Over the last year, if you have followed me on Instagram, you’d have noticed that I’ve taken up photography, or well, at least attempted to grasp the art form that it is. (If you don’t follow me by the way, you know what to do, right? Click this link and hit the “follow” button! You’re missing out!) As I’ve gone through the journey, I’ve picked up a few things that I want to share with others to help them improve their own game so that they can get the shots that they want. That’s why I’ve created a new area to the QuiltyCovers blog to share with you what I’m learning, some of the photos that I’ve managed to capture and let us all excel together.
With this blog, I will go through how I find the locations that I go to to take my pictures, giving an insight into how I organise a trip with the camera in hand. As for the exact locations and how I come across them specifically, I will be writing about and sharing where exactly I found the shots I’ve taken, why I liked it and insight into the settings that I used for the final result. Hopefully this will inspire you to grab a similar shot or get something new and creative.
So let’s get into how I find those killer spots for the pictures that I’ve managed to get. From the list of methods that I use below, there’s not just one “go to” way of finding where to go. Though I use all of them, there are one or two of them that have ended up being my favourites, and I’m sure you’ll have the same. They all have their own merits depending on the circumstances so use them wisely and without a doubt, you’ll be able to start creating the compositions that you want to.
Go For A Run/Walk
I would consider myself a bit of a runner and have managed to incorporate both this and the photography to help them complement each other. Don’t worry, I’m not running around with my DLSR in hand or in a bag (though I used to do this with my GoPro to get those “candid” shots whilst exploring – see below). Instead, I’m using my sport to explore either my own city or a new place that I arrive in to seek inspiration for places to bring the camera another time when I’m not flying by. Of course, if you’re not into running yourself, you could do this instead by walking around and allow yourself that extra amount of time to take it all in.
In my eyes, this is one of the best ways for you to not only get in your daily dose of looking after your fitness and well-being, it allows you to get out into the surrounding area, discover it thoroughly, whether it be somewhere old or new, and look out for spots to come back to. This can work day, night, sunrise, sunset, I’m sure you’ll always find something. An added bonus that I find when I’m looking around for shots to come back to, is that I’m not concentrating solely on the running and makes it a little easier for me. Just make sure you aren’t looking around too much and run into someone or something!
Of course I’m not talking from experience… Honest… Just looking out for you, my readers!
If you do decide the running route though, unless you stop to make a note of the location or tracked your run somehow, you’re going to have to go off your memory to try and find that spot again.
The platform that was created for the sharing of photos (though may have slightly swayed away from that). This is a perfect way to find yourself locations to take your camera through various features that it has. You can either find creators that live in a certain city or have explored there, see photographs that you like and have the location tagged, or use the nominal hashtags for that city to discover what other people have found. With that, every city, town or area tends to have a page that features some of the best pieces of work by those that have shot there, giving a variety of ways to garner a list of places.
With social media platforms, it’s also a fantastic way for you to reach out to creators that live in the area for you to connect with, maybe leading to organising a venture out with your cameras and trade ideas, techniques and create new friendships.
This is a great tool whether you’re planning to travel somewhere or already on location, giving you a number of options on how you want to approach it. A downside to note though is if you are looking for originality and not wanting to take the well trodden path, you’re setting yourself up to just come back with something that many before you have already taken. But that’s on you to get creative! Maybe give yourself a challenge to take that location to the next level and start a new trend. What’s stopping you?
Google Maps
I’m not sure if you have noticed on Google Maps when you’re looking at a place but often, the common photography and tourist locations tend to be marked on there with a camera. What an easy way to help you identify places on where to take your photos?! Well, this is a technique that I use to quickly scan what’s in a city, town or find the common viewpoints if in the countryside. This is an ideal technique if you are short on time and need to find somewhere fast but also can be used to lead you in one direction before you discover a variety of other places yet to be shared on Google Maps.
Another method of using this is to find, though in a bird’s eye view, what could be cool buildings, locations or landmarks that may not be marked but have potential . This technique can tie in with the next application that I’m going to talk about, which can really step up the game when it comes to finding THAT picture.
The first benefit that should be obvious is that you have a method of directing you straight to where you need to go once you’ve found it. Then, like Instagram, this is something that can be used when you are planning a photography trip or already on location, allowing you to see where you are and if there are places around you that you could check out. Also like Instagram, I think it does have the downside of you ending up in just the same places that other people have gone to. Additionally to that though, if you’re focussing on only the big things, you could easily miss something that’s not as well known but right up your street with the type of thing you’re looking to create.
PhotoPills
A great little application that I was recommended by a fellow photographer (who’s taking some great photos and who you can check out here @curtis_gayle) is PhotoPills. This is a £9.49/$10.99 application that you can download and gives you a variety of functions to aid you getting the picture that you want, which I’ll go into for you to give you insight into how powerful it can be for your photography game. To help explain and show you what’s possible with the application, I’ve attached some screen shots for you.
Planner
A very powerful tool for you to use! With this, you can place a pin in a location and with the interactive map, it will show you when and where the sun/moon with rise/set giving you the ability to line up a known landmark with one of these for the picture that you want. Some great examples of this can be found on the PhotoPills Instagram page where they feature photographers work who use the app to set up their photos.
You can add and remove what is shown to you such as other elements like eclipses, meteor showers or the Milky Way to give you full scope in your planning. To help you comprehend everything that is on offer, check out the screenshots to see some of the settings you can use.
Sun/Moon
Most likely the two most common celestial bodies that are photographed. The app will tell you everything you need to know about the sun’s activity for that day from the basics of when it rises and falls to the finer detail of its elevation in the sky, the azimuth of where it’s due to rise/set and the times for blue hour, golden hour and all the other phases of light. This is all exactly the same for the moon, with the addition of the moon phases and, if and when galaxies can be viewed in the night sky.
Exposure
A tool for you to use to work out the settings you need for your camera to get the right level of exposure if you are shooting in full manual mode and at a bit of a loss.
Night AR
Big on your night time photography and want to get the jaw dropping shot of the stars or galaxy? Then this function is for you. This gives you the ability to have an overlay where ever you’re stood so that you can see where in relation to you the celestial bodies are so that you can line it up perfectly with whatever you have on planet earth. It allows you to plan ahead too so that you can set a time for arriving on location and know what’s going on in the sky.
OK, the picture to the right is in my back garden but you can see how the galaxy is transposed so you can line things up. The big orange ball should be the sun however, the application seems to be set up wrong on my phone.
You can be sure that they are a plethora of functions that I’ve not only not done justice in the descriptions that I’ve given them but not covered in this piece. These are just some of the features that I’ve used within the app but there are many more for you to get really technical with such as working out Field of View, distances to objects, time lapses for star trails and so much more.
Use A Search Engine For Locations
On the back of the Google Maps technique, you could simple search for “Top photography spots in…”, “Best places for night photography in…” or “Where to see sunrise/sunset in…”. This will typically give you quick and easy guides on where to find the photos you’re wanting to take. All it needs is you to decide what you’re wanting to achieve and then pop it into the search bar and voila, usually you’ll have another source of inspiration!
A quick and easy way of getting a starting point for you to capture the best a place has to offer you!
Just Wander With Your Camera
As I mentioned before, you could run or walk through a place to discover it before you come back later with your camera. Or you could just take your camera on that walk and shoot as and when you come along something. At least you won’t forget somewhere and have to come back later, hoping to find it again. Well, this is something that worked well for me in central London one Bank Holiday weekend. I gave myself a starting point for sunset and then just wandered around on foot, finding and discovering places and angles for me to take the photos that I thought worked. Starting at sunset, I didn’t return home until the early hours of the morning and it was very rewarding!
Don’t worry, I’ll share the locations of some of the pictures in this article as well as many more in a future article!
Another benefit from doing it like this is you can turn it into a way to connect with another photographer who may be able to show you a place or two, a way for you to head out with a friend to catch up or even suggest it for a different kind of date with a prospective or current boyfriend/girlfriend. It’s a very versatile thing to do and can take up an hour, an afternoon, a day or a night.
The thing I would definitely advise though for this is to make sure you’re doing this as safely as possible. During the daytime, you should be OK on the most part but still keep your profile as low as possible when you’re carrying a piece of equipment around that’s worth £100s if not £1,000s. In open public areas, the risks are lower but depending on the area of the city you’re in, you may be drawing unwanted attention. In particular at night, I would advise you take at least one or two others with you so that you have better safety in numbers and don’t put yourself at risk of any wrongdoing. There are a few sketchy moments that I’ve experienced in the past that I wouldn’t advice you getting into!
Hopefully this blog is a helpful one for budding photographers to be able to up their photography game and find those locations that they’ve always dreamed of! Be sure to try all these techniques, see what you think and of course, be kind and share this post and technique with you fellow camera magicians. Additionally, I’m always keen to hear other techniques so be sure to drop them in the comments section below.
If you liked the pictures that I’ve showcased here, you’ll be able to find my other shots at Instagram, @quiltycovers, with the button below and it’ll be here that I share most of my photography work. If you really like what you see, then be sure to drop me an email detailing which photograph you’d like to purchase and I’ll send you a full resolution copy for £5 per picture. You could also check out my Alamy page here, where you can see my other pieces of work and purchase them for whatever your use case. I’m always adding to it so be sure to bookmark it!
Like what you see on my blog then stop on by for a little longer and check out some of the other posts that I’ve written. Of course, you’ll need to find me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter with the buttons below to follow me so that you hear about my new posts as they get released, whether they be photography, lifestyle, fitness or travel.
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