I love heading out to photograph in new locations. So far this year I’ve taken photo trips to Savannah, Georgia, Charleston, South Carolina, the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee and the Palouse in Washington State.

One challenge I always face when I’m planning a trip to a location I’ve seen photos of but have never been to is knowing that I’ve only got a few days to photograph there, and want to make the most of my time. Over the years, I’ve developed a system of researching photo locations so I have a good idea of my photo plans before I leave home.

Once I decide where I’m going, the first resource I check is Robert Hitchman’s Photograph America newsletter. Published quarterly, each twelve page issue focuses on one subject – usually a location – providing detailed information about what there is to photograph, where it’s located, and what time of day is best for certain spots. You can also purchase all the back issues (which are gradually being updated). For $ 40/year I get information written by a photographer for a photographer about places I’ll be visiting. And since my subscription is for the PDF versions – I keep all the ones for an area I’m travelling to on my iPad so I have them with me wherever I am. One of the spots Hitchman discussed in his newsletter on the Palouse was Steptoe Butte State Park, which is where I took this photo.

View from Steptoe Butte © 2015 Patty Hankins

Usually the second thing I do when planning a photo trip is head to Facebook and ask my friends what locations they would recommend. I’ve got over 1800 friends on Facebook – which means chances are wherever I’m planning on traveling – one of my friends lives nearby or has lived in the area in the past. I get all sorts of great suggestions for well-known photo locations, the lesser known spots, great little restaurants and coffee shops and wonderful gardens to visit from both my photographer and non-photographer friends. When I asked for info for my spring trip to Savannah and Charleston at least 30 of my friends had suggestions for me of places I never would have found without their help. The other great part of letting my friends know when I’ll be travelling to their areas is I usually end up meeting one or two for a meal or photo shoot while I’m on the road.

Then it’s time to start Googling. I’ll do a search for “photo guide” and the location I’m visiting. More and more photographers are creating ebooks, maps and guides to their favorite photo locations for other photographers. Most are digital publications and cost under $ 25 – and so far everyone of them has been worth well more than I paid for them. A couple of my favorite guides I found using Google are the the annual Texas Bluebonnet Reports  from the Texas Wildflower Report and Teri Lou Dantzler’s Photographer’s Map of the Palouse. 

By this point, I usually have a long list of possible places to photograph so it’s back to Google to help with prioritizing locations. I’ll check out the websites for any National Parks or National Wildlife Refuges in the area – plus all the locations suggested by my friends. When I find a website I want to check out further – I just save the page in Evernote so I can return to it when I’m on the road. I’ve got a series of notebooks in Evernote organized by state – so all the information I’ve gathered from them web is in one convenient place.

Finally, I set up a board on Pinterest for the location or locations I’m planning on visiting. Then I’ll search for the location and see what I find. I almost always find pins from other photographers who are sharing their photos and I repin them to my board. If I find boards relating to the location or related topics, I’ll start following them and repinning their pins to my new board. By the time I get to where I’m going, I’ve got a board full of beautiful photographs to inspire me as I head out to photograph.

I’ve found that scouting a new location before I go means I have a much more successful photo trip. I usually have a rough itinerary for where I want to be when and a list of backup locations in case something doesn’t work out the way I’d hoped. This is what works for me -have you found other ways to scout photo locations before a trip? If you have, I’d love it if you would share them in the comments section below.