>>3358977I personally, never plan the shoot, I'll plan the tour, then if I'm lucky I'll get something along the way. But then again, I'm not awfully disappointed by not getting anything. Now, if I did plan for a shoot, I can't imagine what nightmare that would be. You can't plan for sun, you can't plan for fog and you can't plan for rain, so even if you're shooting sunset at some location, a single cloud can fuck you up royally.
I was up the local mounts the other day, forecast was for clear and sunny whole day, and I got shitty conditions all the time, I barely took the camera out of the backpack. While descending at the evening, everything cleared out, and sun came out. If I stayed up half an hour longer I imagine I could have taken something quite good. But I've no regrets, I was beat, sweated all my shirts, my knees hurt, and I actually had a good time descending in those conditions. Other time, bad forecast, I just wanted to get up an easy but obscure peak that's been luring me from afar for some time now. Four hours up, four down, no chances of planning on anything. Rained along the ascend, hid myself for a while under some roof, then sun showed itself, and I got some of my best shots of the year. Fantastic clarity of the mountainsides, just right lighting, and I've not touched those shots for a month now, fooling with mushrooms and perfecting lesser stuff.
What I do see often is people converging on sweet spots, not necessarily the best photo opportunities, but just spots from where good shot were taken in the past. It's not hard looking up and figuring at what light and where the cam was stationed for most landscapes. Now these fuckers will go to exactly the same space, set tripod and just camp there waiting for good light. I'd say that's photographers way. I wander around, stumble upon something from time to time and then cherish it.
