For me personally the "World photographer" mode ist what I have always longed for. Just ignore the stress of airport taxiing or checklists and concentrate on the beauty of flight and on the beauty of this planet ... and admire it as long as it's still beautiful.

If you are looking for a guide you might be looking to achieve the corresponding Steam achievements. Well, hopefully I can help you along the way. Not mainly by giving away secrets, and let's be true: You likely don't need a hint how to photograph Golden Gate Bridge at night or such. But still in its current state (as for 2025 with Sim Update 2) the World Photographer mode has its caveats and going for the Steam achievements seriously can easily cost you dozens of days or not be feasible at all! So be warned. You better enjoy the landscape than taking it too seriously.

The achievements relevant for World photographer are (in order of perceived difficulty):

• Amateur photographer - Trivial, just use photo mode and shoot a photo.
  
• Say Threese - Easy. "Take three 3 star photos in World Photographer, in three separate collections." There are enough choices for "3 star" missions where none of the requirements are too difficult.
  
• Scrapbooking - Easy. "Complete¹ a Collection Page in World Photographer." Be wise and choose one where all the tasks appear doable (like European Castles Tour).
  
• Sky full of stars - Medium. Just pick missions you think you can achieve, prioritizing on those which can get you up to 3 stars at once. Takes time, but is not difficult.
  
• Skyward Sightseer - Medium. " You have to fly over 7 landmarks by hot-air balloon and stay near each of them for 3 minutes. Since you can influence the wind this should not be an issue in cities like Paris, Berlin or London. Maybe cities with skyscrapers are not perfect for this task.
  
• Expanded Portfolio - Hard. "Complete¹ 10 Collection Pages". It is possible, but given that each page contains around 15 missions you must be aware that this is a significant time investment. And you better not waste your time on collections which depend on luck such as the Animal collections. Before you start a collection, check you are up to all the tasks, e.g. in terms of required aircrafts.
  
• Multifaceted Photography - Very hard. "Complete¹ a Collection Page for Aviation, Man-Made, Nature and Fauna each" Man-Made and Nature are easy, Aviation doable (if you stick with aircrafts you can handle). The hard part is imho the animal collections. There are only two to select from and some of the animals (hyenas, monkeys) are extremely hard to find. You'll find details in the corresponding chapters.

¹ Attention: For Steam "complete" means: Get all stars! See following section.

Also noticeable are following achievements:

• 5K Fun Run - Easy, but I mention this here only because currently (Winter 2025) your walking will only count in "Free Flight" but not if you walk around in "World photographer" missions. Which somehow is ... counter-intuitive.
  
• Jack of all Trades - Medium. Complete 3 missions in World Photographer, Career and Challenge League. It's up to you if you want to start a career or do air-racing as well.

Here are some collections that can easily be completed, with easy meaning that (a) you don't need a helicopter to fulfill all objectives and (b) there are no requirements for specific "live times" which can only be fulfilled at certain real-life days or seasons and (c) you are not depending on other players in Multiplayer nor on a lot of luck:

• Nature: Shades of Seasons, The landscapes of Europe
  
• Man-Made: Europe Castle Tour, Space: The Skies Beyond, (Paris City Tour²)
  
• Fauna: None (Both are extremely time-consuming, requiring luck to find very rare animals such as hyenas or monkeys)
  
• Aviation: ? (Not yet found any.) The "General Aviation and Leisure Aircraft" is fairly easy if you are somewhat familiar with helicopters as it includes 3 such missions. It doesn't require you to start or land one, just to control them in mid-air.

All listed collections are fun ones and are very rewarding in terms of scenic landscapes.

² The Notre Dame Mission requires the Cabri G2 helicopter and it took me hours to find out that I have to unassign the throttle axis from my Yoke because it interferes with the helicopter's "correlator" (kind of automatic throttle) making the gauge and the aircraft itself go crazy because of the contradicting values.

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In Windows they are stored as PNG images in the folder
C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024\Screenshot\

You can safely delete photos from there which is far more comfortable than from within the game! Also you can save considerable disk space by converting the images to JPG and storing them somewhere else, after which you can clean-up your photo album. As far as I have read you can even delete those images which gave you like 3 stars and serve as your cover images for these missions in FS2024. The game obviously keeps a copy of them, which makes sense.

There are a few things to aid you and a few thing to know because Microsoft has included what I would call bugs that can cost you much time.

• If a mission requires you to photograph yourself with the plane, then you better stick with the suggested plane. I had the case that the game would not count my photo simply because it didn't show the expected aircraft. (Although the mission doesn't indicate a specific type of aircraft is reqired.) There are other cases where it doesn't matter though.
  
• If you are looking for animals, the "Powrachute Sky Rascal" is perfect. It's slow and you can even look a bit downward if you zoom out. You can quickly land and its simple to start and fly with only the minimum of buttons and "bells and whistles".
  
• If you need to cover large distances even with a slow plane like the "Sky Rascal", increase the sim rate or alternatively use the "slew mode". Unless this is against your principles, of course ... I bound "sim rate increase/decrease" onto two easily reachable keyboard buttons. Note that animals will always move at the same speed, even if the game is paused.
  
• Some of the mission texts are mistranslated. I will tell you about cases I came across with the German translation, but if in doubt you might consider switching to English temporarily and check the requirements in that language. They may differ!
  
• The "photo mode" allows you to move the camera outside the airplane. This way you can get closer to the ground (sometimes required) or closer to some animals or change the angle of view as required by the mission without having to position your aircraft or helicopter that accurately.
  
• If you are lost walking around, press Esc and use the "Free Cam" to find out from the air where you are and possibly where your photo target is relative to you.
  
• Make a list of the requirements that possible could occur in the area you are flying. You might get a "drive-by" photo even if looking for something different. For example, one flight over Yellowstone can get you the stars for 3 or 4 animals, even for those which are not your current mission goal. You just have to know the game's requirements for each of them. Same in Africa.
  
• Set animal density to "Ultra" in the settings when looking for animals. ("Ultra" actually means "Not that sparse")
  
• When scouting for animals it can help to turn "rock" quality to "OFF" as this saves a lot of double checking whether some spot you see is an animal or just an large rock.
  
• Animals are easier to spot on snow. Might be difficult for Giraffes though. 😉
  
• Animals are most likely to be found on clearings, on fields or other areas devoid of trees. They also spawn in dense forests but it's hard to impossible to see them through a tree canopy from a plane.
  
• Speaking about animal spawning, there's also an irritating bug: If you press Esc and the click on the top right toolbar to enter your profile (e.g. in order to look at your photo album) then this will instantly reset all animal positions, meaning that the animals which you just saw will have disappeared when returning to the game. New ones will start spawning at different places.
  
• As far as I know you can forget almost everything about animal behavior you know because this game is far from reality when it comes to questions of where and when to find animals, how they behave towards men etc. My experience - yet to be contradicted - is that the game's animal engine it too simplistic to know about activity times, about hiding skills, about animal interaction and such. If it were realistic you would never ever find wolves from a plane, for instance.
  
• Speaking of behaviour: All (adult) animals have bed-time starting at 6:00 to 6:05 pm, no matter what. They will lie down and go to sleep. Even wolves. Lying animals are harder to find but they don't run away.
  
• One trick I and others came up with for rare animals is to just take photos in all directions and if the desired animal is spawned somewhere in the scene, the evaluation dialog will come up. If not, just fly a bit further and repeat. I'm not sure this is a time saver though, and it quickly fills your digital photo album (and SSD) with garbage images. Admittedly. so far I never found a rare animal this way but it might be your last resort.
  
• Customize the controls to make zooming in photography much more intuitive. You will need it very often, especially when looking for animals. Zooming with the scroll wheel is just plain slow.
  
• The well known cheats used to find animals in Flight Simulator 2020 on the world map don't work in Flight Simulator 2024. I know there are cheats but didn't use them for finding them initially.

You find more tips about photographing animals in the following forum[www.trueachievements.com] at "TrueAchievments".

Oh, and one more note: It is pointless to publish exact coordinates of found animals because they spawn randomly, so others will not find animals at the same spot. It's sufficient to name a broad area.

This is not by chance the first collection in "World photographer". The buildings to be photographed are as breathtaking in FS 2024 as they are in reality.

It is also a rewarding collection, as it is not difficult and not time-consuming to finish the basic task, that is, photographing the sights in any way you like.

There is one caveat in this collection, however, and this is Ankor Wat. If you are completionist and want all three stars for this mission, you'll have a tough time. The reason is that the third star requires you to photograph the building "on the dawn of an equinox day with live time and weather. This means that this star can be earned only two times a year, and depending on where you live it might be morning, noon, afternoon or midnight. In Europe, for example, it will be around noon, so when most people are working and have more urgent things to do than play flight simulator.

Honestly, I have no clue how someone came up with such a stupid idea for a requirement...

The only good thing is, as I said, you are not required to earn all stars to "complete" the collection, which is what most Steam achievements are about.

The game will default for a helicopter for some missions but you can easily change this to a plane of your choice if you don't feel safe flying a helicopter or don't have the right equipment.

I'm not gonna list all missions here, because most of them are trivial. Just a few notes to selected ones:

• Sphinx - In case you wonder what "the sun resting on the Sphinx's right shoulder " means. It means indeed the right shoulder from the point of view on the Sphinx. So since you stand opposite to it, the sun must be left of the head.
  
• Taj Mahal - "From a low angle" essentially means that the camera must be on the ground (or slightly above) as if you are walking around. This can be done with the photo mode or you can take the "Sky Rascal" and take on the challenge to land in the park in front of the monument. It's possible. Just don't be disappointed that you cannot walk on the raised paths and that Taj Mahal has no entrance for you to enter.
  
• Ankor Wat - As I said, just ignore that stupid third star which is out of reach most of the year.
  
• Christ the Redeemer - Although it's easier to navigate to a suitable position with a helicopter I managed to do it with the Powrachute at the first attempt. Just come flying from the right direction and stop near the required position. Fine tuning can be done using the photo mode's movement.
  
• Eiffel tower - This gave me some headache at first, but the solution is to set the time of day when the sun is pretty far up and the shadow of the tower's top is cast onto a place which is accessible. Again, low angle means: "from the street". I took the liberty to land near "Trocerado" and walk up to the point which meets the requirement, playing the innocent tourist. See "photo" below.
  
• Forbidden city - Take this "from a top-down view" seriously. Just ascent far up and photograph the whole area almost similar to how a satellite would do it.
  
• Chichen Itza - The "snake of light" is a zig-zag stripe that appears on the right side wall of the stairs (see mission photo). It is therefore easiest if you are standing somewhat to the right of the stairs when you adjust the day and time. (Again I took the liberty to land there.)
  
• Moai statues - There's an awkward bug in FS 2024: The statues are not visible. Just fly where the marker tells you, photograph the empty hill with the sun behind it and you'll get your star ... for a photo not showing the statues themselves.
  
• Stonehenge - Easy to complete. I just want to mention that with the time of day and weather I got I had a beautiful rainbow in the sky. (But not in the direction I had to photograph, of course. We are supposed to photograph towards the sun.)

This world has lots of fantastic places with wonders of the nature, spread over the whole planet. Some of the most beautiful landscapes are protected by National Parks in the US. So this collection promises to become a feast for the eye, and if you get out of your plane, you might even hear the birds singing, see the flowers blooming and smell ... ah no, we are not yet at this point.

You might notice that a few well-known National Parks are missing, e.g. Bryce Canon. I checked out this canyon and was quite a bit disappointed, compared to Google Earth (and even more compared to reality). The fine-grained pillars and slot canyons of Bryce Canon are not reflected well in the MSFS 2024 terrain. Hopefully some future world update or custom scenery will improve this.

Attention In this collection there is a task for a star which can only be fulfilled in spring in "live time". It's not a collection you can "complete" in your Christmas holidays, for example.

Some noteworthy missions that exist are:

• Grand Canyon - Just fly close to the rim and then you can use the photo mode to get far enough from the plane. Using a wide angle shot makes the plane even smaller. A simple task.
  
• Yosemity NP - It should not be difficult to get all three stars with a photo of El Capitan and Half Dome and the sun behind it. Both distinctive mountains are custom 3D models and unfortunately you can see this because the don't blend too well with the rest of the terrain. The streets in Yosemite look like forest tracks, at some places they are hardly visible at all. Still, I liked the scenery that much that I just landed my Powrachute on the flood-plain and wandered off through the beautiful flower meadows and along the creek ...
  
• Grand Teton NP - Here we have a hefty set of requirements: You need to find bisons and it must be spring in real life because the game requires that there is spring in "live time". This also means that it might be dark in the west-central US at the time when you are flying ... I'd recommend to fire the person who came up with this idea.
  Apart from this the Grand Tetons themselves are breathtaking landscape, indeed, and they look equally beautiful in the simulator, be it a sunny winter day or a summer scene.
  
• Grand prismatic spring - It's an easy mission and but one that's definitely worth doing because not only you get to see the Grand prismatic spring and the bison herd which is sometimes spotted near it, but also because on it's way there you can fly over the "Old faithful" geyser. And to my surprise it is even erupting in MSFS 2024. Quite a sight.
  The Grand prismatic spring indeed looks more impressive from the air than from the ground, and it looks better from some distance in the game because from closeup it looks as if it is somewhat raised over the surrounding terrain which it is not in reality.
  
• Red mountains - Getting this star is trivial, but I found the red mountains not red enough during the day, so this is my preferred photo of this area ... with "Alpenglow".
  
• Cliff Palace - Since it is your mission to land nearby and photograph this iconic cave on foot the default helicopter is a good choice. Alternatively you can choose the "Sky Rascal" and try your luck because it needs few space to get down and stop. I managed to bring it down on the road with a bit of luck. (And I don't recommend trying this in reality.)
  One thing that left me sad is that again (as in so many other places) there are too many trees. In this case they do not only cover the nearby sun temple at the end of the road loop so it's basically disguised in the flight simulator. Worse, the famous "Cliff palace" is hardly visible because obscured by several trees. In reality there are only small trees in front of this carved gallery in the cliff that do not obscure the view. So the outlook might disappoint of you know the real thing.
  
• Crater lake - This is arguably the mission that can be completed the quickest. If you set up the time appropriately before the launch all you need to do after the flight starts is to grab your camera and fire to get the star photo. A low-hanging fruit indeed.
  Since this defies the whole point of discovering this really interesting crater lake I still played around with photo locations, angles and weather until I got other shots I liked, e.g. the one below. No sun in the frame but hey, who cares?
  

As initially noted both animal collections are currently almost impossible to complete due to a few extremely are animals, here especially hyenas (and even more baby hyenas) and lions. But also cheetahs and ostriches can cost you a lot of time.


You can find many of the requested animals in certain common spots, and if you ever have been in Africa of if you have watched nature documentaries you know these spots. And sure enough, these national parks and reserves are a good starting point, although they will not present you every animal living there in real life. So you might try ...

• Etosha National Park (Namibia) - Contains African buffalo, zebra, giraffes, gnu. More rare: elephants, white rhino. Very rare: Ostrich, hyena (!)
  
• Ngorogoro crater (Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania) - Contains African buffalo, zebra, Thomson’s gazelle, giraffe and dromedary camel. More rare: bush elephants, hippopotamus and rhinos.
  
• Flood-plains of (and north of) Chobe NP, Botswana: The usual suspects: African buffalo, giraffe, zebra. More rare: hippopotamus.
  
• Kruger National Park (South Africa) - Found a warthog, but otherwise my first safari there was rather disappointing. (In real live we had spotted, among countless birds, Impala and some zebras, quite a few elephants near or in rivers, but not a single one in the game.) On later flights I found giraffes, zebra and (of course) African buffalo. More rare: hippopotamus, rhino, warthog. Choose an area with few trees, e.g. north of Satara camp/airstrip.
  
• Plains around HKAM Ambroseli airstrip, N of Kilimanjaro, Kenya: African buffalo, gnu, zebra, giraffe. More rare: Elephant, ostrich, Thomson's gazelle, dromedary camel

Note that the animal lists may not be exhaustive.

Another note for animal photographers: You might, for a change, try to fly near or after sundown. Many animals will lay down at night, so you might capture some still-lifes you would not get during the day. And sleeping animals don't run away. 😁


Giraffes might not be the most common animals in the world of FS2024, but they are easy enough to find in Etosha National park (e.g. on the salt pan), Ngorogoro crater and other regions. Photographing them close-up on foot and "with the sun in the frame" as requested for a 3-star photo should not be difficult either if you have an aircraft you can easily land on - lets say - the Etosha salt pan or on a meadow in Ngorogoro crater.

Fun fact: Did you know there are 9 giraffe (sub)species in FS2024? Covered them in the animal bonus chapter.

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Elephants are more rare animals, but again I found them both on the Etosha salt pan and in Ngorogoro crater, but only once on each flight. Each time a rather compact herd of about 6 adult elephants appeared (or maybe "apparated") suddenly not far in front of the aircraft. (I believe once even while the simulation was paused.)


After I had photographed one herd as requested, I pressed Esc and clicked on the top right profile toolbar in order to check the photo album for the image. This caused the elephants to instantly "disapparate". Continuing the simulation I realized they had disappeared into thin air.

The strange thing is that Elephants can appear and disappear, but they never move or blink. I guess Asobo didn't have real elephants at hand, so they used statues instead.

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In Etosha NP zebras are the second most common animal to encounter in my experience. (And Ngorogoro crater also hosts them.) So finding them is a matter of minutes. It is a bit more challenging to find a baby zebra and photograph it "close-up" from the ground. But again, if you can land on a salt pan or meadow it's not difficult either. Just be sure to keep your distance so the zebras don't run away. You don't want a photo of a zebra's backside. Or maybe you want ... ?

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To earn the star you need to find a whole pride. There are rock outcrops in the Serengeti known because lions like to lie on them. Not in this flight simulator, though.

Let me phase it like this: Your chance to find a lion in southern Africa is significantly higher if you fly to a National park there in real life and take part on a whole-day group safari tour with a local guide. Etosha, Kruger NP, Chobe NP etc. - anything has more lions than this simulator, it seems. Admittedly a vacation there will cost you even more than a FS2024 license.


However it seems that Arli National Park or Pendjari NP in Burkina Faso resp. Benin hold more lions. I found two prides there within 1h and the second one had at least one male and two lionesses as requested.


Rhinos are generally known to be aggressive towards anything unknown, including men. They easily charge at people and vehicles, often stopping right in front of the assumed source of danger. Thus it is fine that you may shoot your "close-up" photo of a rhino from the safety of an aircraft or helicopter, if you prefer the latter.

So far I only saw rhinos in Etosha National Park - once, i believe, in proximity to the "Okaukuejo airport". "Okaukuejo" is nowadays one of the well-known tourist hotspots in the Park with a visitor center, camping area, accommodations, pools, a water hole and so on. I encountered the other herd of rhinos far north of the airport on the west side of the salt pan. Not sure what rhinos would do there in real life but this is where I found them, strange enough directly next to a herd of Elephants, which are also rare. I wonder if there is some "rare animal hotspot"...


Haven't seen any poachers around, luckily. ;-)


Hippos can be seen as of the more rare animals in the game. I succeeded finding some in the eastern part of the Ngorogoro crater near a small river. I originally expected some on the shores of the ponds and the lake in Ngorogoro but had no luck there. (Might be different for other players.)


If you find none in Ngorogoro, you can either look somewere else or you can start another attempt after the animal locations have been re-set, e.g. after a simulator re-start or after a look into the photo album (=current bug). Also note that in FS 2024 hippos need not be close to water bodies although the do not stray very far from them in reality. I also found one herd somewhere in the savanna of Kruger NP north of Satara camp.

Anyway, once you have found them then changing the day-time to dusk or dawn is the easiest part.

Finally after days and almost giving up I came across a flock of ostriches. In found them on what I think is a field in a vast agricultural area around Pandamatenga in northern Botswana. Currently I am not sure if they prefer to spawn on such fields or if this was pure coincidence. But I can understand when they like high grass. Thy can look above it, I cannot. Your task is to photograph a running specimen, which is not difficult because they do this pretty often, especially when a plane approaches.


Speaking of birds, I haven't seen any other birds so far, not even Flamingos on Lake Natron.


Rare but findable, e.g. in Ngorogoro crater and Etosha, but not on the salt pan as far as I can tell. They would be easier to find if they were not so easy to mix-up with the far more common African Buffalo herds. Look closer if unsure what kind of herd you have in front of you.

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If you start in Okaukuejo airport in Etosha, Namibia and head north, chances are good that the first herd you will see is a buffalo herd, maybe already around the airport. And probably the second and third herd will be buffalo herds too. At least on the Etosha salt pan, like 80% of all spotted animal herds were buffalo (and 15% zebras and 5% all the rest).


So ... get airborne, grab your camera and wait for them to walk into the scene.
To make things not too easy you need to photograph them on foot in order to earn a star.


Cheetahs are rare, indeed, but I found one that was easily visible, as it was walking on a large meadow west of Rustenburg, South Africa. This is one of the locations marked on the map. Might have been luck, I don't know. With a more pleasing background than houses and pylons some nicer photos with the landscape would have been possible.












In order to get the star, you need to photograph the cheetah running. This is typically easy, as the cheetah will run away when a plane or person approaches. It's much harder to get close to it to get some close-up portraits of it when it's not running. I've been able to sneak quite close to it using the "crouching" ("C" key) mode. Just be sure to keep some distance, otherwise the cheetah will outrun you quite certainly.

It's said to be the toughest mission to find a hyena, let alone one with offspring which you are supposed to photograph. They appear very rarely and are easy to overlook on brown ground. Two people posted photos hyena on Etosha Pan (in FS 2024 I mean) and indeed this region is marked on the world map. So far I didn't have luck finding any predator myself in Etosha by sight.

Out of curiosity and in order to provide you some images I used the Dev tools to locate hyena, and I have learnt a few things this way which can at least assist you finding them:

Hints:

• There's typically one pack somewhere on Southern Etosha Pan. The exact place is random and also if there is a juvenile with them or not.
  
• The typically occur in packs. (There's always a chance to meet a single animal, though.)
  
• They can theoretically be found at all times of the day.
  
• As most animals they go to sleep exactly at 6 pm (until 6 am) and when they lie down in the grass they are even harder to spot with their light brown color.
  
• If you want to increase your chance of spotting them, turn off stones, plants and grass, as hyena can easily mixed up with rocks. (The image on the right was created with these settings.) Also, fly very low, they are not that big.

Spotted hyena, literally (left). Should give you an impression how they look from plane.

Want a bite?

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This star was a drive-by photo for me. I encountered one by chance in Kruger National Park when looking for elephants (in vain), photographed it close-up from the air and got the star. Days later I found another three in Kruger NP after a long flight.

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Forest elephants might be rather small compared to the other species of Elephant and yet no small you'll overlook them when they there. I chose the west-most area whose orange color indicates a somewhat high animal density and I chose a starting point almost in the center of the leftmost square. This is a hilly landscape covered with dense forest and initially I was skeptical I'd find anything there. But there are clearings and on one larger of them I found some bovine specie and on another one I saw a group of the elephants. Since they don't run away getting the "low angle" photo was not so difficult, although the game requested it really low angle.

Phew, this photo was finally "low angle" enough. Otherwise I would have needed to dig a hole.

Finding kangaroos was OK for me. It probably was luck but the very first group I encountered had a baby with them, so it was a quick win.
The most surprising thing ist that when I landed close to them, got out of my Powrachute and walked towads them they didn't jump away. So I got a nice selfie ...


P.S. Don't try to do this at your local zoo. Real kangaroos, especially those with juveniles, don't want to be pet and besides, getting a kick from them can send you to the hospital.


The requirements of this missions are: Photograph a polar bear

• In a group
  
• With a juvenile
  
• With your aircraft in the distance

Now let's for a second forget that this simulation is a game. Assume that in reality you'd want (or have) to these requirements. Since you can only get your aircraft in the distance when you leave the aircraft, this means: You have to find a pair or group of polar bears with a juvenile, you have to land your plane next to them without a runway (hopefully on snow). Then you have to walk around the bear group and sneak up from behind to get the bears and the aircraft onto one photo while the bear mum tries to protect her cub, will attack and likely kill you.

Doesn't sound like a good idea to me...

Now wait, isn't a simulation trying to be close to reality. Never mind, luckily it's just a game. Still I wonder if the developers who came up with these requirements are a bit sadistic....


Well, I found plenty of polar bears in the marked area near the cost. I even managed to "shoo" two of them together so I got a photo of a group. That's about it. I never found a bear cub and my aircraft war never accepted on the photo, even when I left it far off in the distance. Probably the bug that I didn't use the default selected "XCub" aircraft.


You are requested to photograph an elephant in a "full family group" (biologists would write: 1,1,1) close-up and on foot in order to get all three stars.

The close-up is not the issue. The first issue is finding forest elephants. I found some on the edge of some small clearing in the jungle east of Bangkok. It was pure luck and took me "only" maybe half an hour. The second issue is that I didn't have my parachute with me in order to leave the plane while flying. In other words: I had to find some clearing large enough to land my plane.

I can recommend the "Powrachute Sky Rascal" for such tasks as it can land with just 150-200 meters of free space when approaching with low speed and it will stop almost immediately after starting to brake. And yet, it took me a dozen of attempts to get town on one "nearby" clearing without hitting some solitary trees or crashing at the trees behind the clearing.

After a final successful landing I first came across some (black?) bear (-> drive-by photo) and then I took on a walk through the jungle. Using Esc and "Free cam" is the only way I know how to not get lost in the forest, as the EFB doesn't show your position when outside the aircraft. Even when running it took me like 15 minutes to find my way back to the elephants. Quite a hiking tour.


I found the forest elephant herd and got at least 2 stars. Unfortunately it wasn't a "full family group" as there was no juvenile with them.


For the bison I chose an orange-colored area in the "Wichita Mountains" in the US mid-west. This hilly area looked quite well-suited for "plains bison" and yes, after an hour of scouting from my Powrachute I found a group, luckily including mother and calf as requested.


This is how such missions should work. About an hour per animal on average would be fine.

Days later when I had flown across Yellowstone and had seen literally dozens of bison herds there I wondered if they also would have counted or if the game really makes a difference between "Plains Bison" and "Wood Bison"? Please give me feedback if you find out. If the bisons of Yellowstone had counted it would have likely saved me quite some time.


I will make it short: Go looking for them where you would expect them - in Jellystone ... pardon ... Yellowstone National Park. If you fly in winter, they are easily spottable as larger black dots on clearings. Not exactly with "ultra density" but imho hard to miss when flying low above the trees.


Brown bears in FS2024 don't want to be photographed from close-up and will run away if you approach them. Good thing is, a photo of a bear's back side can also ear you a star.
And at least they don't charge at you or steal your picknick baskets.

P.S: Are supposed to be found in the Pyrenees but I combed their southern side without finding a single one. Otherwise the landscape there can be breathtaking.


Visually similar it is Yogi bear's relative, in some way. However you can easily tell them apart: First, black bears don't live in Europe. Second, the black bears in FS2024 have a very buggy behaviour. You won't take them for bears if you don't look closely because they stand half in the ground with only their back visible. When I first found two of them in the Appalachian Mountains ... each seemingly digging a hole in a sports field of a settlement.


Also they only move a meter forward before the animation starts over, so essentially they cannot move away. You can even walk over to them. Veeery weird.

These bears can also be found in Yellowstone, if I am not mistaken. Look for brown humps moving back and forth. 😉


You have been granted to task to find wolves from a plane. And not just that. You are supposed to photograph it with the moon in the frame. Just let your imagination running wild. You, photographing a howling wolf in front of a large full moon. The photo of the century!

OK, back to reality. Finding wolves from a plane sounds like an impossible task, especially if you don't have some radio-collared wolf to track down. These animals are to elusive, they don't want to be seen, and if they don't want to be seen you don't see them. Ask field biologists working on this topic. Many of them will tell you that the only ever see wolfs on wildlife cameras.

But luckily this is only a game and as luck had it, I found a pack of wolves resting under some trees near a field close to a village. Of course I had been searching not during the night but before dusk.
I chose the map in Greece, checking out the mountains first, but then found some in the plain not far from a settlement, to my surprise.

The rest was relatively easy: I started "Stellarium" (a free astronomy software), set it to the location and checked at what time the moon was visible in the desired direction (east or west !) Then I changed date and time of day and voila, I could see the moon. It was night now.

To my surprise the wolves responded by going to sleep. All of them laid down, just some of them looking around. Well, it didn't get me the photo of the century but it earned me a star anyway.

They can easily be found in Ngorogoro crater or on the Sinai Peninsula. I found a heard of them there on the desert near the west coast. Not too common, but easy to spot once you find them.

You may land your plane and take a selfie with them. They don't bite.

---

Since SimUpdate 1 tigers have finally gotten a map and it shows them to occur on the SW coast of Sumatra. However since there's forest almost everywhere finding is extremely difficult.


Nothing outstanding to mention here. Had no issue finding some, and your only requirement is to get a close-up photo which is easy in photo mode.

This second image was also recognized as Water buffalo by FS2024, but it was shot on the slope of Mount Kilimanjaro. Not where I would expect Water buffalos! Strange...


I've seen several TV documentaries about snow leopards as they are one of my favourite animal - not loud like lions or feisty like leopards. They try to remain unseen and unheard, even the cubs bulge without making any sound. Biologists and film crews often need days to have their first sightings. So how should we ever find them?


Well, fortune was with me this time. After about half an hour I found one in a river valley where I saw it moving over the bare snow.


Can easily be found on clearings around Lake Yellowstone, e.g. on its northern shore. Shouldn't take you very long. If you are up for a challenge, go looking for them in Scandinavia.

---

Attention German players. Microsoft has laid out a trap for you. Not only is the mission title currently untranslated - it says "Elk" when it should say "Wapiti", but also the mission goal is the result of a common mis-translation: The german goal is "Fotografiere einen Elche", which makes it appear as if you are supposed to photograph a moose. The reason is that the German word "Elch" is so similar to the English "Elk" although these two must not be mixed up. Both are "Cervidae" (types of deer), and yes, both have antlers and you can find both in Yellowstone. But hey, they look pretty different, do they?

Anyway, your actual task is to find an elk herd of 20 or more animals. I was lucky to find elk herds at all, only found them in Yellowstone so far, two of them north of Lake Yellowstone on a large flat area that has no trees. None of them was larger than 15 indiviruals, though.

I also checked for elk elsewhere, e.g. in the Appalachian mountains or along the Northern Pacific of the USA but didn't spot a single Elk there. I guess I spentwasted like 6 hours on elk alone, already. Finally gave up getting the star.


P.S. Elk bulls and calves run away from the plane, but the females don't care. You can even get close to them, as shown above. (Supposedly a bug.)


Here we have another deer species, a tad smaller than the elk. But their ears are pretty large which earned them this name. Your task is to ideally find a herd of at least ten.


Well, I consistently encountered small herds of max. 7 them in rural areas on Vancouver Island. However, on the plains of Grand Teton NP they gather in herds of up to ~15 in winter.


I never searched for cows, I just found them on farms in the Pyrenees when looking for other animals.

P.S. Why are all cows I've ever encountered running on the spot?







If you enjoy flights over snowy mountains then you will like the dall sheep, because they also do like the view from up there. I found a group on a mountain ridge near the southern border of the west-most orange area in Alaska marked on the world map. Despite their white color they are easy to spot in open areas in winter when the landscape is snow-covered.

---

If you were asked - in real life I mean - to photograph Proboscis Monkeys, what would you do? I'd probably find some nature reservation on Borneo, contact the rangers or biologists there, organize a visit, fly to Borneo and then get me some good guide/tracker to walk (or maybe drive) around with me to places where these long-nosed monkeys are known to dwell.

Now, Asobo studios thinks it's a good idea to go looking for monkeys by plane. In the deep Jungle of Borneo where like 95% of the area are dense forests and the rest are cities and a few fields. Without a guide. Without even knowing where to look for the monkeys.

Should I search for them in the tree tops of high trees? Should I search for them on the ground? Do I even have a chance to see them from an aircraft or would I need to hike randomly through the jungle on foot?

I didn't know. However I spent 4 hours flying low over cities, fields, a few clearings and many square kilometers of forests without spotting a monkey. And I have now given up.

I've seen screenshots of a players showing the monkeys, so obviously they are there ... somewhere. And just like the other animals they are obviously walking on the ground, partly through dense undergrowth.


This was another drive-by photo. When looking for wolves I came across some brown-white pied horses on some meadows, photographed them and was done. Not exactly what you might have in mind when imagining wild "Mustangs", like in the wild west or in the french Camargue plain, but if pet horses in Greece do the job and get me the star I'm fine with that. The shot below is actually from the Camargue:

---

When I pictured me looking for llamas I imagined flying over grass-covered plains in South america spotting the animals grazing there. Well, things are different in the world of Microsoft. The first alpaca groups I came across were standing on spots where I would least expect them. I encounted them when, out of my interest in vulcanoes and my habit of photographing landscapes from above, I flow up to the top of the Cotopaxi vulcano in the andes in Ecuador. Now, this an active stratovolcano, yet its top is snow-covered. And there they stood, three herds of alpaca, one of them on the rim of the crater.

If I was an alpaca I'd rather live somewhere else than on a hostile active, snow-covered vulcano cone. I mean, even alpacas need some food to live on.
Tip: Alpacas also live on Düsseldorf airport (Germany) in FS2024.

You might say that spotting most animal species in vanilla FS2024 requires some luck, but if you take your time you might sooner or later discover animals which you are not required to photograph. The sheeps might be the most obvious of them, but what about wild animals?

The following list is what hat has been reported in the official FS forum[forums.flightsimulator.com] by others and what I have found so far myself.

If you have come across other animals, big or small, four-legged or winged, please drop me a note or report it to the forum noted above. I wonder what else we can find...


In reality you can find it east and south-east of Lake Victoria (East Africa). And indeed I observed it multiple time when flying in Ngorogoro crater in Tanzania. They are easy to recognize with their black "racing stripe" on both sides of the belly. And quick they are. With a plane you might have a hard time to get close enough for spectacular photos, but if you land nearby and crouch ("C" key) close to them they do not flee that quickly. This is how I got following shots:













If you are very lucky you can find a herd of sable antelopes[en.wikipedia.org] (Hippotragus níger) in southern Africa. It has been reported to be seen in Botswana (in the before-mentioned forum) but I found a herd on the central Etosha Salt Pan after many flights. It was past their bedtime when they spawned which made it easy to get photos:

Aw, the juvenile looks so fluffy. Far more than in reality, I admit.



Given that the list of animal species in FS2024 is pretty limited (compared to the diversity of large mammals in the world) bovines are present in an surprising diversity. Some species like the African Buffalo, Plain Bison and Water buffalo have been covered in chapters before, but there are more:

Zebus actually have their origin in India but according to Wikipedia they are also kept in Africa.


When I took an adventurous flight up to Mount Kilimanjaro I was pretty surprised that a group of what I would call Zebus had reached the peak before me. Well, maybe it was a Bovine expedition group.


Another bovine found near an airfield on an Pacific island.


Sometimes it's the absence of certain animals that is pretty obvious.

One thing I found missing is the Impala. Big impala herds are typically the first type of antelope (if not mammals) you'll see in National Parks in southern Africa (e.g. Kruger NP, Etosha NP). I've been told that in 2017 there lived ~152.000 specimen in Kruger NP alone, making it the #1 game in the park by quite a margin. In FS2024 there's none.

The other animal I have not yet seen or heard reported of are Flamingos. FS2020 used to have them but I have scouted a round Lake Natron (East Africa) in FS2024 without seeing just one. I only found their shapes "baked in" into some of the aerial imagery along the western shore of this lake. No wonder: These flamingo flocks are huge and can be spotted even on satellite images.

This is the animal species I have identified in FS 2024 so far. This list is probably not comprehensive, likely only some Asobo developers know the complete list.

Also note that I only give the places (or some examples) where they can be found in vanilla FS2024 - this does not typically reflect reality, that is, their range is typically more constraint IRL. For example, you don't find all different species of giraffe in Etosha normally.

Update: The bug with several missing rock 3D models is now in SimUpdate 1, so several missions are now "officially broken". You find a workaround in the bug ticket in the FS forum[forums.flightsimulator.com] In short, two POI sceneries from US/UK world updates got automagically disabled. Re-enable them under "Marketplace -> My library" and the rock POIs are visible again.

This is one of these categories in World Photographer where the lack of testing becomes very apparent. As a result I cannot recommend this category for now, unless you just want to see some nice landscapes an don't care for the stars or for completing the whole section.

Let's have a more detailed analysis of some notable rocks ... pardon, missions:

• Bear and Rabbit - The gap between invisible rocks
  Not for the first time I get the impressions that the World Photographer missions were scripted and designed maybe 2021 or 2022 when the FS world must have looked quite different from what it looks now.
  Why? Indeed Monument Valley looks great, as seen from your starting point. However the "Bear and Rabbit" rock formations and "the hen", so essentially those three which are most important, these thee are almost missing. Obviously they have been eroded away with just a pile of sand remaining. Not so in Google Earth which still shows these rocks in full beauty. (Regression since SU1)
  
  
  The problem is criteria one, which requires you to have your plane "in the narrowest slit next to Bear and Rabbit summit". What are you supposed if this slit is not there because the rocks aren't there? I honestly don't know.
  
  I tried to locate my aircraft almost anywhere, tried to use the EFB map and the shadows on the ground but nothing worked. I even switched to the default airplane, but it didn't help.
  
  It's even more disturbing that apart from the very first shot (which gave me the other two stars) I never ever saw the objective evaluation window again, so either it's bugged or all other shots only were worth one star at maximum.
  
  
• Mallos de Riglos - Don't try this with an airplane
  The second 3-star mission is similar and yet quite the opposite. Here the scenery is just fine. The Mallos de Riglos really looks like a gigantic gate with two massive rock pillars and this time the custom 3D assets are visible and even on the correct spot as far as I can tell.
  
  And yet this mission was again frustrating. There are three criteria: The pilot must be standing in a crop near waterm the photo must be taken at shoulder height with the aircraft in the frame and the aircraft's rotor or propeller must stand still. Sound's like I can choose whatever plane or helicopter I like. Since I dislike the Guimbal G2 (which I can hardly keep stable near the ground) I used my preferred "Sky Rascal" and had not a big issue landing on a meadow near a crop field just west of the rover. I rolled onto the crop field, stopped the engine, got off, checked that the propeller was standing still, took the photo - and only got two stars. The criteria with the propeller was not fulfilled from the game's perspective. I repeated everyting with the same result.
  
  
  Long stroy short: What the game wants you to do is to use a helicopter (like the default G2), land it on this field and then wait several minutes until the helicopter's rotors have finally come to a stillstand. ... that's what I am doing right now, having already written this whole section.
  
  Tip: The helicopter has a rotor brake which I highly recommend using, but it wasn't initially assigned to any control, so I first had to create a key binding for it. Unfortunately I had to find this out on my own.
  
  Some four-letter words came to my mind but I want to keep this guide family friendly.
  
  
• Devil's tower - The friendly devil
  
  Shooting the devil's tower at sunrise went smoothly and even the criteria of a "low angle" shot didn't require me to dig into the ground (this time at least). Just make sure to have the sun in your back (not in the background behind the rock).
  
  
  
  What a pity that the characteristic basalt columns of devil's tower are not visible in FS2024 where it looks just like a heap of solid rock standing in the landscape. Here a custom asset would have been nice. (Regression since SU1) But hey, the scenery designers need something to do as well ...
  
  
• Þrídrangar lighthouse - Please photograph the ocean
  
  "Þrídrangaviti" (transliterated as Thridrangaviti Lighthouse) is a formation of several rocks in the ocean south of the coast of Iceland. Your task is to photograph the largest of the rocks with its lighthouse on top. This rock is prominently featured in the FS2024 intro video:
  
  
  And below is how the scene looks in FS2024 (and in Google Earth as well). Good luck.
  
  
  To be honest, you can still complete the mission as the photo icon on the compass and in the EFB shows you what location to photograph. And if you locate your camera near the water surface and take a photo in the direction of the icon you can photograph the make-believe rock and light house.
  
  
• Shiprock - Nature's creativity and Asobo's fantasy
  
  I must admit I had not heard of the "shiprock" rock formation in New Mexico (USA) before. It's not just a rock but there are thee larger and a few smaller ridges that make the scene look like a sea urchin from top down. It's a fantastic setting and another case where nature just makes my jaws drop.
  The rock formation itself looks good in FS2024, except that the vegetation AI was again not able to resist placing trees at the top of the mountain. If you look at photos it should be clear that no tree can grow on the bare dry rock up there.
  
  
  The photo objective itself is trivial.
  
  
• Leon Dormido, Kicker Rock - Déjà vu
  
  If you read this chapter your might guess what expects you here. Yes, Kicker Rock is a - again - rock formation in the ocean, and in the World Update XIII: Oceania[forums.flightsimulator.com] from 2023 it was stated that it is now included.
  
  Well, unfortunately this does not mean it is visible in FS2024. So again you can push your luck and photograph the empty ocean until maybe you find the spot where your plane would have been "between the two rocks" if they had been there.
  
  
  Tip: Place your aircraft low over the water at the spot where the EFB satellite image shows the gap at sea level like this:

• Haystack Rock - Don't use the default aircraft!
  
  The mission before sounded impossible because of the missing rock but actually it was possible to get the star. Here we have the opposite situation:
  
  Haystack Rock is a large rock formation in the water just next to the beach. It's there in FS2024 and it's hard to miss thanks to the photo symbol on the map. The tricky part is to get the photo recognized by the game. Try and error gave me:
  
  
  • Photos from close to the ground will not register. Try to be higher than half the height of the rock, better have the rock below the horizon line.
    
  • You have to shoot wide-angle (e.g. 0.8 or below).
  
  OK, now the rock is recognized at least. This leaves the bonus criteria which is "With your aircraft landed between the beach and Haystack Rock". Well, there is water between the beach and the small sand platform around the rock. You cannot land on water with the default "X Cub". And no, FS2024 doesn't have tides, so waiting for low tide is not an option. Landing on the beach is not accepted, neither if you somehow get onto the island with a plane:
  
  This is not an accepted solution of the puzzle, although it literally fulfills the requirement.
  
  Solution: You need a Cessna 172 Amphibious or any other water plane and land on the water. Finally I got the star:
  
  

  ---

  
  
  
• Chimney Rock - Don't waste your time.
  
  Well, the last mission of this category is as bugged as most of the previous ones, and I frankly have given up here.
  
  Photographing chimney rock is easy. However the requirement for the star is "With the Sun perfectly aligned with Chimney Rock's tip".
  
  I tried my best do do exactly this, and in theory it is not that difficult in photo mode. How about this photo, for example?
  
  
  Chimney rock was recognized but not that I had aligned the sun with the Chimney Rock's tip (both horizontally and vertically)
  
  I have a clue what the issue might be. Remember the previous missions where the 3D assets were missing. Likely we have the same issue here: Maybe there was a 3D rock asset with a somewhat different shape in place here when the mission was created, and this is now missing, thus the current top of the mountain is not where it was when the mission goal was adjusted.
  You might get the star just trying 100+ possible spots around the one that should have been right ... if you have time to spare.

Verdict: The most frustrating World Photographer collection so far, quality wise.

But hey, cheer up, you can get some beautiful surreal shots in FS2024 thanks to its many scenery bugs:

Attention: The 3D models for about half of the bridges in this collection are missing since the Sim Update 1 Betas. The first two bridges like the Golden Gate Bridge are not affected, but many after this which are either missing or only appear as ugly generic model. If you are affected you find a workaround in the bug ticket in the FS forum[forums.flightsimulator.com] In short, two POI sceneries from US/UK world updates got automagically disabled. Re-enable them under "Marketplace -> My library" and the rock POIs are visible again.

And there's even another bug particularly for the Navajo Bridges mission. I recommend reading the discussion in the forum[forums.flightsimulator.com] if interested, but the bottom line I have taken from there is:
In order to get the star for this mission, you currently have to navigate (or set) your balloon directly over the two bridges and lower it to ~3800ft (or lower). Then you have to position the camera at the very bottom of the canyon, looking upward to the balloon and bridges overhead. Finally you have to zoom out to at least ~0.7 and take the photo. Awkward, but this has been proven to work, at least.

A big "Thank you" to AussieZulu, TheShadow3805 and others who helped to document this workaround there.

Apart from this, the collection is fairly easy. 😉

Sunshine Skyway Bridge, not the required photo but my preferred one

P.S.Near the Royal Gorge Bridge you will currently (as for start of March 2025) find huge floating rock pyramids like the "Hallelujah Mountains" of Pandora in Avatar. Don't miss this sight as long as you can.

The "Shades of Seasons" category is one I can wholeheartedly recommend. It's not difficult to complete, yet rewarding concerning the landscapes and impressions your get and the photo opportunities you are offered.

Let's check out the highlights

• Bled Lake
  The collection starts with a balloon ride. But don't worry: You can relax and wait till the balloon is drifted onto the lake by the pre-set winds. There you can take the photo from the required angle using the photo mode which lets you move the camera around in a certain radius around the balloon.
  Changing the season to autumn is also easy, and it will give you some nice colorful forests.
  
  
• Lauterbrunnen Valley
  The mission objectives are pretty straightforward, but there's a catch. You should probably stick with the default aircraft concerning the criteria "with a back view of the plane". I tried it with my beloved "Sky Rascal" and this star was never awarded. No problem with the "X Cub", however.
  
  
  P.S. If you like the view from the air, you might attempt to land off-road in the valley and do a little hike. There's beautiful views to to be seen - a true winter wonderland.
  
  
• Kezar Lake
  You are required to land a seaplane on the lake, e.g. the default "Cessna 208B Grand Caravan". If you are not familiar with landing a seaplane, there is a tutorial in the "Activities -> Flight School" section. Not that difficult, you just need a long virtual "runway" on the lake and a bit of planning where you want to be after landing - not too far away from the photo marker on the map.
  For the criteria "With the engine switched off": If you are not familiar with the switches in this aircraft, just use the "engine off " shortcut, I believe it defaults to "Ctrl+Shift+E".
  
  
• Acadia National Park
  Attention German gamers: There's a translation bug. You have to photograph the lake in autumn, not in summer as the German criteria wrongly states. I recommend September as this nicely brings out the autumn colors of the vast forests.
  
  Otherwise this mission is fairly easy. Fly the plane up Mount Cadillac on the opposite side of the lake from the starting point and take a photo down onto the lake. If you choose the Sky Rascal you need to turn down the pre-defined winds, otherwise they are way too strong for such a slow aircraft. With the "X Cub" it's not that much of an issue but they may still throw you around a bit.
  
  It's not required to have the tower or aircraft on the image, I just wanted to.
  
  
• Himeji Castle
  This white castle is an impressive building complex and certainly worth to be featured in a photo mission. However I find that the area around it needs some improvements to really flourish like the cherry blossoms you're promised to see.
  
  The grounds around the castle and particularly Sannomaru Square, a meadow south of it, do not look anything like the real thing. Compare the square to Google Earth and you will find that the place is an open, horseshoe-shaped, flat square with some low trees and broad walkways.
  
  When you walk there as requested for the photo objective, you will find a steep slope, lots of trees and some scattered buildings in a forest, making it look more like some overgrown place recovered by nature.
  Oh, and you have to get your virtual feet wet when entering from the city? The bridge is missing.
  
  
  In order to see cherry blossoms, you need to choose late March or early April, otherwise you can get the star photo but may wonder what this blossom talk is about.
  
  
• Pumalin National Park
  The landscape may not be the most spectacular one, but it's a nice change to be flying in South America for a change. Here the only difficulty is to find a spot along the "Pumalin's fjord" that offers a view to the vulcano far in the south. It should not be too difficult to find it once you know which of the mountains in the distance is the one you need to see. The EFB map and the initial mission map help to get this straight.
  
  
• Banff National Park
  Landing a skiplane is not that easy, and landing it in a National Park without permission might not be what the rangers like. Thank God you won't get an penalty for doing so.
  
  
  The rough terrain holds its own challenges. There are a few open spaces where you can land. However, I was not able to get the plane to accellerate again for a take-off after I had shot the required photo. Maybe I did something wrong, I'm not typically landing a skiplane...
  
  
• Green Park
  Let's say, it looks better from the air. The park has been (a bit too roughly) cut out from the photogrammetry and hosts a nice model of Buckingham Castle, your photo target. Most trees are 3D assets at least, but if you walk (or fly) to its edges it gets ugly.
  
  What the tourist should see of Green Park.
  What the tourist should better not get to see of Green Park.

The missions in this tour are pretty simple and it is fairly easy to collect all stars. You are free to use whatever aircraft you feel comfortable with. However, the collection is not free of negative surprises, quality-wise, concerning both the scenery and the mission objectives.

Let me just pick out those missions which need some complaint or explanation or both:

• Mont Blanc - Your objectives are to photograph the north face of this highest mountain of Europe "from a low angle shot while flying close to the ground" and in winter time. The game is pretty picky on the second goal - the "low angle shot" and it took me a few attempts until my photo was rejected, seconds before my plane crashed into a building because I was certainly too low. Asobo certainly doesn't enforce safe flying rules with objectives of this kind. I would have used the photo mode but the objective explicitly mentions the plane so I thought just lowering the camera would not work. But who knows - maybe it works anyway?
  
• Curonian Spit - Photographing the "plane framed between two groups of dunes" leaves some room for interpretation. However I found that my image was repeatedly not accepted when I was over the pit and just had one dune in the foreground and another dune area in the background. The solution is to simple do the shot from some distance (e.g. from the south-east) with the aircraft in the center and one dune area left and one area right. Just make sure the aircraft body is really in one line with the two dune areas.
  
  
  
• Preikestolen - This one gave me some headache because I wasn't sure what "your plane aligned vertically with the top of the cliff and the fjord's eastern end" really means. Try and error gave me the solution: You have the two POI markers for Preikestolen and the fjord's eastern end. Just fly over the cliff in a way that the latter is above the former. Then use photo mode to get your aircraft aligned with the two markers so it also forms this vertical axis "Preikestolen - plane - fjord end" (or in alternating order). The photo on the right was finally accepted.
  
  Fun bug: In MSFS 2024 the mission's cover image shows a custom terrain asset for the platform which unfortunately is missing in the actual game ... similar to the Moai statues in another mission. Did someone accidentally throw out some of those hand-crafted assets from the game before launch or did someone create fake cover images ...?
  
  So just in case you wonder where exactly "Preikestolen" is on this cliff: What you see in Google Earth is misleading and what you might infer given in MSFS 2024 from the mission's objective is also a tad misleading. Preikestolen is a plateau, a kind of step near the top (but not "on top") of the cliff. Both Google Earth and MSFS 2024 struggle with too coarse resolution of the terrain here. Plus, for some reason, the vegetation KI decided to "plant" several trees on the spot where the plateau would be, making it impossible to recognize.Wikipedia[en.wikipedia.org] has a perfect cover photo that will show you the real situation.
  
  
• The floating white cliffs of Dover - Now, this mission left me speechless and angry for the lack of quality. It takes you just a few seconds from starting position to realize that something went awry with the left hand part of the cliffs. The cliff east of the city of Dover looks plausible while the left one west of the city looks ... out of place. And it is. In the official FS forum there's a aforum thread[forums.flightsimulator.com] where many others came across the same issue: The cliff is floating. Fun thing is, some players showed the asset flying in the air, for me it was "just" a dozen meters too high compared to what was intended. So Microsoft half-fixed this issue in the mean time but had no time to position it really correctly? I have no clue.
  
  
  What makes things worse: On the eastern part of the cliff there is the marker "Cliffs of Dover" and the "photo" icon leading you to think that this is where you should photograph your "low angle shot" of the cliff. Unfortunately not. Update May '25: This is fixed in SU 2. You can now ignore the floating mess in the west and photograph the cliff eastern east of the city which looks perfect. Seems with this fix they also opted for "typical English weather" as mission default. You might want to change this unless you love VFR flying in a rain storm.
  Thanks Asobo for wasting my time and giving me some good stuff to rant about!
  
  
• Vesuvius - This one is trivial. I just want to suggest that you take a small detour once you are in this area and visit the former city of Pompeii[en.wikipedia.org] - you know, the one buried in several meters of ash by the large eruption in 79 AD. I've never been there personally but the view from the plane made me realize just how big this city was back then. The archaeological site can well be seen, although you should not fly too close because the photogrametric 3D model lacks details, of course.
  

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P.S: When doing the Matterhorn (aka Mount Cervino) mission I could not resist to land my "Sky Rascal" at the "Riffel Lake" (German "Riffelsee") on the nearby Gornergrat mountain and re-create this famous reflection of the Matterhorn in the lake, a photo scene shot likely by thousands of tourists and one which I had already photographed myself years ago in reality. What a pity - I couldn't get a perfect reflection even on a calm day in MSFS 2024. But not too bad for a flight simulator!

The missions in this group are fairly easy, except that two of them require you to use a helicopter resp. a balloon in order to get all the stars. Otherwise you are free to switch to an aircraft of your choice. For paris, the "Powrachute Sky Rascal" can defintely be recommended. If flys slow enough to give you time to position you as required and it can land almost everywhere, ... that is, if there are no polygonized trees or cars blocking the path.

Yes, Paris has a photogrammetry mesh. While this looks good from afar, it is a mess looking closely. There's hardly any bridge over the Seine that you can actually walk over because they look like Swiss Cheese - more holes than bridge. I always fell through some hole trying to walk over them. You are only safe on the custom bridge models. And while it is possible to explore Paris on foot in the simulator it's not really looking nice and there are always some polygonized mesh trees in the way. There are nicer places to to walk around.

Let's look at selected noteworthy missions in the collection:

• Notre-Dame de Paris - Requires the helicopter to get the third star. Concerning the moon I recommend having an astronomy software (like the Open Source "Stellarium") at hand which can tell you when there is a moon in the east at day time. Then you can adjust the simulator accordingly
  
• Arc de Triomphe - With "low angle" the game means: From street level, like first person view. I personally think the arc looks nicer photographed from a slightly higher point of view as shown below:
• Invalides - I was a bit puzzled from what side I am supposed to photograph the building, not knowing what the "Grand Palais" exactly is, but now I know: It's this huge greenhouse-like building on the opposite side of the Seine river. So this is the viewing angle the game wants:
• Sacré-Cœur de Montmartre The challenge her is to do it with a balloon. Flying a balloon is not too difficult, and there's a training included in MSFS 2024. The trick is that you need to adjust the wind direction so the wind blows your balloon exactly over the cathedral. (Or you take a plane and forget about the star.) If you take the balloon you will afterwards have accomplished a good deal of the Skyward Sightseer balloon Steam achievement, so it's a Win-Win.

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In case you wonder why the Eiffel tower is not on the mission list, it's already a mission in the World's Most Famous Monuments collection. Too famous for this collection. 😉

This collection might be the last one in the World photographer portfolio, but as we say: Last but not least. It's one of the most rewarding collections, easy to complete with all stars and full of breathtaking landscapes and buildings to admire. The perfect collection for beginners imho.

Again, you need not use the suggested aircrafts or helicopters. Just pick an aircraft of your choice if your are not familiar with flying helicopters.

Let me just point out some of my favorites or some missions which are noteworthy otherwise:

• Neuschwanstein - How could a castle tour ever exclude Neuschwanstein? 😉 The tasks are simple. Just let me tell you that you can surely photograph the castle in nicer ways than reuqested by the game. Just check it out in autum or winter with the sun in the south-west, for example. Or maybe have a photo with the castle embedded in the mountains on the evening.
  
• Marienburg - This castle is embedded in a beautiful landscape with meadows in a flood-plain. After shooting the required photo I landed my Powrachute on a strip of field and took a stroll through the autumn landscape south of the castle with its meadws, alleys and ponds. (Note that walking in photo mode does not count for the "5K fun run" achievement, though.)
• Strečno castle - A beautiful winter setting as in a fairy tale. Forest, hills, a meandering river.
• Chenonceau castle - "Taken from a low angle" means that you need to fly low and use the photo mode to position the camera close above the ground or water. This is one of the castles where you can actually take a stroll through its garden on foot in the simulator. Some other castles have models where the ground is not solid so you will "fall through" the basement onto the earth below.

This this is probably the simplest "aviation"-related category as the tasks are fairly simple and you don't need to fly exotic aircrafts to complete the basic missions. It helps if you can fly a "Cessna Crand Caravan". Weather is also pretty calm on these Pacific island (well, most of the time at least) but gusts can be strong.

This collection is also for you if you think you need a holiday somewhere ... in the Pacific maybe. So grab you a Piña colada and get airborne ... or maybe better defer the Piña colada to some time after the safe landing.

If, however, you are after the "Multifaceted photography" Steam achievement then think twice. For this achievement you need all the stars, and there is one requirement on Niuatupe Airport that requires another airplane to start (using Multiplayer "All" option). So far I haven't seen any airplane starting there except my own and thus this star is missing, which means that the collection doesn't count as "complete".

• Bora Bora Airport - Simple, but you can get even nicer photos if you do the task in the morning or evening light.
• Pohnpei Airport - The default aircraft is a Boeing 737 MAX, and for the third star you will have to photograph one. Your choice if to take on this challenge. (You don't need to land it, thanks to photo mode! Only the camera must be on either way of the runway for another star.) I tried the Boeing 737 and I am glad there were no passenger onboard, the might have gotten afraid ... but it was sufficient for the 3 stars.
  
• Niuatupe Airport - Here the third requirement might be the tricky one, as it requires to photograph "another plane taking off from the airport" which requires Multiplayer. But you can skip this star if you are only here for completing the collection or just for fun (fair enough).The rest is easy anyway.
  
• Moorea Airport - The bonus requirement for this is to have a seaplane landed on Lake Temea (right next to the airport) in the photograh. Well, I suggest to bring your own seaplane. Landing a seaplane (like the Cessna 172 Amphibious) is not that difficult and there's a training lesson for water landings in the "Activities -> Flight School" section if you feel unsure. The lake certainly isn't big but it's doable if you utilize your flaps.
• Touho Airport - Getting the bonus condition right is a bit tricky. I guess you have to stick with the given aircraft. Set the sun to shortly after sunrise so that it's easy to get far enough away from the plane to both have the plane in front of the sun and get the center of the airport onto the image. A wide-angle image can help with this.
  
• Faleolo Airport - This "mission" is easily doable even if you have never flown a Boeing 737. Just release the parking brakes, set throttle to full speed, wait till the airplane takes off, pause and take a photo. Then tell your copilot to take over for the rest of the flight. 😉
• The other airport missions of this collection were trivial or easy to accomplish.

Fun fact: I was aware that airplanes can fly, but I found one levitating on Funafuti Airport.

Here you find large-scale man-made structures like channels, pits and artificial islands. It's a typical collection in all respects. Some mission require great heights to get the overview and there is one which requires a Live aircraft at a specific spot and thus is very hard to get - you'll need luck or a friend to complete the collection with all stars.

Here are some noteworthy missions in the collection:

• Panama Canal
  The requirements are to photogaph the canal with both oceans in the frame, while over the Gatun lake and with the moon in the frame and by day. Finding the lake is easy, it is even labelled. If you position your aircraft in the northern part of the lake you can overlook the whole channel from there. In order to have both oceans recognized you need quite some height and a wide- angle view. For the moon you can either use astronomy software or you just set the daytime to dawn/dusk and change the date until the moon gets visible too. Then you can adjust the time to be "day". Wasn't too difficult.
  

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• Dubai artificial islands
  This one is buggy imho. There are three well-known island groups along the coast of Dubai. In order to get the first star you need to photograph all of them at once. This is not difficult, however doing so does not reliably award you the first star. It seems that the game doesn't accept the islands to be seen from a low angle although the objective is clearly fulfilled.
  
  All three island groups are fully visible, yet this image didn't get me the corresponding star.
  
  I had to increase the flight level to 45.000 feet to get the image accepted for the star. (That's about the start of the stratospere, btw.)
  
  Yeah, I know, this is not the right aircraft for the task and air is pretty thin up there...
  
  Also make sure your plane is flying in the direction of the shore not perpendicular to it. This seems to be important for the second star. The third condition - at sunset - should then not be difficult any more. I recommend setting the time of day first.
  
  
• Suez Canal
  It's quite a long canal system so either stick with the pre-defined fighter or start near the southern end. For this photo you need again quite a high altitude (e.g. 37.000 ft). Also make sure you are not over the southern end of the canal but a bit further south, otherwise the star will not be awarded. Anyway. this wasn't too difficult compared to Dubai.
  
  
• The Pearl
  Again we are on the Arabian Peninsula, this time in Quatar. "The Pearl" is another artificial set of islands and peninsulas with an interesting and diverse structure. The mission would be pretty simple, so seemingly Asobo decided that this collection needs another "catch". Well, here it is:
  You need to have another plane from "traffic" (Live traffic) in the frame. Problem is: Even at times when there is heavy traffic on Qatar airport, hardly any airplane flies up close enough to "The pearl". so it's another boring waiting game, unless maybe you can invite a friend to help out and come flying by. 🙄

The other missions were fairly easy, with the one in the Netherlands again requiring you to ascend to great altiture in order to get the polder island (almost) completely onto the image. Tip: Zooming out will help further.

Greenhouses of Almeria

I must say that I was very fond of the idea for this collection as it adds some exotic theme to the more common sights, landscapes and aircraft collections.

However imagine my disappointment when I realized that the very first mission cannot be completed as for now (February 2025) because the description of the third objective is missing ... the objective itself. Update: Sim Update 2 beta fixes the bug and reveals that it has to be a (live) summer day.

Apart from this, the rest of the missions is super easy, but still, this will not give you a "complete" collection.

Lets look at noteworthy missions in here, as far as I have done them:

• The long man of Wilmington - The figure looks well in the scenery and the first two goals are easily done if you choose an aircraft you can land on a field in proximity of the figure.
  
  Update: The third objective is fixed in SU 2 Beta 1.4.7.0: It has to be a summer day with live time.
  Up to SU 1 the third objective just stated that you can enable live time and weather but it didn't tell you what you should be waiting for. I guess this is something like with Angkor Wat or with the Grand Tetons. Maybe it wants you to take the photo in summer (Live time) or in spring or on the day of equinox or during a thunderstorm. Or maybe the devs themselves forgot the criteria...
  This is a bug that's really embarrassing, because in my opinion it clearly shows a lack of in-house testing as it was easy to spot.
  
  
• Westbury and Uffington White Horses - The mission is easy but in it's current state (February 2025) it is obvous that there are too many trees around the geoglyphs. Compare the setting to images from (e.g.) Wikipedia[en.wikipedia.org] and you'll see that the surrounding of both images is free from any higher vegetation.
  
• Sajama Lines - Things get ridiculous vegetation-wise in the Atacama desert. The tite is "Lines in the desert", which is quite correct because this part of the Atacama is a semi-desert at an altitude of almost 4000m with specific adapted plants like grasses and cactuses. As far as I have read only in oases you might find selected tree species.
  Well, in FS2024 the plateau is covered by a light forest ... again. (Update: In Sim Update 2 Beta it's bare, just grass and very few bushes or trees there. Well, at least no forests.)
  
• Folkestone White horse - The theme carries on. Again the mission is trivial as you are heading directly towards the geophyph to be photographed. What caught my eye, however, were rows of english-style family houses ... on and next to the tracks and platforms of the Folkestone Channel Tunnel Terminal. Again the AI algorithm was not good enough to realize that a freight terminal is not a residential neighborhood, despite some apparent streets on it.
  Such things can happen but I would have expected Asobo/Microsoft to clean up such mistakes at least in those areas of the photography missions where there's a high chance they will get noticed.

P.S. One thing the flight simulator is realy great in, is to reflect the mood of a certain landscape, weather and time of year. Everytime I look at the following picture I'm shivering from the cold. This image was shot with custom weather as snow in southern England is pretty rare.

If you like telescopes of all sort and want a change from "just" visiting landscapes, sights and airports this is a collection for you. It's definitely bringing you in diverse landscapes and on some high mountain tops and cool photo opportunities if you seize them.

It is also a collection which is easy to complete with absolutely no surprises and the freedom to use aircrafts of your choice. I completed almost all of them with the "Sky Rascal" although a helicopter will be more realistic for landing in those missions which require to work on foot or those in high mountains.

Last but not least, the assets in this collection are well done, detailed and a joy to look at.

Lets check out some interesting missions:

• Space Shuttle Independence - Getting the sun in the frame is easiest done on a summer morning. However I'd personally prefer a "selfie" with the sun more in front of me and the Space Shuttle.
  If you don't want to take the Cabri G2 helicopter (like me) then any small airplane will do if you are willing to land on a street or parking lot in front of the Johnson Space center complex.
  
• Canberra Space Compley - As usual I recommend getting an astronomy software (e.g. Open Source "Stellarium") to find out when the moon will be where you want it during dawn (e.g. in the west or north-west). Tip: Check you chose the same year in the simulator as in the astronomy software, otherwise the moon's position will not match. The rest is easy.
  

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• Yerkes Observatory - There's little space to land for taking the photo as requested, so you either stick with a helicopter or use the Sky Rascal both of which can land on a meadow next to the building. Otherwise you'll have to do a longer virtual walk.
  
• Pine Gap Facility - The objective might be a bit misleading. All you have to do is to photograph the facility in east-west direction with the camera's line of sight parallel to the mountain ridges north and south of the facility.
  

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• Murchison observatory - The task of having at least four (likely the central four telescopes in the foreground) seems to be pretty easy. But the catch is that you need to have the yellow photo marker in the image for it to register, so think twice in which direction you take your photo.
  
• Arecibo radio telescope - This complex is mind-blowing. 🤯 A must visit location in MSFS2024, although the surrounding terrain and buildings don't really match reality too well. The objective is easy to comply to.
  

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For the tasks in this category you should be somewhat familiar with jets, as you will be flying in great heights, as the title suggests. But don't feat, I will give you some advise although I do not usually fly jets or any warplanes and dislike war games in general.

This is not such an easy collection as, for example "Shades of seasons".

Here are selected missions in the collection for which some hints might be helpful:

• Namib Desert - The Namib desert is a broad desert strip along the coast of Namibia and the ocean is in the west. So it feels weird to be asked to photograph the famous Sossusvlei valley in the heart of the desert with both facing north and with the ocean on the image. The solution is that this works only at great altitudes where, with a wide angle photo, you can face (more or less) to the north and still have a large enough strip of ocean on the left that pleases the game. I believe I had to go up to over 9000 feet.
  
  Namib is even more beautiful close-up, in my opinion
  
  P.S. You don't need to use a jet for this mission, but if you have a slower aircraft you might want to start the mission closer to Sossusvlei - and as I said, you will have to ascend quite a bit.
  
  
• Danube Delta - This one gave me a headache because of the required afterburner. Not just because I had never before switched an afterburner on in this simulator. But it required not one but two corrections to my key bindings to work:
  For one thing I had to define a key binding for the afterburner, which had none. I chose the "n" key (for German "Nachbrenner") which was so far unused. Now, when at full throttle and pressing this key I noticed how the throttle moves forward even more - or back a bit when I disable it again.
  However I had a problem: Every time I entered photo mode (via my Ctrl+F shortcut) the afterburner would instantly turn off, so no chance to photograph it working. Turns out there was another key binding for lowering the throttle also bound to Ctrl+F. By removing this unnecessary binding I could eliminate the issue and finally photograph the aircraft with the turbines burning in red color.
  

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• Richat Structure - One of these landscapes on earth where you inevitably wonder how it ever came to be. And indeed there have been multiple theories in the past, the latest ones declaring it the rests of an eroded dome structure originally forme by vulcanic activity. The task of photographing it while flying head down is not that difficult with a fighter jet. Yet the result is breathtaking:
  

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• Lake Titicaca - I was puzzled why the start requirement was never accepted until I found out that you must not face the "Copacabana" airport POI sign but the unlabeled POI marker further right on the center of the peninsula. Furthermore you need a wide angle zoom to have both the peninsula and lake on the image. And of course your aircraft must be somewhere close to the photo marker in the map, the top of Mount Khapia.
  
  No need to have the jet on the image, but this photo was also accepted.
  
  
• Great Barrier Reef - Think twice what aircraft to take. The pre-defined starting point is at 35.000 feet (roughly 10.000 m) elevation, so the air is pretty thin up there. 😉 The "Super Hornet" might be a good choice after all ...
  
  
• Grand Canyon - Below is my "star" photo. Might not exactly what the devs had in mind when they put Grand Canyon in the "Nature from high above" category, but I just couldn't resist the evening walk to the south rim of the canyon. And - believe it or not - unlike in reality the best viewing spots on the rim were empty!
  

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