Photo Planning

It’s important to do a bit of planning before you go to make photographs.

For me, this will involve going the day before a shoot to scout a location. Sometimes it’s as simple as just finding out where access to the beach is from the car park so I don’t get lost in the morning.

Finding out how large a location is is useful as well, so I have a rough idea of maybe how far I may have to walk.

These things are important.

Then there is of course checking the weather and the tides. Important to check the tides and to know if the water will be coming in or out when I’m shooting. I’ve had a few times where I got caught out and either found myself on a rock surrounded by water, or that my camera gear was now submerged under three feet of water.

I prefer to use a waist level bag for my camera gear because it means it stays with me. I can access all my gear without having to take the bag of and lay it down. I’ve had moments when I’ve seen the tide coming in and almost sweep my camera bag away. So knowing what the tides are doing is important.

I also like to know where the sun will be. I prefer to shoot with the sun behind me. With my subjects being lit from the front and not back lit. Using some apps to find out the direction of the sun is important as well.

The Photographer’s Ephemeris

I’ve been using the Photographer’s Ephemeris for many years now, and indeed worked with Stephen Trainor (the creator and developer of the Photographer’s Ephemeris) on a joint e-book that we published for many years (currently not available because the book needs to be updated to reflect the new features of The Ephemeris app).

I still find The Photographer’s Ephemeris the nicest app to use for planning my photography trips.

For me, I like to be out on location in the morning for the start of civil twilight (the blue hour where you can see subjects in your foreground). And also finish up at the end of civil twilight in the evening.

Stephen’s app comes in different flavours. There’s a free desktop edition. A lovely iPad version, and also dedicated iPhone or Samsun Galaxy versions.

It’s simple. It does what it does well. It’s not a kitchen sink with everything else crammed into it like Photo Pills.