Scouting: Research on Location

Let’s face it. We can’t always be shooting, particularly if we have in mind a certain image that requires a specific type of light, time of the year, wind speed, and so on. However, while we’re not shooting, we can always follow up our paper trail of research for future stories by visiting a specific shoot location or region.

Even though it’s time-consuming, scouting saves you time later when you’re on the shoot. It’s never a good feeling to show up on location and be let down by the surroundings or ill prepared for the environment presented to you. Not only does your subject matter—the characters of your story—make for interesting images, the context in which the person or thing is placed is also crucial. Imagine walking into that guitar luthier’s workshop and realizing no guitars were hanging on the wall. The intrigue and romance of the craft for viewers would be deeply diminished, even if they had nothing with which to compare it.