If you “scout” for shots, I’d enjoy hearing about your experiences & learning from your tips.
I like to treat each of my photo trips as a scouting effort, too. Even as I walk to a destination – tripod in hand, composition in mind – I’ll look left, right, up, and down, searching for future shots.
I’ll even stop and look backwards!
Other times, I might head-out without gear – just to scout for a composition I don’t know is there, until I find it. Some of these “gearless” scouting walks are among my most enjoyable moments. It’s fun to hunt. And w/o the burden of gear, it’s easier to search a wider range of land. Sometimes there’s “nothing” to show for it – or maybe “something,” but nothing that strikes my fancy.
Other times, I’ll come upon a landscape too rich for my scouting ideas to exhaust.
Either way – with gear, or without it – I carry pencil & notepad to record ideas for the future, and my notes often prove useful. For example, I might sketch a scene or composition, and suggest focal length, filtration, plus time of day to return when light is best. In other notes, I’ve even recorded compass bearings or trail marks to return to a hidden spot that I might not find again otherwise.
— What practical hints can you share about scouting?
— If you scribble down impressions, what’s useful to record?
— If there are times when you don’t scout, please tell us more!
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