Scouting Locations

Good Morning,

Let's start with an apology for this being late.

I was about to go on vacation and had an idea for a post, that didn't pan out, so I held off the blog. If you follow my instagram you probably already knew.

Now that that's out of the way. Today we are going to talk about scouting locations. This can be as simple as acknowledging that a location would be great for a photo at a different time. Taking a picture on a cell phone and adding a note works great, GPS coordinates might already be there and seeing the picture again can jog the memory. It can even be low tech with a note pad and a writing utensil. These are both great for locations that we have been to.

On the other hand sometimes we are going to a new place with just the internet to help us. St Louis was the destination and the full moon and Gateway Arch were the subjects. Timeanddate.com provided the azimuth and time of moonset, and google maps and streetview provided locations that could see through the arch on that azimuth. Upon arriving to St Louis double checking the bearing was done with a compass and test shots were done. Then hoping the weather cooperated was the last step before the event 3 days later. The weather gods graced the idea by clearing the skies. Arriving early helped with showing the arch wasn't as small as hoped for against the backdrop of the moon. Again google maps helped with locating another location. Arriving even earlier would have helped but alas it was not done.

This was the second shot that I did. To see the arch I had to lose detail in the moon. I was not happy with that. I took another couple of shots with the idea that if my move to a new location didn't work I could combine the photos. My friend in St. Louis says this is the best image of the Arch he has ever seen.

Below is the first photo with the whole arch in the frame from the first location. It was shot at 100mm to get the arch. The second photo is at 300mm without the whole arch because the trees were in the way. Even with well laid plans things sometimes don't work out the way we would like. Just like the original idea for a post. Make some plans, scout locations, grab a camera, then go out and shoot.

Revisiting Photographed Locations

Good Morning,

If one has been photographing a while they probably have an old haunt that they enjoy photographing. Some of us do not though feeling that it has already been photographed. Different times of the year can yield greatly varied results, even a different time of day can, or a different mind set even. 

Below is the same location. One shot during a rain and the other shot the day after one, granted the rains were nearly a year apart. The two images have a completely different feel to them. Same camera, lens, tripod, and focal length. They were taken probably 6 feet or so from each other too. 

This was a calm pool taken the day after a rain in Red Rock Canyon National Conservatory. I found this spot while I went hiking with my daughters and it was empty. I knew I had to come back after a rain and photograph it.

After taking the calm picture and how full the pool was I wanted to come back during a rain and see it with flowing water.

So those places that capture us should be looked at again and imagined in different times of day or year, with different weather, etc. The results might be ho hum or they might be spectacular. So grab a camera , revisit locales, and go out and shoot.

Can wait to see what is produced.

~Scott