"Scouting"

I've been diligent about making progress through my current nature photography reading, although I want to read the new macro book and post reviews on that asap. However, I'm about 1/2 way through the nature book and can probably finish it with a few more hours work. The biggest thing that slows me down is taking notes, but I've already found it is VERY useful to have those notes to refer back to as needed, even if I am filling up the entire journal with enough time here. Wow.

One of the main ideas that's coming into maturity is the idea of 'scouting' out locations. This isn't just work ahead of time or planning where to go. It's not just going to a place and deciding when to come back. It seems to be a combination of all of these, plus working on your visualization, knowledge of an area and a bunch of other things. It's often referred to - but rarely defined. Made for a good discussion topic in dgrin with some *excellent* suggestions.

For the less popular sites, try flickr searches. Where other photogs might not be willing to 'share' information, their photos will tell you much more. Dgrin appears to be rare in the willingness of folks to share details with each other and ideas on where to go shoot.

For the more popular areas -- google maps with photos on. They might not be the best photos in the world, but they WILL often show you places that the maps don't describe in full or the tour book skips over. They can also give you more visual references (for free!) for areas before you actually get there.

Otherwise, there are CDs out there for different areas -- the Photograph America series appears to be outdated but can still be useful. The NWP forums look like great resources for national park information though, as do some backpacking forums. There's a series just for California that I'm only wishing I could justify the purchase on. I'm better off directing my resources towards exploring Utah a bit more. Getting back to the Salt Flats should be first on my list, then exploring the marshes of Antelope Island. It'll be a while before the snow melts and I can get back up into the Alta Basin and hike a bit more in there. But even this includes mental ideas of what sort of photos I want to take, what areas I know exist and what times of day I want to get there to get the best photos. ALL of that is 'scouting', even if it doesn't feel like it.

So, the education continues.