This is the beach where i plan to shoot. I can get almost ground level from the beach as well as shots up on the footpath on the right. Quite an elevation difference.
Note that I won't be taking absolute ground level shots. I'm not dropping my equipment in the sand or water for the sake of science. I think the minimum elevation will be about 1m. Maybe a little less.
Here is some data that you might want to have when you shoot your images...
- Height of eye above sea level. For the shots where you are set up directly on the beach this should be fairly simple, but you might want to determine what it is going to be when you are shooting from the footpath.
- Weather data. Temperature and barometric pressure data will help people make calculations on refraction and other weather related phenomenon. This can be downloaded from NOAA's website if you are in the US, or I am sure that other national weather bureaus have similar data.
- A shot of the ship as it passes your location. This will provide a baseline image (and maybe name of the vessel if the magnification is great enough) that will show the separation between the various pieces of the ship (house, ventilators, stack, etc). With the name of the ship we should be able to get data on the length and possibly freeboard (distance between the waterline and the main deck) that will help determine how much of the vessel isn't visible as it passes over the horizon.