Finding great Photo Spots - Location Research

I often get asked about where my photos were taken. And I'm usually quite open with photo locations because I also got plenty of help from other photographers over the years.

But it's also not hard to find those locations yourself. Because with all the tools available one just has to put in the work and do the research.

A quite common situation is that I browse the internet for photos of a certain area or city, which I want to visit. I use google image search, the different photo sharing platforms and the catalogues of photo agencies as source of inspiration.

When I find a photo of an interesting view I try to find out from where this photo was taken. In the following video I show my workflow using two photo spots near Rothenburg as an example. The photo from above though, if you are interested, was not taken in Rothenburg but shows the beautiful city of Regensburg. The workflow for finding the photo spot was the same.

It's true that this approach is much easier for cities than it is for landscapes. But I can also find prominent features in landscape photos, which I can use as reference for my research.

And if my research still does not reveal a location, I can still try to contact the photographer afterwards. But I will also accept, if he does not want to share the location. Because it's very likely that he spent a lot of time and money for research and scouting himself.

And there are two more things to remember: Some locations are simply not meant to be found and should stay a secret. And if you found a photo spot, take the time to scout and look for new ways to photograph from there. You'll find that sometimes there's much more to a view than the photos on the internet showed you.