I seem to spend a lot of my landscape photography time thinking about, or looking for, locations. Sometimes I just set off without a destination in mind hoping something will catch my eye. Often I sit and think about a location and then return to a familiar spot to try to capture it properly. Even if it is a new location I know it will take time to understand what I’m trying to achieve. Each location will reveal itself differently depending on the time of day, the weather, or the season. Understanding the variations can take patience and it helps to be prepared.
Two very helpful software tools that help me in the planning are “The Photographers Ephemeris” and “Photopills”. The “Ephemeris” photoephemeris.com has been on my iPad and desktop for about four years. Photopills photopills.com has a goofy name but is jam-packed with features and it has been on my iPad for a couple of years. Both these software tools are well worth having and are priced low enough that it’s a no-brainer to use them.
Basically, they give detailed info on the sun and the moon including time and direction of sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset. Moon phase and illumination, twilight times and more. Using either of these tools is somewhat magical. I have no idea how they do it. A lot of math I guess. It will even determine when the sun or moon will be visible behind hills, or mountains.
So, if you want to take a picture of the sunrise peeking through an arch in Badlands National Park in South Dakota (I’d like to do this sometime) then you can do all the planning before you hit the road. You just find the location and drop a pin on the map and the app will do all the work. You just need to show up on time. Well, except these apps won’t guarantee a sunny day, or handle your logistics.
I recently decided that I wanted to take some sunrise shots at Goose Spit Point, a local sand spit that overlooks the Straight of Georgia. The weather had been dry but kind of stormy with some dramatic clouds. Checking with Photopills I learned that that the sun would peek over the ocean at 6:41 am and that I would need to be careful not to shoot into the sun. So I got up at 6:00. It was dark and dry outside. Time to hit the road. I had pre-packed the gear into my car the night before so I drove over to Starbucks for a take-out coffee.
When I arrived at Goose Spit it was still super dark. I got my flashlight out and found a path to the beach. Using the flashlight I set up my tripod and camera being extra careful not to drop my lens or my back. It was still very dark and I wondered if the cloud cover might wreck the shot. I also discovered that I had left my coffee in the car. I had hoped to take some shots with very minimal lighting and tried to focus on the beach using the flashlight but that didn’t work at all. Then at precisely 6:41 the sky lightened a bit and at 6:48 the golden hour began. I spent 2 hours on the beach but the sky wouldn’t cooperate with the image I had in my head. I got some useable shots and, of course, it was fun. Even while I was drinking the cold coffee on the way home.