Seen while checking out a new location.

It seems to happen fairly frequently that I’m out cycling, traveling on a train or a passenger in a car and I see an area that looks like it has good potential for photography. It might be an interesting building, a scene that offers good views or a possible portrait location. Where possible, I’ll try and mark the location in some way. These days it’s easy, with GPS on most cell phones but in the past I’ve used a variety of different methods to find the place again.

I remember once being on the high speed train, heading south at 300km/hr in Taiwan. I spied an interesting looking temple from the window not long after coming out of a tunnel. Then, on the return trip, I watched for it again and simply counted how many tunnels there were between it and the station. Then it was just a matter of looking at a good map in order to work out where it was, and making a note to return to it.

The photo that opens this post is another example. I first saw this location while out cycling down a mountain road I had never before taken. From my vantage point on the bike heading downhill at 45km/hr it seemed that there were a number of photo opportunities along the way. I returned on foot a couple of weeks later and came away with a couple of okay shots. The area wasn’t as photographically rich as I’d first thought but it was a nice two hour walk down quiet mountain roads.

So keep an hour open the next time you’re heading through new territory. You just might see something that catches your eye and sparks your creative interest.

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