# Trading some location scouting?



## Lord Ben (Sep 18, 2013)

My story is set in a fantasy land but it's basically the US West with a different map and background.  A Western saloon is the same as one in this world, etc.   

I'd like some ordinary pics of some rocky skyline.  Everyday average stuff, not the tourist type skylines with famous peaks.   Maybe a some of the rough mountain scrub brush that doesn't grow great, etc.   Nothing specific, I just notice my writing is woefully short on surroundings.   Things like "stepping outside town into the forest" is okay if I'm describing a Wisconsin forest but an Arizona/Montana type mountainous forest I'm needing some help.

If anyone is also interested I live out in Wisconsin farming country near Lake Michigan.  Lots of forests, farms, fields, lakes, rivers, old abandoned farming buildings, etc.   If anyone has anything they'd like me to snap a cell phone pic of while driving (obviously I'd stop) around I'd be more than happy to do so.

Feel free to use the thread for your own requests even if it's not something I can do.


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## skip.knox (Sep 19, 2013)

When I need this sort of thing, and I often do, I turn to Google Earth and to Google Maps. Pick a place and start zooming in. Make sure the option to show pictures is turned on.

One of the many good things about this approach is that the pictures come from every season and different times of day. That can be invaluable. Another good thing is that the pictures are taken for many different purposes, so you can get some shots that you'd never get from a professional.

I really recommend it.


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## Lord Ben (Sep 19, 2013)

Yeah, that works pretty good and I've done a bit of that but sometimes people are looking for something specific.  One of the advice things I found suggested taking photos and using those but the author appeared already successful enough where he could take a vacation to someplace swampy in order to investigate the small little details of wildlife.   

I don't have a specific need for it but for example if I wanted to know the way the roots look going into the ground on some gnarled scrub brush in the mountains that's not the kind of thing I'm likely to find off Google.  Same for details of some cityscape like what kind of debris is in some random alley (If any, are they clean?) I never set foot inside a city if I can help it and when I do it's just walmart and target type places.   So if anyone wants to know what a 120+ year old root cellar looks like I can pry open the cellar doors I never use and take some pictures of my abandoned basement...    Farm house next door to me that I used to live in has been used for farming since around the civil war.  The outhouse is gone and it has power and a satellite dish but the Cream City Brick exterior is the same for well over a century since it was built.

Anyway, enough about my home area.  For those situations in which Google isn't helpful, I'm available.


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