Wanderlust Wisdom

Photography Hacks

Trip planning to some extent is a constraint satisfaction problem and one of the key constraints to take into consideration is sunlight for best photos. When planning a trip, it's important to consider the position of the sun in any attraction. This is especially important for travelers who wish to take great photos so that some of your most beautiful and cherished travel moments can be captured in stunning detail through the lens of your cameras . There's nothing worse than traveling all the way to an iconic location and ending up with poorly lit photos.

Make sure to calculate the sun's position at the time you plan to visit to ensure that you get the best lighting possible. The best position of the sun for taking great photos depends on a number of factors, including the time of day, the location, and the type of photo you're trying to take. In general, early morning and late afternoon (known as the "golden hours") are considered the best times for outdoor photography, as the light is softer and more flattering. 

For example, consider Yellowstone National Park. Here’s the planning strategy:

Step 1

Gather the position of the attraction relative to the sun and find an ideal time range to visit the attractions based on the sun’s position. As a simple rule of thumb it's generally best to have the sun behind the photographer or to the side, as this creates a more flattering, natural-looking light on the subject's face.

SUN -> PHOTOGRAPHER -> SUBJECT -> ATTRACTION

The Grand Prismatic Spring is best seen in the morning, when the rising sun illuminates the steam rising from the spring. Similarly, the Lower Yellowstone Falls is best seen in the afternoon, when the sun is shining on the falls from the east. The Mammoth Hot Springs are also best seen in the morning, when the sun is shining on the terraces from the east. The Old Faithful Geyser is best seen in the late afternoon, when the sun is shining on the geyser from the west. The Hayden Valley is best seen in the afternoon, when the sun is shining on the valley from the west. The Lamar Valley is best seen in the early morning or late afternoon, when the sun is low in the sky and casting long shadows across the valley. The West Thumb Geyser Basin is also best seen in the afternoon, when the sun is shining on the geysers from the west. Artist Point is best seen in the morning, when the sun is shining on the canyon walls from the east.

Step 2

Now that you have the set of locations and the ideal time you want to visit those locations, next step is to formulate a plan with these constraints. This now becomes a variant of traveling salesman problem (TSP) which is a problem in discrete or combinatorial optimization. Given a list of attractions and the distances between each pair of attractions, what is the shortest possible route that visits each attraction exactly once and returns to the origin starting point.