So…there you are, writing away, and suddenly your character boards a plane for Pretoria, South Africa (can you even fly there? I have no idea…it might be a tiny village for all I know, or a huge metropolis) or your character’s father lives in Albuquerque (which you chose because it’s a great word). But what do Pretoria or Albuquerque look like? Well, have I got the website for you!

My husband is a photographer and he just joined a network of blogs linking together over five hundred photographers who are taking daily pictures of various locations worldwide. Every day, amateur and professional photographers in these rural areas, towns, villages, cities, and sometimes even specific neighbourhoods, take a single photo and post it on their blog. To find the blog for the place you’re interested in, go to City Daily Photo. One of the particularly cool things is that as people post, it is updated every hour with new photos. That means if you just want to look for interesting places, you can do it by photos. And if you want to look for specific places, you can do a search or use their interactive world map.

I think as a writer this is a fantastic resource! And if you want to see my husband’s blog for our island, click this link. Oh, and by the way, yes…I did have his permission to use the photo on this post. Just…you know…so you don’t think I violated his copyright (the way he sometimes does by snagging pictures I took and saying, “Oh, I’m sure I took this one…look how good it is!“).