I've been spending the past few post-exam days putting together my March trip to Maine. In the process, I've discovered an incredible tool for planning which lights to see and skip, especially offshore.

Flickr.

I've used Flickr for several years now for my photo hosting, and love to peruse it whenever I'm planning to travel somewhere. But I never thought to use it for lighthouse planning. Here's how it's useful.

Example: I'm trying to figure out if I can get a good enough shot of Wood Island, ME Light to make it worth a stop. So I plug "Wood Island Lighthouse Maine" into the search function, and get this picture: http://flickr.com/photos/brentdanley/569918815/

This looks like a nice shot, from where I'd be taking mine. I might even be able to get tighter. So I click "More Properties" (under "Additional Information") to see what focal length it was taken at.

Seeing as this shot was taken at 112mm, I know I can both get a nice, tight shot with my 75-300 telephoto, as well as some more "atmospheric" shots at wider focal lengths. So I add the light to the itinerary.

I'm doing this for my whole trip, and it's amazing how much easier it is to judge the worthwhile of a stop this way, as opposed to looking at maps and trying to remember what a lighthouse a mile away looks like. (It's easy to forget the scale!) It reminds me of the day I realised how useful satellite photos and GPS coordinates could be in my lighthousing planning. I'm also seeing some great photographs and getting ideas for perspectives to use on my trip.

Hopefully this little tidbit can help others in their planning.