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LET YOUR FINGERS DO THE WALKING ON SMARTPHONE SCREENS FOR BEST SUNSETS

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Love photographing sunsets? Learn how smartphone apps can help you predict sunrises and sunsets in my just published feature in the Spring Edition Canadian Photo News magazine.  Check out the article here.  Continue in the picture book format to lot’s of other helpful articles by seasoned photography writers on tips for shooting wildlife photos, helpful macro photography techniques, inside secrets shooting in RAW format and more.

You can also pick up the free magazine issue at the following locations across Canada:

  Henry’s Photo, Lozeau Photo,  Gosselin Photo, The Camera Store, Kerrisdale Camera, Don’s Photo, Forest City , Camera Kingston, Photo Central, Burlington Camera and London Drugs in the western provinces.

Finding the perfect spot to shoot an old castle lookout tower a modern lighhouse and a fireball dip in a wall break was easy with Sun Position and a tide table for the best date to be on dry land during sunset

SHOOTING SUNSETS

Using Android and iPhone Apps, you can plan your exact spot, within one meter, to shoot a glorious sunset against a famous statue, bridge or building. You don’t have to scramble while travelling, hoping to get that perfectly composed sunset photo, or sunrise, even moon movements against the horizon.

Getting to the right spot to shoot the sunset accentuating the arch under island in Pilos Greece involved a four-wheel jeep, bum crawling a rotted pipe bridge and bleeding thorn scratches

Mobile Software like Sun Location and Sun Locator for Android and The Photographer’s Ephemeris for iPhone and Android are my favourites.  They basically superimpose graphical data on top of GPS maps to help you predict where and when the sun will pop up or disappear on the horizon. Or predict where the sun or moon will be on your smartphone screen at various times of the day or night.

Ronda Bridge in Spain at best full sunlight with a one hour window before shadows start creeping in. Olympus OM-D E-M5II Zuiko 14mm – 150mm Zuiko Lens

 

I planned the sunset pictures in Photo News as well as others below in Dubai well before I even left Canada for my travels.  Even ocean tide tables helped me access a perfect temporary dry spot for my sunset photo in Spain.

Illustration of 3D aerial view of A 3D view of Sun Position in action to determine best spot to shoot towers and a small opening on break wall in Kadiz Spain
The result: a perfectly composed sunset picture!

Want to shoot a 500mm zoom telephoto fireball sunset gently floating down on the right side of the Parthenon in Greece? Plan before you get there.

Planning to shoot the fireball sunset to the right of the Parthenon in Athens was easy with Sun Position

Instead of an arduous week of planning, in pre-smartphone years, I could have avoided several days of scoping out the best sunset site, more than two km away, not to mention  last minute scrambling up apartment roofs for the right spot.  And a very patient cabbie who was lugging my gear around! Using my favourite Android Sun Location App helped me  find the right spot before I even left home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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