How to Get Unique Photos at a Popular Spot
Raise your hand if you’ve showed up to a popular vista and waited in line to get the exact same picture in the exact same spot at the exact same time as hundreds of other people, as seen in the picture above. Now, if we are just there to visit and be a tourist – no problem. I have taken many photos like this. But, if we are wanting to capture a photo that is unique and stands out from the rest, how do we go about doing that? Here are a few things that I do when I am trying to get a unique photo in a popular spot…
Research Research Research
Before I ever step out of my house, I spend quite a bit of time researching the location that I am hoping to photograph. I’ll first spend time pouring over maps. When I went to the Grand Tetons last year, I spent hours looking over maps for unique places that I could photograph. FYI, a great website for free national park maps is http://npmaps.com. I then visited blogs, watched YouTube videos, looked at Google image search, etc. I’ll also use a phone app called PhotoPills. Basically the app tells you exactly where the sun or moon is going to be in the sky at any given moment in the day. The app does a lot of other helpful things as well. The more you can learn and know about a location before you go helps you visualize what kind of photograph you want to capture. By doing this, I was able to find a lake and trail in the Tetons that was not even on the official trail map (see below). Research pays off!
Day Dream
Once I’ve researched the location of where I am going to go, I begin to visualize and daydream on what kind of photo I want to capture. For example, I live close to a popular church that sits on top of a hill here in southeastern WI called Holy Hill. At night, they turn on lights that illuminate the church that can be seen for miles and miles. I always thought that the church would look really cool lit up if there was light, fluffy snow coming down. So the first time that light, fluffy snow began to fall – I headed out and got one of the most popular photos I have taken. If I had not taken the time to visualize what kind of photo I wanted of this church before I went out, I probably would have not gotten this photo.
Go Out in Bad Weather
Some of my best photos have been taken during bad weather. Fog, storms, snow, wind, etc. all make for unique photos at a popular spot, or any spot for that matter. For the picture above of Holy Hill, light falling snow took a photo that thousands of people have taken from that very spot and made it unique from all of them. A similar thing happened to the photo below. I woke up to thunder and lightning and instead of staying home in my bed, I went out and got a unique photo of lightning over the city of Milwaukee.
Look Around
This is something that I try to do at every location I go and shoot, especially the popular spots. I walk around first without my camera, trying to find something that will make my photo unique. This may be things such as a puddle for a reflection or a fly-fishermen as seen in the photos below. I may try to find a higher or lower vantage point. I’ll look for something unique in the foreground. Once I found the general spot that I want to shoot from, I’ll take my camera out and move around a little bit until I find the exact composition I am looking for. Resist the urge to get so locked into an awesome vista that you forget to take your time. Taking that extra 5-10 minutes before even snapping a photo will yield great results!
Golden Hour
The most important rule I follow when trying to take a unique photo is to shoot during the golden hour. The golden hour in photography is shortly after sunrise or shortly before sunset. The sun is softer and shines beautifully onto the landscape and usually, the sky will be dynamic and colorful as well. 90% or more of the photos I take are during the golden hour. This usually requires getting up early or staying out late, but I promise you that there’ll be no disappointment when you land that money shot!
Let me know in the comments if these tips were helpful for you or if there is anything you do to get that unique photograph.
Nick