I was on a local hiking discussion site and saw a post by the author (Bryan Conant) of my favorite topo maps (http://www.bryanconant.com/). Topo maps are indispensible in hiking of course and finding a high quality topo map for your area can be tough. To often a good topo map just don’t exist. Certainly the ones provided by your local hiking store can be acceptable, but the maps by Bryan goes well beyond just a standard topo map. Bryan hiked every trail on his map and keeps them up to date with a combinationof personal hiking and reports from hikers on http://www.santabarbarahikes.com/ If you hike in the Santa Barbara area you should get his maps.
I wanted to talk more about just the use of topo maps in hiking. For photography topo maps can be just as indispensible. Knowing what direction a valley runs or the direction of a rock face in respect to the sun gives you a huge amount of information about an area before you get there. You can plan your shots and know when you need to be where and what time of year based on where the sun rises. Of course newer tech makes this even easier. Google earth has the flying mode that can be used to pre-visualize a shot. Spending some time ahead of a trip (even if its down the street) can allow you to find the shot you want faster. Of course you should always explore and experiment because things like google earth won’t tell you anything about weather for the day you decide to your intended location.