Google earth

Recently, I got to use one of my favorite tools (aside from gaffers tape and Pocket Wizards) for a shoot I did. I had to shoot a portrait of Quentin Sponselee who is the owner of Terramoto Transportation in San Diego. Terramoto is a limosine/shuttle service that uses all hybrid vehicles. And on top of that, they sponsor the planting of a tree for each ride that they commission, so you get to feel extra warm and fuzzy when you ride to the airport in one of their rides.

I needed to shoot a portrait of Quentin in a location that where I could pose him with his cars and have a feel for San Diego. The downtown San Diego skyline was about as good and defining as anything I could think of. Now, my challange was trying to figure out where I could shoot that would show the skyline, was accesible to position a couple of cars and not have a bunch of junk in the way. Mind you, I'm from Colorado. I've spent time in San Diego but mostly in north county and trips to and from the airport. My library of shooting locations in San Diego ain't that good...yet.

Time to log on to Google Earth!

For anybody who has not had the opportunity to play with it, Google Earth is one of the most fun and powerful tools at our disposal. It allows you to essentially fly all over the world and see the world from a birds-eye view. It gives you the ability to zoom into relatively good detail of objects on the ground. Unfortunately, they have decreased the resolution somewhat in the last year or two. I remember the first time I used it I explored all over the world looking at interesting landmarks. I remember looking down on a street in New York and I was able to zoom in so close that I was able to read the writing on the mini billboard on top of a cab. Next to the cab was a couple walking on the sidewalk...yes I could tell one was a man and the other was a woman. What was more fascinating is that I could tell that the man was wearing a pinstripe suit. This is an image from a satellite!

After a little research (and fun) I found this vacant lot on Coronado Island. It was too good to be true. There was vacant lot that was accessed by a public parking lot and it had a clear unobstructed view of downtown San Diego. Local San Diego photogs are probably laughing at me, saying that lot has been used more than a cheap...AND if you look below you'll see two Google Earth images that show the location. The first one is a close up of the lot itself and the second one shows the proximity of the lot(lower center...look close!) to downtown and the surrounding area.

Here is the resulting photos from this online search. Mind you, I had never been to Coronado Island or this area up til about a half hour before the shoot. Not too shabby!

 

Alrighty, the first time I used Google Earth to "scout" a location was for a shoot I did for Sierra Designs. They wanted a hiking shot in the desert and of course, they waited until seconds before their print deadline. Well, actually they gave me the weekend once I received my product samples to find models, find a location, shoot, edit, process, deliver, etc, etc. I made calls and found models but they would be available on Saturday afternoon only. That meant I had to look for something with good afternoon/evening light.

Google Earth was a new and exciting toy at the time so i was all amped up on getting on there to look for places. Back in college, I went out to the Needles District overlook on one of our many ventures to the desert. I recalled it being pretty sweet area and having some potential for a shoot. Again, below are a couple of screen images that lead me to a fairly successful location. The first is a close up of the location that show very close proximity to the road and right on the edge of a 500' cliff. Very convenient! The second shot shows what was to the west of the location...pretty much the sweetest part of Canyonlands. The shooting location can be seen in the bottom of the second screen shot just above the Google icon. It is the tiny shaded alcove or canyon wall (small black c or v shape)

We shot a bunch all over the area and SD used several images. Below was one of my favorites.

 All photos were turned around by Monday morning and the shoot was deemed successful.

In both instances, Google Earth gave me the luxury to scout out a location from the comfort of my office. Without it I probably would have been driving all over, hoping to find something that would have maybe worked. And I would have been really stressed out looking.

And thus concludes my lesson about Google Earth and its potential for making your life a hell of a lot easier when the AD drops the bomb on your desk on Friday at 4pm. Ha!