Google earth Pro to the Planning Rescue!!!

As you are reading this, I am in Oregon at Cannon Beach prepping all of my gear to Film a new Long Exposure Photography Course.  I am very excited, very eager, and more importantly VERY prepared.  Now we all know you can prepare and over prepare for a photo trip by packing all the right things:

  1. Tripod
  2. Batteries
  3. Walk-around Lens, Telephoto Lens, Extreme Wide Angle Prime Lens
  4. Shutter Release / Intervalometer
  5. Cleaning Cloth
  6. Rugged Camera Bag
  7. Neutral Density Filters

Those are the givens, but how do you really PREPARE for a photo trip?  Can you answer all of these questions before you even get to your destination?

  1.  Do you know what you will photograph? Do you know where to park when you get there?
  2. What will these sites look like?
  3. How far of a walk is it from the Parking Area?
  4. Where will the Milky Way be at any given time of the night?

Before planning this trip I had already scouted many of my shooting locations.  I already knew what to expect when I got there and I could answer every one of those questions above.  How? you ask…  Not the old fashioned way of looking through Flickr or 500px!

Google Earth Pro is now available free.  It used to be a yearly fee of $399, but now it is free (I read it here)!  I am not sure how long this offer will last but I jumped on it the moment I found out about it.

So what exactly did I do with Google Earth Pro before making plans for my Oregon Trip?

  1. Found all the spots I wanted to photograph and had them all plotted out before even setting foot on Cannon Beach.
  2. I knew just where to setup my camera and tripod for Milky Way shots (If I wanted to take any)
  3. I knew what most locations looked like by other peoples images.
  4. I knew how far it was from the parking area to the Devil’s Cauldron (a site I wanted to photograph).
  5. I knew exactly how far it would be from my hotel to the beach in case I need to run to a sunset really quickly.
  6. I even knew where to stop on the way to Cannon Beach from Portland.
  7. I had already seen Hay Stack Rock in all of its glory at every time of day on the given day I would be there!

This is all absolutely incredible and I will show you exactly how I did it in today’s tutorial!

 


 

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Blake Rudis
f.64 Academy and f.64 Elite are the brainchildren of Blake Rudis. While he is a landscape photographer, he is most passionate about post-processing images in Photoshop and mentoring others.

For Blake, it's all about the art and process synergy. He dives deep into complex topics and makes them easy to understand through his outside-the-box thinking so that you can use these tricks in your workflow today!
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