032 - How to Plan an Epic Photography Road Trip
What you will learn in this episode:
Steps to creating an epic photography road trip
A tool to create the best road trip map
Insight into things to watch for on a road trip
If you live in the Northern Hemisphere, then right now is the perfect time to take a road trip. Shoulder season is a fantastic time to load up the car and hit the open road. It’s not too hot out, it’s not too cold and sunset and sunrise are at reasonable hours so you can shoot both and get a decent sleep in between. Plus we are just starting to get those fantastic fall colours. So, all in all, this is a GREAT time to take a photographic road trip.
Going on a great road trip takes more than just packing up the car and heading out though. Or, at least going on a great photographic road trip takes more than that. To truly create the most epic photographic road trip you are going to have to do some planning in advance.
Follow these in order to help make the planning process go smoother. Or re-order them to suit your planning style. But this is the way it works for me.
Step #1 - Decide Why you are Going on your Road Trip
The road trip we are talking about here has a photography-driven purpose behind it. You should be looking to create deliverables for yourself by the end of this trip. To do that, ask yourself, why you are going on this road trip.
To figure this out there are a couple of things you can look at.
First: What do you want to photograph and why? Are you looking to fill gaps in your portfolio? Are you working on a specific project, like historic trees in national parks? Are you looking to find more images of otters in the wild?
Figure out the what behind this trip and you will better understand where you should be going and what you should spend your time doing.
The what is your deliverables to yourself at the end of the trip. They’re your landscape photos, or your pics of trees, or the otters, or whatever it is. Treat yourself like you would a client, and have a set plan for the images you are going to deliver by the end of the trip. And be specific. This is what will let you come home with what you need.
The second thing you should look at is this. What are your time constraints? Road trips can only take you as far as you have the time to go. And, unlike normal road trips, you should be ready to stop frequently to capture all the amazing things you see. Photographic road trips won’t normally take you as far as non-photography focused ones. So think about timing accordingly.
Once you’ve answered the why and for how long you should have a pretty good radius of where you will be able to go on your photographic road trip. From there, it’s time to start looking for what matches your criteria.
Step #2 - Who is going with you?
This can be a make or break decision for your photography road trip. Who is going to join you in that car, if anyone at all?
This is such an important choice because, whoever is with you will need to understand that you are going out to take photos on this trip and that, sometimes, that can mean hours spent standing in one location or just slowly exploring areas. This can be tedious if the person (or people) you are with don’t enjoy photography nearly as much as you do. Trust me, I’ve had this happen, and it means all sorts of bad things for the trip. Your photography suffers because you feel rushed or the people are bothering you to move on. The people with you can get anxious and bored, thus becoming irritable, which could make you irritable, which makes the trip no fun for anyone. So, think carefully about who you want in that vehicle with you. And make sure they are going to be ok with having cameras out a lot of the time, pulling out into almost every pullout and spending lots of time exploring areas.
This also matters for things like:
The accessibility of locations (I can hike into places that my wife can’t)
Accommodations (you may not necessarily want to share a small tent with three other people)
The vehicle you take (If it’s just you, maybe you could go in a small, fuel-friendly car. If it’s the whole family, the mini-van might be necessary)
So think carefully about who you want to be out there with you.
You could just go on your own as well. But that also presents its own set of challenges. And, really, if you have a photography buddy, or your spouse doesn’t mind you taking your camera out all the time, then road trips are just so much more fun with another person. You can also split up the driving which means you can spend your time watching the roadside for tiny photo spots you would miss if you were the one driving.
Step #3 - Research!
If you’ve listened to other episodes of this podcast, then you knew this was coming. I love my research. I love pre-scouting. Knowing areas, spots to shoot from, distances between locations, timing, everything! I love going down a good research rabbit hole.
To start researching, I typically go onto Google Maps and start scrolling around looking for interesting locations, towns I’ve never heard of, landmarks, really anything that looks interesting that matches my reason for going on the trip. So it could be national parks or scenic ocean views, historic towns, wildlife, just whatever matches the goal I set for myself. I mostly start by deciding on an endpoint for the road trip and then looking at locations in between.
If anything really piques my interest, I’ll spend a bit more time searching the internet for more information about the area to see if it is somewhere I’d like to go. If it looks interesting I’ll save the location and start building a map using Google Maps My Maps feature.
To find this feature in Google Maps on a desktop use the hamburger menu in the top left corner of the main google maps page, click on My Places, and then click on Maps. You will have to be logged in to see your maps.
The great thing about using this is you can save places to it so you can find them again easily, you can create routes between locations, and you can split up the trip into sections. So each day can have its own section on the map. Or mornings and afternoons. Whatever you want to do. This is such a great way to save everything you want to do and have a route planned out in advance that you can easily reference.
My wife and I have done this for a massive trip that will take us through most of the western United States as well as another that will take us on a circumnavigation of Canada starting in Calgary, to Vancouver, up the coast, through the territories, around the Hudson’s Bay, to the East Coast and then down to the Canada/US border to head back towards Calgary. These are going to be AMAZING trips when we can really travel again. And the map is saved fully in Google Maps at this point.
For these trips, this research has given me ideas of how long we need to stay in each location, days where we will be driving long distances, even when we need to start booking campsites (for places like Yosemite and Zion that are insanely busy.) This kind of advanced planning helps to solve many problems that can just appear while on the road. And can leave you free to just think about your photography, rather than where are you going to stay, where do you want to go, and all the other things that can clutter up your creative brain.
So, start your research with Google Maps. From there, once you have ideas of locations that look interesting, start hitting up photographers from those areas and looking for where they go. Find locations in their Instagram feeds and on their websites. This will help give you an idea of what you can create too. And possibly add more locations to your map.
You can also search up tourist information about each site and see what they have to say about where to go and when to go. This can be great for understanding the weather in an area as well as local trends. Won’t typically help you find the more hidden gems though. That’s where my last research tip comes in.
Hit up local photography or other groups on Facebook for information. These groups are great for discovering local gems. And you can sometimes find someone to meet up and shoot with (although, do so following all local regulations).
One of the last things you should do in your research is to keep track of when the sunrises and sets in each of the locations you want to be at for sunrise and sunset. This will change depending on where you are. So, find the GPS coordinates of the location you will be shooting from and find an accurate readout of these times. That way you will know exactly when you need to be there.
Research is where I tend to spend the bulk of my time when preparing for a road trip. There is just so much to think about when planning out locations and the timing of shots. But it is so worth the work during a photographic road trip.
Once you have your research done and you know who is going with you, talk to them, lock in some days and finish building out your map on Google Maps. Once your route is set, you can move onto the preparation phase of planning.
Step #4 - Accommodation
This is pretty straight forward, but once I know where I want to be and when, I start looking for places to stay. Accommodation can be one of the most stressful things during a trip, especially if you plan on camping throughout most of it. That’s because campgrounds have become insanely busy and you often need to book well in advance to get a site. In popular places like Banff National Park, reservations are a MUST. You run the risk of not finding a campsite or needing to move on after one night. And if you want to stay in one place for a couple of nights that makes this difficult and stressful. That’s why accommodations are always my next step after finalizing the route. Because it can change the route we are going if I can’t find somewhere to stay or we find an amazing place and we want to stay there for a couple of nights. We need to make sure it’s all booked in advance. It’ll also take a lot of stress off of me and allow me to open my brain to more fun, creative things.
Something else to think about for accommodation is how you will keep your gear going. This can be very hard if you are tenting the whole way along.
Hotels and hostels are great because you can just plug in your batteries and your laptop and keep everything charged. But, in campgrounds, this can be a bit more difficult. Lots of sites and campgrounds don’t have power. So be aware of that as you book out your accommodations.
Think about charging. Can you charge your gear in the car? Do the campgrounds have a store or something else where you could hang out and plug in a battery for a bit? Or do you need to make sure you stay in a campground with power every 3 or 4 nights to recharge all your kit?
As you plan out your accommodations, ensure you have ways to keep your camera juiced.
Step #5 - Your Photography Gear
Now it’s time to start thinking about the gear you are taking with you.
Since your in a car it can be tempting to just bring everything. But that isn’t always possible (you’ll need lots of other things with you as well like clothing and possibly camping supplies). And it can dull oyur creativity as you start hunting for other lenses and changing gear in and out rather than just using what you have.
So start thinking about what you need with you to get the deliverables you have promised yourself. And don’t limit yourself based on the gear you have. You can always rent camera equipment. Think about the best pieces of gear for the shots you want. If you own it, that’s great! If you need to rent it, hunt down a local rental space (or use an online one, just don’t forget to factor in shipping times), and make sure they will have your gear for when and how long you will need it.
This is why you start thinking about your gear as soon as you have the trip booked out. Because you may need some time to gather what you require.
Step #6 - Finalize the Details
In this last step before actually packing up and hitting the road, you’ll want to finalize any details about the trip.
Start with checking the local weather conditions right now and what the weather should be like usually at this time of year. This will save you the embarrassment of showing up wearing your down clothing when its 30 degrees out. Make sure you pack clothes that are appropriate for all the activities you are doing and for the weather EVERYWHERE you go.
I have met so many tourists in the Rockies who come to Alberta in May when the weather is OK and can be fairly warm, only to hike a mountain in shorts and be frozen near the top because they didn’t account for the weather change in the rockies.
So, make sure you understand the weather of each location you are going to and for any explorations, you are doing.
This is also the time to be looking at major construction projects that may inhibit your route. Things like bridges being closed or parking lots being inaccessible. You don’t want to drive for hours to get somewhere only to find out you can’t get into the area for whatever reason. As I say this, you should also subscribe or follow any local authorities that will warn you of sudden closures due to accidents or animals. Here, we frequently have hiking areas closed or limited due to grizzly bear activity.
Finally, print all your permits and maps. Don’t just rely on mobile connections for this as there are many sections of road where we have no cell coverage. Make sure you know where you are going and have any necessary permits with you in physical form so that you don’t run into any problems.
While you’re finishing up your packing. Don’t forget the tunes! What is a good road trip without good music or an awesome audiobook, or both? So get some music downloaded for your car!
And that’s it. Six simple steps to create the most epic photography-based road trip. Road trips are a great option right now and a great way to see the world just outside your doorstep. So step out into the world and go see some stuff near you!