In my work, I do a lot of traveling for shoots and one of the most tedious and difficult parts of going to a new place to produce a shoot is the location scouting. There is a reason that people can turn location scouting into a lucrative profession. It is very time consuming, costs money (gas) and is constantly changing (because of season, construction, whatever). It is a necessary evil in the business, and something I am all to eager to farm out to someone else. So here is where ShotHotSpot comes in. Not only does it have a simple premise, find cool (hot) spots to shoot, but it's potential is really unlimited. It has already proved invaluable to me on my recent jaunt to Nashville, Tennessee for an editorial shoot.
ShotHotSpot uses other apps like Flickr and Panoramio's geotagging features to figure out where good shooting spots are. How this is accomplished is anyone's guess, but I am sure it is some complicated algorithm that only superhuman geniuses can understand. To search a location is pretty easy. You just type in where you are going.
There is an advanced search to help you get more refined results once you get the hang of how it classifies hot spots.
Categories of hotspots include People, Landscapes, Panoramic, Architecture, and many others. These categories allow you to filter the results to what you are looking to shoot. For example: Yosemite has TONS of "landscape" hotspots, but very little "Architecture" hotspots. In my particular case, I am searching Nashville for cool (hot) spots to shoot for an upcoming editorial project. So I started off very generally and searched "Nashville" and this is what I got:
Now to me, this was pretty sweet. A convenient map with waypoints that linked to more in depth descriptions of the locations, including images provided by users. The Quick Key to the right offers a general name for each spot, just in case something sounds cool you can just click on it and head straight there. The detailed results are really straight forward, showing keywords for the location and a variety of images. This was the location that interested me most. I liked the idea of having the option for skyline views, but I have a soft spot in my heart for parking decks. The shot that sold me on it (enough to drive downtown to check it out) was the 4th shot on the top row.
I was pretty impressed with the location and it's going to serve my purposes exceptionally well. Here are some images (visual sketches) I made on my visit. I'll be adding these to the ShotHotSpot database along with a couple from the editorial. Just to help pay it forward, and get this awesome location the attention it deserves.
Now, for all that is awesome about this website, there are some noticeable drawbacks. One is that it's pretty contingent on users geotagging their images, and or taking the time to make an account and do it by hand. I know I'm not in the habit of geotagging my stuff. The second drawback is that the results aren't always that accurate. I've heard stories of the local taco joint being tagged a "Panoramic" hotspot. Of course with more users this should get better as I'm sure ShotHotSpot's results algorithm is based somewhat on the number of times a place pops up and what it's tagged with. All in all, I think this is a pretty great idea that can be an invaluable location scouting resource. Particularly for those of us not able to hire the professionals for every shoot.
Have you tried ShotHotSpot yet? What did you think of it?
Results seem pretty hit or miss near me. It has a lot of my favorite places, but a lot of very mundane places as well. Additionally the type tagging seems almost random. I have no affiliation, but have used http://togspots.com/ as well. The number of sites is pretty limited, but it is entered by hand rather than algorithmically so generally speaking the locations are better described.
It's totally useless where I live.
Most locations that I know of aren't even listed. And I looked through my city, and 90% of the photos are from the same guy.
Yeah, I've been hearing that a lot. But it is a new thing (hence the "beta" tag on the corner of the site). It's only going to get better if folks like you and I who find great locations are willing to add them.
If it's a beta they shouldn't be charging yet.
I don't understand, comment are awating moderation and please in this case publish my second one, or someone cancel it, and why? Thanks
I'm very proud to inspire, with PhotoSpotLand . com other peoples with new sites.
We are concentrate to add new section, new service for our users and great spots aren't all our focus but we want to connect people with common interests as Travel & Photography, allow them to meet in real life.
About Spots we invite our users to create new spots, the real beta run from end of may so of course many things to do (but great inspiration for others as we see). We prefer the way of user generated content as with aggregator of Flickr, Panoramio etc the real risk is to find a photo of a fish at London City Hall ;) People need very focused information. But of course many player are on the market and better advantage for users. Just an advice, please avid to copy to much just changing text, thanks ;)
(I don't understand why posts disappear, was for the link? in this comment I disactivate it, sorry if more post with the same content, but I post and comment...vanished...)
Only if the website worked lol
I put in Montauk, NY and get 0 Hotspots!! Ha ha. I'll pass on this useless website.
To Bad it's a dead link
500 errors for me :(
Dead as a doornail....error 500
Looks like their server can't handle the requests - it's down.
Hi guys, I run the site, sorry about the technical issues. We just dont have good enough hosting to cope with all the requests right now. All I could suggest is you try later when it's not as busy. We're looking to upgrade the hosting soon.
What is the advantage of this over free services like the Flickr map and the Stuck On Earth app?
goto.creativeconceptdfw.com is free and only has user submitted and vetted locations. New and have whatever potential users contribute.
Photography is LocationLocationLocation, I cant stress this enough! And I highly suggest everybody here DO NOT SHARE your locations!!! Or do you want some Fauxtographer to steal your shot?!?
If you are worried about a "Fauxtographer" stealing "your" shot, then you must not have enough confidence in your work.
I personally don't mind sharing my locations, and encourage people to make something better than I was able to out of a location. It motivates me to return the favor :D
totally agree, do you have so few "secret" location to can't share some of them?
I'm wondering why my reply to Max disappeared, and then the article's author makes a comment saying the exact same thing as my comment? FStoppers is close to fail mode today.
No, scared I am not. But having photos with locations that no one else has is important to me. I have a book with about 2-300 locations that I handpicked, scouted, checked the light etc. These locations are dialed. They took long scouting and preparation, giving them away, is just not an option. I shoot mountain biking for a living, considering that, locations become a bit different. Its not just a spot in a city.
Ho Max, interesting point of view but i prefer please to continue discussion with you by email please can you write me at mb@photospotland.com ? Thanks a lot
Rich, that is very kind of you, but I guess you do not have the situation I had yesterday where myself and 4 other weddings showed up to use the same acre of land at the same time.
Those sites aren't for Professional usage as wedding photographers, first of All are free to use
When I looked for where I live and travel often, I found nothing at all or a lot of total crap. [Someone's dorm room, FTW?] Not as good as I'd hoped.
we work, @photospotland on connecting travel photographers in real life as for your and other need
Look, I very much WANT this site to work. Allowing private residences to be included inherently bulks it up with useless material. Maybe one suggestion is different color markers for sites suggested by registered users versus tags pulled off of random photos.
We are in the Field "less is more" so we prefer to continue having only user generated content, in few cases filtered by our moderators, as to avoid having useless places or photos with people in.
Great suggestion, we'll be adding this in the next few days
a lot of the places it suggests are crap, I agree. We can only work with what Flickr and Panoramio return to us, so sometimes this is 200 photos of someone's cat, which sucks. But a lot of the time it returns good stuff - enough to be useful anyway.
The idea is that the more people use it, and click and like the good spots, the more accurate it gets, and a better idea of the hotspots we build up. Plus, like those other sites you can still add your own places.
We're still in beta, and we're always looking to improve our algorithm, so watch this space!
Btw ChimmEchonga - search again, you get 47 hotspots now. Server was in meltdown when u tried earlier.
Do you have a beta group somewhere on Facebook or g+ for suggestions and feedback?
Right off the bat, I have some:
1) I can't use any characters except letters and numbers in my password? You're asking for easily hacked passwords, and if your password doesn't allow special characters, how serious can you be about security?
2) When I registered, it told me I needed to activate my account through the link I would receive in email. When I received it, I clicked the link and it took me to the site, at which point a bright red error message was displayed, saying "Name not available/This account already registered.". Turns out, my name was fine, and my account was already registered - what I should have received was a message telling me, "Thank you, you are now registered!", instead of the confusing, danger-red warning that something was wrong.
They have a contact form on the website.
http://www.shothotspot.com/contact/#.UjT7q2RDqjI
Hey Namu, thanks for bringing those to our attention. Both issues are sorted - you can change your password if you like in My Settings. We use SHA1 for encryption, and what you saw was a basic bug in registration form. Thanks and keep 'em coming! http://www.shothotspot.com/contact/
This idea is a non-starter because it is based on data from other people's photos. As a photographer, you should be trying to shoot something unique not get the same shot that has been done to death.
Well, I think people who set out to copy will do it regardless, and the photographers that like to be unique will find unique ways to use locations. Knowledge is good for everyone, it's how you choose to use that knowledge that makes you the person/artist that you are.
If you're looking for a similar concept but different execution and a growing community then please check out https://www.photohound.co