How to plan a great single day photo trip.
By Jesse Decker
2 Jul 2009
Ten tips for planning a great photo road trip.
There is nothing greater than getting in your car and spending an entire day with nothing to do except shoot. But where to go, what to see, and how to plan? I have come up with the following ten tips that work for me and I hope they can be useful to you.
1. Software - Wait a second wasn't this story about road trips? Yes it was, and still is but first we need to do some recon. For this I recommend Google Earth, if you do not already have it go to this site and download it, http://www.earth.google.com. Then make sure the Panoramio and places layers are turned on. (they are under layers>geographic web>then you will see them and check the boxes.)
2. Scouting - Using Google earth start from your house and pick close by areas that have potential targets, or just pick a road and follow it out. This is where Panoramio and places come in. Both will show up as blue squares on the map you can mouse over for a brief description. Places will show you all major points of interest, as well as towns and cities and generally gives a few good pictures and written description once clicked for ideas. I find Panoramio more useful because it is photos people Geo-tagged than uploaded, and it covers a far more random subject matter. Same as places, just look for the blue boxes and click away. My tip for using the Panoramio pictures is judge the subject, not the picture because some contributors are professionals who can make a pile of trash look like the Taj Mahal, while others are barely amateurs who could make the Taj Mahal look like a Howard Johnson. Also make note of any ranger stations, welcome centers or local Libraries. (Additional tip, when zoomed out it will only show major attractions, the more you zoom in the more random the places shown become.)
3. Scouting, part two - Pick a few spots you want to go to, try to make them in some organized fashion, such as a big loop from your house, or a simple out and back, or at least places close together, it can be as few as only two scouted locations or as many as you want, I try to keep it small because I have noticed most of my best pictures come from places on the way, not places scouted.
4. Scouting, part three - Check for weather, sunrise, sunset, possible road closures, and local events.
5. Pack - I am going to skip any part about packing camera equipment because if you are on this site I am pretty sure you are pretty good at that part. Depending on where you are going you need to pack accordingly, for me I am leaving from Las Vegas NV, so any trip involves going out into the middle of nowhere to see ghost towns, places like Death Valley, or other sparsely inhabited desert locations. So if your trip is similar make sure you have plenty of water, spare map, compass, food, cash, a good spare tire, roadside emergency kit, tool kit, spare clothing etc... You can never be to prepared for the unknown. Of course if you are in a more suburban area and will not be in the middle of nowhere you don't need to go crazy, but at least always have lots of water and some food with you.
6. Leave - I try to time arrival at my first scouted location an hour to an hour and a half before sunrise, so be packed the night before and set that alarm early, I know it's hard and I never want to do it either, but it will be worth it.
7. Morning - Once pictures at your first scouted location are done, either go to second spot, or just explore and keep shooting until the light becomes unfavorable. Sometimes I only make it to one spot in the morning, sometimes a half dozen or so, it all depends on what you see, I never make specific timelines except for arrival at the very first spot, after that I just let the light guide me.
8. Afternoon - This is where the part about finding the ranger station/welcome center/library comes in, or another good spot is a local diner. Bottom line is that once the light becomes to harsh for good shots, go somewhere you can talk to locals, see if they know any good spots, or have maps/brochures you can have. This helps because sometimes the best spots are not listed on any maps. Especially if you're trying to find abandoned houses/cars/farm equipment etc... the locals are generally the best source.
9. Evening - Using info from your computer scouting, the locals, or just things you have seen, set up for taking shots again once the light is good. I try to even have a few spots picked out for night photography that are on the way back to the house.
10. Process your pictures and enjoy.
Hope this was helpful, if you follow these tips and have a good time thats all that matters. On some trips i come back with several great pictures, and other times have come back empty handed, but have always had a great time, met new people and learned more about my surroundings.
4 responses
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Peter Hauri said (12 Aug 2009):
I would add the nightphotograhy opportunities to it, and you'll have the perfect script for some tremendous road movie stills...
keep going buddy. take care out there...kr Peter -
Hannah Filer said (12 Aug 2009):
Do you meant sunrise? Not sunset...
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Jesse Decker said (12 Aug 2009):
Yes I meant sunrise in #6, and already changed it, and three other spelling/grammar/wording issues I found. Thanks Hannah.
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Eric M said (14 Aug 2009):
Good stuff, thanks for the heads up!
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