Tell us why your “scouting” is useful

[Heroique]

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!

[Gem Singer]

I shoot 5x7 B&W. So I usually take a Mamiya 645, loaded with HP-5+ film, on my scouting trips.

The 5x7 and 645 formats have similar aspect ratios.

If the results look promising, I'll return to the scene, hopefully when the lighting conditions are ideal.

[Richard K.]

..... 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.....

*I hope it's a Moleskine (sic)! After all a proper sensibility is all a part of it....

[Heroique]

If only my sketching talents were better! I’d trade-in my spiral notepad for one. But my scribbled trees look like tall rocks, and my rivers like fallen trees. Usually, I’ll draw a “fish” in a river so I can recall what it’s supposed to be. But then again, my fish w/ a tail-fin looks like a deer w/ antlers...

Maybe an Instamatic would be a better (and light-weight) scouting tool! Minus the aspect ratio.

[bvstaples]

I constantly "scout." I'm always looking for the next opportunity. I myself carry around an Olympus digital recorder. It's a dinky little thing that stays with me, and I can whip it out and record all manner of notes with it.

I find this easier than sketching or jotting notes down (though I do keep a written journal of my adventures), and I can inflect my personality into the descriptions of what I'm seeing. I can be as succinct as possible and ramble on and on. When I play back my recordings, I can usually see the scene in its entirety in my head. Digital previsualization...

Brian

[Gem Singer]

If you're shooting in color, a digicam can be very useful.

Location is the prime importance.

However, the best shooting angle for the scene and the time when the lighting conditions will be ideal are just as important.

[Robert Hughes]

Scouting Rounds a Guy Out! I learned to make fires, tie together lean-to structures, fire guns, hot wire cars, derail locomotives... all the things that mean something to a boy!

Oh, you mean photography scouting? Er, yeah, of course... I've got my cell phone camera and take pictures of things that interest me. If I like a scene enough, I'll visit again with a real camera.

I'll even stop and look backwards!

Kinda like, that inward directed sight? How cosmic! BTW Heroique has an eye that causes me to tremble in awe, you're so good!

[Laura_Campbell]

Scouting is loads of fun. I shoot 8x10, and since I sometimes hike to get my photos, scouting allows me to explore the possibilities before I hike with my equipment. I use a Canon Powershot when I scout and I make short movies of an area, or take stills. What's cool about the movies is I sometimes see scenes that I'd overlooked when I was at the location.

[sultanofcognac]

I wish I had the time to enjoy the luxury of scouting for shots. I have a few iPhone apps that take care of the 'recording' for me (the best one so far is from Lenny Eiger).

I do walk my dog four times a day and am always looking for new places to roam - on these walks I almost always carry a 645 or 6x6 (oddly enough, never digital). If I do happen upon something positive I return with the big guns (and a book)

[Rick A]

I'm usually wandering about with a 6x6 or 6x9 folder or one of my TLR's and if I find something real interesting I return with a 4x5.