How I plan my photography trips
Embarking on photography expeditions is an art woven with meticulous planning, tailored to your unique style and aspirations.
The journey begins by allowing your photographic predilections to chart the course. With this foundation, the destination takes shape, intertwined with seasons and climate nuances.
Diligent research becomes your compass. Delve into the timing: Winter unveils its snowy wonders, Autumn splashes landscapes with vibrant hues. Weather is a temperamental ally, and merits scrutiny.
The tapestry of nations unravels distinct stories for the same season: dry summers in one, monsoons in another.
For me, the Northern Hemisphere beckons from September to November. Autumn’s painterly leaves flourish, the sun’s heat mellows, and the stream of tourists subsides, crafting intimate photographic escapades.
The pragmatic scope, feasible within your time frame, necessitates consideration. Navigation tools like Google Maps and Waze emerge as companions, charting the journey time, to be ready on location before dawn or sunset. Be vigilant to the approach of Winter that drapes roads with ice, altering travel dynamics.
You must familiarize yourself with photography rules and regulations in certain areas, which could be different where we photographers like to be.
The arsenal, poised to seize moments, demands scrutiny. Select gear attuned to your photographic intents. Batteries, memory cards, lens cleaning supplies, a sturdy tripod—cherish these companions.
Depending on the distances of your shooting location to the place where the motorized transportation ends, will define the equipment you can take, especially if you have a long trek.
The following tools help me plan the trip, and or adjust the shooting location when already embarked:
- PhotoPills (has a lot of tools, I use it mainly to find the position of the sun, moon, planets and the milky way on a given day and time).
- MySunset (gives you the color hue of the sky or clouds during sunrise and sunset)
- Windy (gives you the wind velocity, so you know when you can obtain mirror-like images of lakes)
- Astropheric (gives you information on: clouds, wind, temperature, light pollution. Some of the options only have information in the USA and Canada)
- NISI Runner (is a calculator when using a neutral density filter, which provide the exposure time needed for their filters, although the formula works with other filters)
Finally depending to the country you are traveling and your country of birth, you could need a travel visa, which some countries can take a few months to grant it, so you need to plan the trip well in advance.
While planning as well as traveling, it is important, to leave room for improvisation and changes in your itinerary based on unexpected opportunities or challenges.
Remember the journey’s heart lies not solely in the images captured, but the odyssey lived. Revel in the moments, imbibing memories with each shutter click, culminating with local culinary, a glass of wine, a toast to the day painted in pixels and engraved in your heart.
