How to find great photo locations on your trip

Photography is one of those things that almost every single person does while they travel. The amount of photos and images that are out there of places is astronomical. The amount of bad travel photos is also in excessive abundance. But you know what, there are a lot of really beautiful images and different points of view. Photographs are powerful as they often give us the inspiration to travel to a particular destination.

One of the hard things about taking beautiful travel photos is finding great photo locations in a place you’ve never been to. It is also hard to photograph iconic locations that don’t look like everyone else’s.

There are some tricks I do before I head out on a new trip that will help you in your pursuit of bringing home some great photos of your vacation.

Google image research

I type in the city I am going to visit to see what images are out there, where are people taking these photos, what time of day and build in my mind how I can do it differently.

I also break it down to specific monuments and areas of a place to see what’s been done and where I need to go for different viewpoints of it.

Pinterest research

I will search the city I am going to, which also gives you more detailed suggestions to narrow down your search. Sometimes this has search terms I wouldn’t think of.

I also search for photos of the city…my search would look like: “Photos of Rome”

Lately search for “photo locations” + the city I am going to.

All of these will pull up blogs that will give you information on where and when to photograph, and if nothing else will give you a visual idea of what and where to go.

Once I have my research done, I make sure I organize it so I can easily pull up the information. I will have a folder on my phone with the images, so if I don’t know where that viewpoint is, I can show the image to a local there and get the information that way.

I also create a shot list that will correspond with my trip plan, so I know what images are possible and when the best times to capture these are. Everything may not get shot when and where I have researched, but it is nice to have a plan of attack.

Now there are times where I don’t do much research at all and that works for more spur of the moment images and my favourite street photography. You can’t always plan street photography, but you can plan locations that will be filled with locals and the best times to be there.

I also prefer to walk A LOT. No A LOT, lol. My sister thinks it is insane the amount of walking I do when I could just take transit or an Uber. But I think I get the most unexpected images and different viewpoints of a city when you walk the majority of the time. It all depends on what you want out of your trip, and what your travel style is.

All this planning can happen now, even if we are not travelling far and wide currently. When you find photo locations make folders in Pinterest, in Google Docs, and on your phone of the ideas and locations you want to photograph in future trips. There is nothing better for your wanderlust spirit than planning elements of trips to come and aspire towards. Plus planning these types of things far in advance reduces the amount of overwhelm you can feel when you plan your trips.

Comment below and let me know where your future travels are going to take you and where some of your favourite photo locations are.

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