latest youtube vid at
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbPa93O5baU
and he was talking about scouting locations only using his smartphone and got me wondering to the point that I went scouting a local wood I discovered last week while out walking with only my iphone.

I'm not sure how I feel about how it went, I had a nice walk which is good as I want to do more to get fitter, but I always think if I had my camera I'd have taken different shots, plus I'm finding it hard to think about looking at a scene and then thinking about what it would be like in different weather or seasons? Maybe it would come with more practice?

So, Im just wondering who here might undertake location scouting and how do you do it? I feel I must be missing a trick as I see so many of these photographer blogs that seem to turn up and get epic photos!
 
I know what you mean. If I've had to go to some effort to get to a location (ie it's not local) then I'd want to take my camera anyway.
If I go somewhere and spot a scene that is interesting, but would be better in different weather conditions, I'll probably take a photo of it for the record and plan to come back.

Late last year I went to a location that I'd found online thinking it would be good, but I hadn't visited before and after 10mins walking around I'd pretty much decided it was a bust. Thankfully the other place I planned to visit that day was much better.
Thinking about it, I should probably scout the location I plan to visit next week. ;)
 
Somewhere new: always take my camera, but often just start with a few snaps for place/composition and come back later (eg golden hour) when the light is right. But even to get that somewhere new, I use a map - 1:25000 preferably, 1:50000 if necessary. Nearer home (where I really like to photograph) I just know the places. But maps are the key for me.
 
Sometimes, if I am on a dedicated outing, I'll do a fair bit of research beforehand usually using Google Maps, and sometimes I'll refine things with Photographers Ephemeris so understand the position of the sun for dawn and dusk.

Doing this has led me to some amazing places that I'd never have found otherwise, and ones which are fairly unknown.

I'll also check out Flickr to see what others have seen at the location. If there's a huge volume of pictures, I may elect to give the location a miss. If there are just a load of crappy "snaps" then it's likely I'll be able to create something new.

I'm not really into using my phone for composing. I prefer to use my camera, and to pre-visualise a scene in my mind. Once at a location, I try really hard to remain calm and just walk around looking at things, inspecting the area and working out where there is a good composition. If you just leave your camera in the bag for a bit, you get the feel for a place and inspect things more carefully. This is tremendously difficult if you are at a new location for dawn and its too dark to see anything!

Finding a composition is the biggest challenge in my landscape photography, and I love it.
 
I only get to shoot once a month, so I plan each one meticulously. I'll use a combination of walking guides (WalkHighlands is great, WalkLakes is a good alternative for those in that neck of the woods), 500px/Flickr, Google Maps and Streetview, Google Earth, and Photopills to choose a location and get as much detail as I can like where to park, how long I can spend at each spot and so on.
 
I don't scout a place, ie have a look without a camera with idea of possibly returning another day. If I think there is somewhere that might give some good images then I'd take my camera. I'll have my phone but it would be really annoying to end up with a less then good shot because I did not have my camera.

I use OS maps (both paper and online via Bing Mpas) which are superb. I can't stress too much just how useful they are.

For Scotland I use the excellent WalkHighlands site.

The Photographer's Ephemeris is great not only for the times and positions of sunrise and sunset but also for the position of the sun during the day.

Google Street View can be useful too.

Sometimes I'll use the Geograph site to see photos taken in an area.

Even just googling, "Things to see around ......", can be helpful.

There is just so much available online.

Donnie said:
I feel I must be missing a trick as I see so many of these photographer blogs that seem to turn up and get epic photos!
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You are not missing a trick, they don't publish vlogs of when the trip was a washout.

Dave
 
Tobers said:
Walkhighlands is very good indeed - I’ve used quite a few of their tracks and their walk reports are really useful for checking out other peoples’ pics.
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Yes indeed. And if you create a free forum account you get access to OS 25k mapping with a route planner. Very handy.
 
The other good thing about the walks on the WalkHighlands site is their range. The name might suggest the walks are all about the hills but in every area there are walks from gentle strolls to serious mountain ascents.

Dave
 
Tringa said:
The other good thing about the walks on the WalkHighlands site is their range. The name might suggest the walks are all about the hills but in every area there are walks from gentle strolls to serious mountain ascents.

Dave
Click to expand...

You say that, but once you get into the Highlands there are quite a few cases where you have several 'one boot' walks (ie around a loch) then a jump straight to four-booters. The Highlands don't muck around :D
 
Well that's a question an a half, of course there are those shots where you just happen across them and those are great, when and if they happen!
TBH most of the shooting I do I research the location, either that or I have found the place on a Hike, Climb or Walk. On those occasions I invariably recce the area and make notes. These are either mental notes till I get back or scribbled down. I also have mapping software on my phone, OS maps of UK and the app I use allows you to drop a way-point pin in the form of a photo, so you can take a shot with the phone of the point of interest for future reference, and it marks the point on the map with the picture.
Back at home I will us Google Maps and My Maps to create area maps using the pins and map references gathered while out and about, noting such things as, is it a sunrise shot, sunset shot, Winter, Autumn, Spring (what my vision of the shot is about e.g. could be a woodland full of Bluebells so obviously that's seasonal). Most of these discovered locations means revisits, sometimes a few sometimes many!
Like others above I use Flickr, Google Maps, Google Earth and anything else I find online to check out locations.
I thought I'd actually better watch the video you posted :eek: and I see he uses PhotoPills, I use PhotoPills too which is excellent and has improved quite a lot, it also has a planning part to the app amongst many other things.

Most locations withing striking distance I have visited time after time to try and get that perfect shot, those out of reach I research as much as possible then its down to the lap of the gods!(y)

All good fun isn't it;)
 
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