Planning for Photography Success with Fujifilm

Hey, what's up guys, professional outdoor photographer David Johnson here for Outdoor Photography Guide. And today I'm coming to you from the very beginnings of the photo process. And I don't know if you're anything like me, but I was rather surprised when I first started out as to how much planning actually goes into a single image, a single photograph that you want to create. Today I wanna take you through that entire process and show you some tools that you can use when you go out to photograph like something that you probably haven't thought of before, these binoculars from Fujifilm. So I'm gonna get to these in just a second, but I wanna talk about the first step that I take. And I know a lot of people like guidebooks and different things like that, but I prefer to search on Google Earth. Google Earth is something that I've found is a huge resource for photographers that not a lot of photographers are using to its maximum potential. Google Earth is basically like a searchable database of images that people have taken in specific locations, and really give you a bird's eye view and also a land view of what you can photograph when you're in a location. Now I did a search for Bryce Canyon National Park which is where a place that I was going to visit, and I wanted a good sunrise photograph. So I started the search process and found a specific location that's perfect for sunrise, facing East so that I would get backlight on all of my subjects and nice color in the clouds. So using Google Earth gave me a really good idea of not only the terrain that I was gonna see but other examples of images that people have shot, and I think the best way to use Google Earth is to go into those images people have photographed and then you can scroll around left to right, to see exactly what everything's gonna look like so you can get a really great idea of what it's going to view in wide angle and also telephoto if you're trying to decide which lens to use when you are in the field. Now, as you continue to go through this process you wanna try to figure out what is everything going to look like when you're there? I mentioned I was doing a sunrise photography shoot. So what I like to use is an app that allows me to zoom in on a location and actually see where the sun is going to be at any point of the day, any day throughout any year. So I can type in today, I can type in a date that I'm going to a location to visit, and I can just scroll through the bottom of the frame and I can see, okay, the sun is going to be East here, I can see what subjects the sun is going to be behind, and it gives me a really good opportunity to see and visualize what could happen based on conditions when I'm there. Now, when I say based on conditions, you really have to hold that with an open hand because conditions can change on a dime. You don't know what conditions you're gonna get when you do go and photograph. So you have to be very aware of that too. And just kind of plan and pray when you do find a location and start the planning process. I like to save these as options for me. Now, the next step is what's it actually going to look like when you're in the field? You can go and look at weather reports to find the forecast that you want when you do go to a location. But what I like to do is just go with an open mind and photograph what's there while I'm there, and it really leads to less disappointment. Now, the biggest tool that I've found, just scouting out this location and finding the right place to go shoot is using a pair of binoculars. And it allows me to see what is actually going on in the landscape. This is a pair of Fujifilm, Hyper-Clarity HC Binoculars that I absolutely love. They're super easy to use. They adjust to any eye format and they also focus really well. Now, since it was so cold and these binoculars were still warm, I actually had to remove my glasses and focus these to what I was seeing. Now, the focusing came in handy because since I need prescription glasses, I was able to focus to my correct prescription and see exactly what I wanted to shoot in the field. Now, this gives you a good idea of the subjects that are there in a location. But I think these are so beneficial if you are photographing with a telephoto lens. And I did that at Bryce Canyon, I got a wide angle shot but I also focused in and really tried to zoom in on the fine specific details of a location. That's one of the things I like to do when I maximize my photo potential in a place, is use a wide angle lens and also then zoom in on very specific features in a location. Now there's a lot to be said about using these. I think photography's location scouting is insurmountable in the success of the overall photograph that you can get. One of the things I like to do with these and what I did on this trip was actually go to this location and leave my bag behind, and I was just scouting out using just the binoculars. Using just binoculars allows me to get to some really unique places, 'cause I'm not lugging around a camera bag on a tripod constantly, but it allows me to carry these, which are really compact actually and extremely lightweight and then see in extreme fine detail what each individual pixel may look like when I am in the field and then bring that back into post-processing, allowing me to visualize what this image could actually look like when I do upload it into my computer which helps me a ton as a photographer. One concern I had was what would these binoculars make the landscape look like? And what it looked like, what I see through my camera. And that was quickly put to the rest because you're using the same amazing world-renowned Fujinon glass through these binoculars that you see in a lot of their amazing photographic lenses. So I highly recommend these Fujifilm Hyper-Clarity, HC Binoculars for your infield scouting and your work as well. Like I said, I had some really fun location scouting and the end result of the photographs came out tremendous here. And it's all thanks to the work you put in before you actually get your camera out of the bag. In the office, in your home, on your computer, then in field and scouting when you are on location so that you can be sure that you have a successful end photograph when you do finally export that out to your hard drive and share it with all those people who have love seeing your images too. Thanks so much for watching guys, I hope these scouting tips and planning tips help you create better photographs. Thanks so much for watching.