Scouting for photos in the age of Google Earth
In my last post, I shared some photos from the Horseshoe Bend Trail along the North Fork Nooksack River. Due to the late hour, I wasn’t able to take any photos of the horseshoe bend of the river. I was curious as to how far along the trail I had traveled and where the horseshoe bend was so I fired up Google Earth to investigate. As it turns out, I had been close to the bend but frankly it doesn’t appear to be photo friendly (and definately not what I had envisioned in my head).
As I looked over the area in Google Earth, I did notice a bend in the river that appeared to more closely match what I had hoped to see in person. This located wasn’t apparent to me while on the trail because it occurs on the south bank and away from the trail which is on the north bank of the river. Using the tools in Google Earth, I was able to determine a route and distance (~0.6 miles):
Seems easy, right? Well, almost. Google Earth also incorporates a terrain model so it gives you some idea of the ups & downs but the resolution may not enough for an area such as this. Furthermore, Google Earth can’t tell you anything about the obstacles you’ll experience in the area such as snow depths or downed timber. It may have only been 0.6 miles and 100-200 feet of up & down but in unconsolidated snow, it’s quite a workout to finally obtain these shots:
Along the way, there was this curious site (created by higher flood flows): a teeter-totter!
Getting back to Google Earth, there are some other things you can use it for with respect to photography. Consider this photo of Doubtful Lake taken from the Cascade Arm above Cascade Pass in the North Cascades:
Now compare that with the same basic view in Google Earth:
As you can see, you can actually get a sense of photo composition using Google Earth before visiting an area. It should be noted that this can have some limitations due to the way Google Earth functions. Elements that are closer to the viewer’s location are rendered with more detail than those elements which are located further from the viewpoint. This comes into play in some situations when there is a prominent feature that simply doesn’t show up due to simple distance. I can think of one situation where I replicated a photo I took of Venus & Spade Lakes below Mount Daniel and Mount Rainier (a pretty big feature) didn’t render in Google Earth because it was too far away from the viewpoint. Certainly not a deal killer but just be aware of it!
Now, in the latest versions of Google Earth, there is a new feature that can REALLY help photographers: the sunlight tool. After positioning your view, this tool will show you what the sunlight will look like across the landscape +/- 12 hours. It adds a new dialog in the upper right portion of the display. Simply drag the slider to adjust the time or just press play on the dialog.
If we consider the same Google Earth view of my Doubtful Lake photo, we can now simulate the conditions you’d expect at sunrise on New Years Day:
All in all, it’s a very powerful tool to help you find new locations..
