Before going on any photo trip or excursion, it's good to do your research and have things planned out in advance. This involves many things. The more you do in advance, the less time it will take you to find the sites your want to photograph and you will walk away with better images. Before your trip, get on the Internet and run searches via Google or search engine of your choice. I prefer Google or Yahoo; they return the most and most relevant results. Type in the keyword and keyword combinations of where you plan to go, e.g. Arches National Park . Take some time to go through maybe the top 50 results or so. Look for maps, directions, etc. so you know how to get there and print them out. Try to find some nice images of your planned photo target and print them out. Narrow down the images to what you think you would like to replicate too. Focus on those images and try to figure out how the photographer took that great shot. Where was he/she shooting from? Was he using a polarizer or neutral density filter? What time of the day did he take the picture? What kind of film? Did he use a digital camera? The more you can figure out then the more you can do when you get to the site to try to get a good shot too. Also run searches on newsgroups and ask questions in the appropriate newsgroups about the site or sites you are planning to visit. What are newsgroups you may ask? Newsgroups are like forums that use a specific news protocol. Most ISPs have a news server you can log onto and browse newsgroups. You need a newsreader program to read them though, but Outlook Express has one built in. Google also archives newsgroups and you can browse and use them here

More info on using newsgroups:

So, be sure to ask questions in the appropriate newsgroups or forums and most people will be happy to help you out. Be sure to check out our photography forums here:

You may also want to order videos and/or books on the subject in advance. Amazon.com is a good source for that. Another good thing to have on a photo trip, to help you find your photo subjects, is some kind of a navigation system. I use a laptop with a Delorme GPS and their software, “Street Atlas USA .” It “really” helps to get you to your target as fast as possible. Check it out here:

When you get to the area of your photo target, make sure to check out local gift shops, gas stations, etc. and look for postcards with superb images on them and also books. Usually there are books written on your subject and they are packed with very useful information. Make sure to buy at least a couple postcards, they are pretty cheap, and study it and break it down into elements and use that to try to replicate the image or maybe you will end up with a better shot! Finally, remember to take a lot of shots of your target and use many different settings and angles. Refer to this article for more information on that:

Article by Jeremy Baker