Home Forums Gear Photography How to scout and prepare for your summer photo trip

How to scout and prepare for your summer photo trip.
When I started in this business, there weren’t the number of tools to scout out locations before I got there. Often I relied on the recommendations of friends and fellow professionals who had been there. It was often that I had to meet up and sit down with a good old fashioned map and have them mark spots. Nowadays you can simply go online and find a tremendous number of locations and information about them with the click of a mouse. Forums like this one, the 24 Hour Campfire, is a great resource. The wide spread base is great and the knowledge of those on it are always helpful. It is just one of many that I find myself using.

Others include Google Earth. Many photographers will post images of spots and place pins on those locations with Geotags for their friends and family to see. Once you decide on an area, you zoom in and view the images. When I find an image that has potential, I will often look at the terrain around it and try to determine if it is a sunrise or sunset location as well as nearby points of interest as well. Often once I have found a couple potential locations, I go to photo sharing sites like Flickr, Smug Mug or Photobucket. Doing a simple search of the location name will offer great images. Hopefully you get really lucky and folks will title the image “Sunrise at ….”. I have contacted other photographers whose image I like and then will ask them a few questions. I have folks contact me on a regular basis. I have made some friends with some photographers who will actually meet me out there and show me first hand their finds!

I find it is just as important though to prepare your gear as well. I don’t take a chance of forgetting anything. I will make a list as I plan out the trip several weeks in advance, anticipate what I will need, and add it to the list. I check and recheck filters, batteries, cable releases, lenses, camera bodies, tripods, you know everything. I make sure it works properly. If I have any doubt of reliability, I am on the phone with Camera Land in advance so I have the gear and am familiar with it before I go. I also will carry instruction manuals with me as I am traveling as well. Nothing worse than trying to do something with the camera and not knowing how to do it. I actually will download the manuals to my phone. There have been a couple of trips that Joel at Camera Land has saved my butt. I was traveling out of the country last year and had a camera body fail on me about a week ahead of the trip. Joel shipped me a camera with about 3 days to spare. If you are checking your gear and feel you need some service on a lens, don’t forget that Tamron has a 3 day turnaround on service. Not just for pro photographers, but all photographers. Top notch service time for the industry.

I look forward to sharing and seeing some of the great trips folks here on the 24 Hour Campfire go on this year. If I can help with an area I have been to, I would be more than happy to provide any information needed. Below are a few images from some trips last year and earlier this year, all shot with Tamron lenses!

Beautiful photos and great composition. And mostly, thanks for the personal recommendations!

Joel and the staff at Camera Land have been awesome!

You are very welcome, and thanks for the kind words. I can't say enough good things about Joel, Mark and the entire crew up there, I agree!