Finding Those Perfect Places...

[Gabriel Yeager]

How do you find that perfect scenic spot (forest, river, mountain, canyon, etc.)? Share your ways of finding those beautiful shots. Rather its driving around for hours looking for something in particular, or going to your local parks-recreation website and looking for trails. Tell your methods and get new ones from other people here on this thread.

Have a nice day!
~Gabriel

[Tony Davies-Patrick]

Spend hundreds of hours pouring your eyes over the largest scale maps that you can get hold of...and then go exploring.

Also take a good look at Google Earth etc.

[John M. McCloskey]

Find Adventure Outfitters that would be interested in having a short scenic DVD made of there property to send to interested clients. This way you get scenery that may have never been videoed and they know the land and where the hidden spots are. They are out no money, you get the shots, and they get a DVD. Just make sure you get a release form signed that you can use the video for other purposes other than just the land owners DVD. Good Luck

[Mark Williams]

I go to state and federal recreation web sites, make a list the parks in the geographic area that I am interested in then google for "images" of the park. If I find some interesting and appealling shots then I put that area on my "to video" list. I usually end up going back to the same place several times a year to get the best and a variety of shots. I also try to revisit during "extreme" weather conditions to get unusual shots. Finally, I try to arrive before sun up and shoot until about 10:00, take a nap or hike some, then shoot again from 4:00 until dark. Another method that worked well for me was picking up a book on local waterfalls which the author rated from 1-10. I then made a list of every waterfall rated above 6 and visited all 25 of them over a 3 year period.

[Brendan Marnell]

Originally Posted by Mark Williams

I go to state and federal recreation web sites, make a list the parks in the geographic area that I am interested in then google for "images" of the park. If I find some interesting and appealling shots then I put that area on my "to video" list. I usually end up going back to the same place several times a year to get the best and a variety of shots. I also try to revisit during "extreme" weather conditions to get unusual shots. Finally, I try to arrive before sun up and shoot until about 10:00, take a nap or hike some, then shoot again from 4:00 until dark. Another method that worked well for me was picking up a book on local waterfalls which the author rated from 1-10. I then made a list of every waterfall rated above 6 and visited all 25 of them over a 3 year period.

... good examples of research and planning among that lot, Mark. With your approach we may discover what others have discovered before us and save time on reinventing the wheel ... and have a little more time for surprises and fresh observations.

[Chris Barcellos]

The good film makers can make the common place look spectacular by giving it a proper perspective, whether by shooting a different exposure, a different angle, or a different point of view... Those guys can make a garbage filled back alley look visually compelling !! In my opinion, our judge in UWOL Challenge 2 is that way, and it makes me nervous about shooting for that one...

[Dale Guthormsen]

Good Evening,

I have spent most my life doing outdoors things. I have been blessed in that I have been able to travel all over the western half of this continent.

To me just getting in the truck and heading out in some general direction taken off the beaten paths will lead you into some fantastic country.

I discovered Moab by just turning off the hichway and taken off the beaten path roads. Same trip I went back to Marble canyon (to me more impressive that the grand canyon.) as I saw it back in the early 60's and loved the place. then further down into Arizona we discovered The Salt River Canyon (and for those do not know this is about identical where they hunted tigers in India).

I have had friends say, you gotta go this way, its spectacular. Generally that doesn't pan out for me, a different sense of aesthetics.

Pick a region and just go and explore, forget the gas and the miles and just do it.

One time up in the trinity wilderness we took a logging road for hours to get to a particular river on the topo. When we went over the last mountain and could see the river, there was a brand new road cut right along it that wasn't on the map!!! so much for the wilderness that trip.

Every place you go has something spectacular.

Our next big treks will be into the arctic, use the rivers as hiways.

[Gabriel Yeager]

Thats a really cool story Dale! Thanks for posting it!

Its so cool IMO to be able to see everyones own ways of getting places... Some extreme, some reliable, its very interesting..

Thanks for posting on this thread guys, I look forward to seeing more!
~Gabriel

[Meryem Ersoz]

it's not always where you go, of course, it's when you go...when the light is at its most interesting, after the rain, when there's a lot of mist (rare in these parts). before a storm, after a storm. during a storm.

my back yard can be loaded with adventure when the weather cooperates...of course, my back yard is also the Rocky Mountains, so that helps a lot....

this morning i shot a very interesting frost-covered worm for my UWOL#2 entry....at least it seemed quite interesting at the time, i have not reviewed the footage yet....

[Dale Guthormsen]

Meryem,

what you said is absolutely true. UWOL 1 I waited for some typical nasty saskatchewan weather for a particular them "Death in the air". It never really happened.
for UWOL 2 my theme was not seasonally dictated, ironicly we had a huge crash the last few days, very dramatic. I intend to use before and after!! Most people consider the prairies boring and a place to pass through as fast as possible, there loss. Our province is bigger than texas and has less than a million people, I am glad they speed through.

[David Rice]

I step out of my home, and start shooting.

You can checkout my work at:http://www.naturefootage.com/sellers/drice

All 1,000 plus clips were filmed within 6 miles of my house.

enjoy

[Brendan Marnell]

You've been having fun David 'n me thinking it was tough on folks (like Sam) in Alaska.

I'd especially enjoy more clips of your eagle any time.

[Peter Rhalter]

Part of finding the perfect place, as others have said, is getting out and looking. I always liked the saying "f/8 and be there" because so much of capturing interesting outdoor images is spending a lot of time just being there.

Another aspect is that unless you are going to some extraordinary place like Yellowstone or Yosemite that is, to use David Brower's phrase, a "scenic climax", the key to getting excellent footage or photos is making good choices with the visual elements available. While it is always wonderful to shoot in amazing places, I believe that I have grown more by trying to find ways to turn less spectacular locales into memorable images. While a scene may not be beautiful in a conventional sense, it seems to me that there's almost always a story, or an interesting shot, waiting there if only we can be open-minded enough to recognize it. That is hard work (for me, at least), but worth the effort.

Best wishes,
Peter
______________________
http://www.parkfilms.com

[Bob Safay]

Gab, the one thing you need to learn is how to.....Learn to Look. To many people go through life seeing things yet never looking at things. All but two scenes in my UWOL #1 submittion was shot IN MY YARD, and I live in downtown Atlanta. Beauty and nature are all around, just learn to look. Also, every State has State parks and wildlife refuges. Contact then and find out what birds/deer/gaters/whatever are active at what time of the year. But like the man said, just get out there and shoot. Have fun. Bob

[John Abbey]

One of my favorite sayings is "many people look, very few see"