Planning a landscape shoot

This weekend, I will head out with a small group on the year’s second Landscape & Seascape Workshop. Most people who attend these sessions are looking for a combination of picking up knowledge and finding great locations. To achieve these aims, a significant degree of planning and thinking goes into running a successful event.

I use the same processes and techniques when I am out shooting on my own. Just like anyone else, I find my time is precious. When I am out taking pictures, I want to maximise the time available to get the shots I want. In this week’s blog, I will share some of the tools and techniques I use for planning my landscape sessions.

Where do I want to shoot?

The first thought seems obvious, but I have heard of occasions when people head out in the car and hope to find something to take pictures of. The first decision needs to be, where do you want to shoot? There are lots of sources to go to so that you can find locations. Some may use a local expert, like my Landscape and Seascape workshops. There are other places, though, that you can use.

The publisher, FotoVue, has a great series of books with a guide to photography locations in a particular area. These guides are handy as they provide information such as the best place to park, the best time to shoot, and some stunning images you can hope to obtain at the location.

Another great source of locations is good old Google Maps. Over the years, Google has collected information and images to help photographers, amongst others. A camera symbol on the map shows that others have identified this location as a photogenic point. Clicking on the symbol will provide some examples of shots you can expect at this location. Don’t restrict yourself to just looking for the camera symbol. There are many other icons that can be worth checking out, including lighthouses, monuments, mountains, gardens or bridges.

When is the best time to shoot?

So, now you have a plan of the locations you want to shoot, the next question is when is the best time to be there? The FotoVue books will often give a good indication of where and when the best time to take photos is. If you have found your own locations, you need a different way to optimise your shooting time. I find nothing worse than turning up at a location and finding that the sun is in the line of sight of the shot.

There are a couple of apps that are really useful for planning the best time of day to shoot. My personal favourite is PhotoPills. You can search for any location in the world, type in the time that you intend to be at the location, and the app will show the position of the sun, moon and even the Milky Way! PhotoPills can also show you the field of vision that you can expect using different lenses – handy to ensure you have the right gear for where you are shooting. A similar tool is the Photographers Ephemeris. It has many of the same features available, and I like that plans can be made on the desktop browser version and synched to the mobile phone or iPad app.

What conditions might I want?

I’m writing this blog with a good old Scottish hoolie blowing outside the windows, and the rain is pouring down. These are not the conditions for shooting landscape photography. I’ll always check the weather forecasts leading up to my workshops and the day before personal sessions. I like to validate which forecasting services provide the most accurate predictions every couple of years. I have found that the Met Office, Clear Outside and Windy.com give the best results for the UK. If these three services do not provide a consensus view, I might look at other forecasters.

Particularly with seascape photography, there may be other conditions that can make or break a photo. Tide times are an excellent example of this. In the Landscape workshop, there are at least three locations where I am looking for the tides to be either high or low. The app Tides Planner by Imray is an excellent source of data on tide times and heights, and for a small fee, you can plan several months ahead. If you only need to plan seven days in advance, I like using the Tides Chart website.

Be realistic about shooting times

People often think landscape photography is as simple as turning up, pointing the camera and moving on. The best shots are usually an outcome of planning and patience. I create a plan for my landscape workshops using Excel that calculates the travel time between locations and the time I expect to shoot at each location. In the case of the workshop, I have years of history, knowing how long we usually spend at locations. If I plan a day shooting at new locations, I create a similar plan, but I overestimate how long I may be there.

It’s great to have a plan, but as Mike Tyson famously said, ‘Everyone has a plan until they get hit in the face’.  Traffic might be heavier than expected. Weather services (heavens forbid!) may get their predictions wrong. Something unexpected may occur at a location, such as wind-surfers at a beach location. All these things can impact the plan. Don’t just plan for the perfect; think about contingencies and have these in mind. For this reason, I don’t share my plan before the workshop. Some of the best images we’ve taken on the Landscape and Seascape workshops have happened at locations we never expected to visit at the start of the day!

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About the author

As well as running Edinburgh Photography Workshop, Rich Dyson is a professional photographer. His photographs are regularly used in newspapers such as The Times, Guardian and Daily Telegraph. He also had two solo exhibitions and was featured in a members-sponsored exhibition in the Scottish Parliament. You can see and buy his photography at richdysonphotography.com.