The thing with landscape photography is that you have to get up early, real early. Ideally I like to arrive at the location around 45 minutes before dawn or "blimey its early" as its known to its friends! To arrive at that time it’s best to leave the house at "stupid o’clock", having woken up at "no the clock can't be right".

Southwold Sunrise
(Click to view large)

In order to get some sleep its best to pack your gear the night before as you don't want to be running around looking for memory cards at 3 o'clock in the morning. Another thing I find worth doing is making sure the settings on the camera are setup for the following morning as when you are half asleep its easy to forget that you left the ISO set to 1600 and the white balance to fluorescent.

Too many times have I arrived at a location to discover that some vital piece of equipment is sitting at home in my other camera bag, so to make life easy for myself I created a "Pre-flight checklist". I have this on a small printed and laminated card that I keep in my camera bag. Hopefully you will find it of use, and save someone else sitting on a beach at 5:00 in the morning looking for a filter ring that is actually a 100 miles away!

Pre-flight checklist

• Battery fully charged ?
• Lenses clean ?
• Lens filter rings fitted
• Filters Clean ?
• Camera Settings: ISO, Drive, WB, Metering

Packing:

• Camera
  • Card
  • Battery
• Lenses
• Filter holder
• Filters
• Remote release
• Memory Cards
• Spare battery
• Cleaning cloth
• Spirit level
• Tripod
• Hat
• Gloves
• Drink/snacks
• Head torch
• Mobile Phone
• Camera rain cover (carrier bag)
• GPS/Map/compass/Location Details
• Tidetimes/weather forecast
• Appropriate Clothing

Update 27 March 2007

Bill Speaks has a much more detailed packing & to do list list on his site which should give you a few more ideas of what you require. Ohh...and some very nice shots in his gallerys too!

Labels: Equipment, Taking Pictures