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Tyler Newcomb's picture

Resources for Location Scouting

What resources do you guys use for location scouting? Obviously, the best method is to just get out there and check it out, but I don't have a car and can't rent one (because I am under 18), so I need to resort to other options.

I currently use two resources frequently.

http://www.shothotspot.com/
Shot Hot Spot is great for finding locations near you that people have used, however it is relatively new so there are not many locations other than very popular ones. A lot of it seems like it's geared towards Urban Exploration, but there are filtered results.

http://www.lightpollutionmap.info/#zoom=0&lat=2685257&lon=9749818&layers...
This Light Pollution map gives accurate measurements of the radiance of the sky, which you can use for astrophotography. I also find that it is useful for finding locations that are more rural (like farming towns). The less radiance, generally the more likely you are to be able to just pull off a road and set up a shot.

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There's an iPhone/Android app called OneOfAKind - it has a global map with pin markers that are user contributed, some with more detail than others on the location itself (depending on the contributors themselves). I used this when I travelled to Japan for work this year to get some ideas.

When I see a photo on the web that I really really love and think I'd love my own take on it, if I can identity anything in the photo that I can google search using maps or just general search to find the location. Like for my Mt Fuji photos this year, I saw a photo on instagram but there was no location for it, so I just looked at the angle the sun was hitting the mountain at sunrise, the foreground, and then just went to google maps satellite view til I worked it out, then once I put that location itself into google (japanese characters copy and paste) a whole lot more information started presenting itself. I find street view really helpful too sometimes.