Originally Posted by
abruzzi
For me, the number one "planning" app is google maps, though I don't really use it on a phone or iPad, but rather at home, figuring a place to go, finding interesting locations, even figuring out how you get there. Once I'm actually travelling, I don't use it, because as a navigational GPS app, it sucks (for my purposes.) By that point, I load routes into my Garmin (a very old one) but it works perfectly for me.
For the last 15 years (except last year) my father and I have done 2000-3000 mile motorcycle trips around the southwest every year, and a huge part of my enjoyment was planning routes to find interesting and beautiful places. That whole processes substitutes for the first half of photo scouting. Street view gives me a ground level view of the locations, so I can see the environs, traffic, population density. It doesn't get too close to many locations where I actually want to photograph, but it gives a good sense of what I'll find there. Street view also shows linked photos so I can see places off the road. If I see a huge cluster of photos at a location, I know its heavily visited. Many times that will actually turn me off, since I don't really want to fight crowds to get a photo, but it can still hint at possible other locations.
Once I get to a location, my process is more old school--I just drive around looking for interesting things. I used to hike around, but 15 years ago an idiot driver made sure I can only walk short distances. I use a viewfinder off a Technika to find a spot for a photo I want to take, then I mark the ground somehow--if its sand, like 90% of New Mexico, I just use my foot to draw an X in the ground, otherwise, just stack a couple of rocks. or similar. The viewfinder tells me what focal length lens I need, so I walk back to the vehicle, grab only what I need, and return to the spot, setup and take the picture.
For a number of years I used an app on my phone to record all my photo information--camera, lens, exposure settings, GPS--but moving to large format, has made me less worrysome about recording too many details. (during my digital years, I always used a camera with a built in GPS to record the location of every shot, so when I'd go into Aperture, I could see all my photos layed out on a map. May of my 35mm shots (the digitized version) have lat/log attached.) Today I just use a little notepad that Stearman sells. I'm slowly building to the point in 7 years when I retire and I can ditch my smart phone entirely.
I don't use anything to plan specific shots, partly because they seem to contribute to overly composed shots, which I really don't like. I have a friend (a digital friend) who uses apps like that extensively. He plans shots months in advance so he knows the exact day and time he needs to take his shot to have the sun framed by the branches of a tree or somthing like that. I prefer the serendipity of the moment (though I will likely use something like that in a couple years when I travel to Durango, Mexico for the upcoming solar eclipse (April 2024)--when something only happens for 2 minutes, serendipity to a weak partner.)
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