Hopefully you know by this point that I love photography.  I like the freedom it gives me not only to capture a memory of a place but the emotion of it as well (through editing and processing software).  I’ll take pictures of anything and anyone, but my real passion is for landscape photography.  There’s absolutely nothing like finding the perfect spot, having the sky show up the way you want it to, and get The Shot.  It’s an amazing feeling.

This weekend I was on a mileage run to Hong Kong and had a blast.  During the trip I managed to take one of my all-time best pictures.  I’m saving that one for a picture of the week post but here’s another one that I really liked.

Sunrise over Victoria Harbour

Now, I’ve received quite a few requests to go a little deeper into photography tips, so I’m going to do just that.  I’m starting with my single biggest tip.  Now, if you go to a number of other blogs, they’ll tell you that you need to go to flickr and 500px to search through a ton of photos to scout out your locations, and that’s not bad advice at all if you’re a pro.  I’m not (although I’d like to be someday) and most of you aren’t either.  So instead of hours of research on Google Maps and those other sites, I’ll boil it down to one single tip for you.

My huge secret for finding the best places to take photos

You’re going to laugh at how simple this is.  But it works every single time.  I’ve tried it in about 20 cities and it’s never failed to provide exactly what I need.

Search Google for the following: Best places to propose in [where you’re going]

Yep, that’s it.  You will find at least 5-10 articles (usually written by locals) that will tell you exactly where you need to go to find either the perfect scenic outlook or the most special experience in that city.  It’s worked for me literally every time I’ve tried it.  Now, once you’re at the place there’s still the matter of taking the picture, which is something I’ll cover soon.

Don’t believe that’s all it takes to find great scenic spots for pictures?  Try it for your town and see what pops up!  Let me know the results!