Plan, Plan, Plan

I like a plan. Plans are good. Plans don't always go to plan, but I like having one none the less. As a private pilot I definitely like to have a plan when I head out to the skies. And though photography is arguably less risky than flying I still want my trips out with the camera to be worthwhile and successful. After all, there is no point in heading out for sunrise only to arrive at your location as the sun comes up. This has happened to me before and trust me, after the hour and half it took me to get there it was a painful lesson.

So to prevent missed sunrises, badly timed tides, and gale force winds, I like to plan my shoots so I can maximise my chances of success. In this video I will use:

These are the tools I use the most and I've found them to be very effective and accurate in the past. So let's see them in action along with my shoot down at Dawlish Warren beach:

Success

As you can see from the video, I had a successful trip and I've come away with an image I was very happy with. By checking out what the conditions were going to be like before I headed out I could be reasonably confident that my image would meet my vision for that location.

Not as calm as it looks. Nikon D750, Nikon 24-70 f/2.8 VR, 195 secs at f/11, Lee Filters ND Grad, Polariser, and Big Stopper. Processed in Lightroom CC.

Audio Quality

As I mentioned in the video, though the photography went well I had a few problems with the video. When I had the camera facing into the wind I lost all the audio of my voice over the wind noise so I had to ditch a lot of the clips. Being a landscape photographer this won't be the last time I will have to deal with this issue so I have purchased a Rode smartLav+ external mic (and some added furs for extra noise reduction). Though I will have to sync up the audio in post using Premiere Pro CC (my Sony RX100 M4 doesn't have a mic input), the improvement in audio quality will be worth it. So expect to hear my dulcet tones much improved in the next video!

Do you plan?

So do you plan your trips out with the camera? Or do you chuck the camera in the car and go for it? Let me know in the comments. And if you have a couple of minutes please like and share this blog post. Till next time....