 Hey everybody, it's Gary back to hearing in this video. I'm going to share seven tips with you to help plan your travel photography photos and videos. All right, let's get started. So tip number one is to start with Google search. So you're going to do a number of keyword phrase searches. So just write this down. So the first one would be best photo spots in Iceland or best photo spots. Substitute where you're going. I'm just going to use my recent trip to Iceland as an example in this video, but just substitute the country that you're visiting for each example that I give you. So for example, type in best photo spots in Iceland and then take note of the top three to five search results. Now most likely you'll find one or two really good blogs with detailed information about each photo spot. So another keyword search you might want to do is top 10 photo spots in Iceland or top 10 photo spots wherever you're going. Just substitute the country you're going. Now also take note of the top three to five search results. Have a look at those and start making a mental note of the top photo spot. Now this will give you a general idea of the top spots. Now that's tip number one, use Google search to find the best photo spots where you're visiting. All right, tip number two, if you look at the top of the Google search, you'll also see Google images. Now if you click on that, you'll see just images of these specific places that will give you a better idea. That way you don't have to wade through all the different blogs. You can just see the images. You can say, hey, that spot looks amazing. Just jot down the name of the place because sometimes the spelling of these places might be difficult when you go to think back and you say, how did I spell that? So make sure that if it's an unusual spelling, write down each place so that when you go to do further searches, you know what letters you can type in because it could be complicated if it's a country with a language that uses accents and so on. Now tip number three is to use YouTube search. Just like you use Google search and type in those same keyword phrases. For example, best photo spots in Iceland. Now you'll see a number of travel videos that will pop up. Check those out too because seeing the video will give you a different perspective of each location. Also, there might be some helpful tips that you wouldn't find by just looking at still images. Tip three is to use YouTube search. Now tip number four is to use Google Maps. So once you have your top five or 10 locations, head over to Google Maps and type in one of the locations for starters and see where that is on the map and then start typing in the different locations. Now you'll see that they'll be most likely spread out over the map. I'll use an example of my recent Iceland trip. So we started, say, at this point here in Reykjavik. I don't know if I'm saying that correctly. And then I know that I wanted to go to Hafen in one day. Looking back, I probably wouldn't have gone that far in one day. So make a good use of the directions feature. So what you can do is if you're starting at, say, point A, like Reykjavik and you know you want to go to Hafen, punch in that distance. But then you have to factor in all the stops you want to make along the way, the distance between each stop, how much time you want to spend at each stop, and then factor in time for lunch and dinner and things like that and traffic. And so try to get a good realistic picture of how much you can do in one day. So depending on where you go, things could be rather spread out. It might take you three or four days or 10 days. Or maybe you can do it all in one day. But use Google Maps, tip four. Use Google Maps. Plot all the different places on the map. Figure out how long it's going to take to get each place. Give yourself about an hour in each spot. Give yourself time for lunch, dinner, and plan your hotels wisely so that you're not driving in the dark, maybe on dangerous roads like I was. And then you can get to your hotel safely and have a good day. Alright, tip number five is to use an app like Photographers Amphorus. Now what this will do is it'll give you the location of the sun at different times of the day. So for example, some photo spots look better early morning, some late in the evening. For example, Skogafoss waterfall has a rainbow, but you can only get the rainbow if the sun is in the right location. So if you go early in the morning, you're going to miss that rainbow. So think about where you're going and look at some of the photos and see if they were shot early in the morning, where they shot at sunset. See if you can get a good idea of when these might look their best and then use an app like the Photographer's Amphorus to show you where the location of the sun will be in relation to the place you want to photograph. That's going to be really helpful for getting the sun just in the right spot. Now tip number six is to use a GPS to plot out all of these on the GPS. This will save you a ton of time of referring to maps. That way you can focus on driving and then you can just listen to the prompts. Now you can pick up an affordable GPS today pretty much everywhere. I picked up the Garmin Smart Drive 50. Now the only issue was I bought this in North America, so then I had to pay extra to download a map for Iceland. You may have to do that depending on where you're traveling, but what I did was I found that it was really difficult to punch in the words, so I had to use an app called maps.me. I'll have that pop up. It's called maps.me. Now the problem was the Google map coordinates did not work with my GPS. I couldn't just sort of convert them, so I had an issue. So the maps.me also has coordinates, so you could take a location, say for example Skogafoss waterfall. You punch it in the maps.me, then you'll see a North and West coordinates. Then when I manually inputted the coordinates versus the keywords, then the location showed up. So I was able to plot my entire trip on the GPS. So all I had to do was hit a button and go from one point to the next and so on. So having a GPS will really cut down on any confusion using local maps. Also if you're traveling with other people, it'll probably cut down some of the arguments about which direction to go and where to turn. So use a GPS and plot in all of your points on the map into your GPS prior to going on your vacation so that when you're in the car, all you have to do is hit the button and you can head to your next location. That'll save a lot of headaches. Now tip number seven is to plan for the weather. So you could be going to a rainy location. Maybe it's cold, maybe it's windy. So plan that out. Make sure you have the proper hiking shoes if you need them. Make sure you have the rain gear, rain pants, rain jacket. For example, if you're visiting Solangefoss waterfall in Iceland, you can walk behind the waterfall. But when you do, there's a lot of water spray. So even if it's a sunny day, you'll still need some rain gear so that you're not soaked when you leave there. So think about the places you're visiting. Think about the proper clothing that's required, whether you want to wear multiple layers so that if it gets hot or cold throughout the day that you're comfortable so that you can spend some time and enjoy it and not be freezing or be soaked. So that's tip number seven. Plan for the weather and dress accordingly. All right, I hope you found these tips helpful. If you found them helpful, give me a thumbs up for this video. If you have any helpful comments or suggestions, you can post them down below. Now if you'd like to share this video with your fellow photographers who might be planning a trip, just look below this video and you can click on share. Then you can take that link. You can share it on Facebook or photography groups and forums. All right, it's Craig back to here again. Thanks for watching this video. Give me a thumbs up and I'll see you in the next video.