Lessons
Class Intro
00:52 2History and Overview of National Parks
11:07 3Case Studies
14:07 4Scouting Locations From Home
10:55 5Day Scouting Locations
12:36 6Organizing Your Info
04:10 7Tools for Scouting on Location
16:06 8Preparing for Wilderness and Plant Life
08:00Lesson Info
Organizing Your Info
The scouting locations. We've talked about scouting at home, we've talked about scouting in the field. Now, what do we do with that information? How do we organize that? To put ourselves in the position to be more creative, and to do our best work? One of the first things I do, is I get a park map. You can get them at the parks, of course, but you can also get them online. All the national park maps are available as free downloads, and they're public domain, so you can bring it to an office services store and make a nice, large print. This is a perfect spot to take notes. So as you're doing your research, you can circle locations, and write down things that are interesting about those spots. Here's an actual map from a trip I was planning to Acadia, where I've got information about a trail I liked, there was some mushrooms and a pine grove. And again, it's just a perfect spot, because now you have all your information in one place. Another thing I do is, I've got all these notes, and I...
organize them based on location, because I might be able to shoot, you know, say I have a few spots that I think would be good for sunrises photos. If they're near each other, I might be able to photograph them on the same day. So here's a list I made from an actual shoot in Acadia, where I group together some sunrise spots and some sunset spots. You can also see I made some notes for places to shoot in the fog, places to shoot in the rain, places to shoot at night. The fog and rain, I mean, this is important because you never know when it might rain, or you might get a nice foggy morning. Weather can be unpredictable. But because I've organized the notes like this, when unpredictable weather happens, I already know what I'm gonna do. I have a plan, I have a structure. And again, I don't have to follow it, I can chase serendipity when I see it. But having a plan to fall back on makes sure that I always have something constructive and productive that I can do. So here's another real life example from Acadia. It was 2011 or 12, I had to do a project of shooting winter photos in Acadia. And I did the research to see when the park gets the most amount of snow, you know, historically, and that's when I went. So, I got there, and sure enough, no snow. I was there all week, Monday through Thursday, I didn't see one flake, and I had to leave on Saturday. My one ray of hope was that the weather news was predicting a storm on Friday, so we might be getting four inches of snow on Friday. So, because I wasn't shooting anything during the week, at least not what I was there to shoot, I scouted locations. I drove around the park, I found scenes that I thought were gonna look good in the snow. And then on Thursday night, I got all that information together, I got a fresh map, and I circled every spot that I wanted to shoot in the snow. This way, on Friday morning, the storm did come. I got up, and I was able to just go in a clockwise motion around the whole park. I already knew exactly what I was gonna do in each spot, so I could get there, get out of the car, set up, get my photo, pack on, move to the next place. I actually got about 2/3rds of these photos done before the snow turned to rain. Saved my whole week. There's a couple of the photos I did on that. This is up at Eagle Lake, and Jordan Pond. Two beautiful places to shoot. If you ever an opportunity to go to Acadia in winter, I highly recommend it. You'll be one of the only people there, and it's just beautiful.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Ratings and Reviews
Donna
This class was a tremendous help. It is definitely a "tool kit" class and not a "how to" class. With that said, it is worth every penny just for the amazing scouting tips, safety tips, and national park app suggestion. I downloaded one of the recommended apps from this class for a trip I'm taking next month and was thrilled with the information. There are definitely a lot of great tools discussed in this class.
Gaily Cowart
This class was incredible because I wouldn't have gottent this info anywhere else. It's basically a lesson in common and not-so-common sense while shooting at night. No, you're not going to get a whole lot of techniques for working your camera, but you will get strategies for making sure you're actually able to shoot once you're ready. With night photography, there are many unknows that can ruin your chances of getting good shots. Without this class, I never would have thought about how to make the most of daylight hours to plan and prepare a night shoot. And, I wouldn't have known much about how to be as safe and prepared while shooting in the wilderness. I found this course to be very interesting and helpful in the grand scheme of understanding how to get the best from your efforts while shooting at night-time in a park, or secluded area.
Robert Reed
If you understand the purpose of this class, you will get a great deal of benefit from it. It is NOT a photography class in the sense of teaching technique, gear, or artistic considerations. It is a class on scouting and preparing for landscape photography - particularly night photography. While the instructor works heavily in the national parks, his techniques would be valuable anywhere. I especially benefited from the section on various resources. He mentions several books and gives specific insights into apps designed for photographers. Most of which I was familiar with, but he even covers their basic use and function. Those not accustomed to spending time on trails or in the back country will also appreciate the very practical advice that he offers on safety, clothing, and general considerations. A nice concise package that covers a lot of ground.