Rain showers over Long Island Sound.

Handy photography apps: A big part of nature photography is being in the right place at the right time. Sometimes this is luck, like in the above photo of a storm in Long Island Sound, but most consistently successful photographers make their own luck through attention to detail and hard work.  By putting yourself in beautiful places at the right time, you give yourself a much better chance of getting a unique photo when weather conditions and light are at their best. For several years, I’ve been using various software programs to chart sunrise/sunset and moonrise/moonset times and positions to help me determine where and when to be for the best light. I’m currently using an iPhone app called LightTrac and a PC program called the Photographer’s Ephemeris (which also comes in an iPhone version) to do this.

Screen capture from the Photographer’s Ephemeris

Both programs are pretty intuitive to use. Plug in a location and a date and a map like the one above appears, charting the location of the sun and/or moon for the given date and time. I recently used LightTrac to determine the moonrise time and location on Thursday night, when I made the below shot on a bridge over Chauncey Creek, which divides a small island from the mainland in Kittery, Maine.

During most months of the year, the moon rises too far south or north to get this photo, but by using LightTrac it was easy to determine that February was a good month to try this photo. At $3.99 for the app, I’d say this is a must have app for any serious landscape photographer.

Let me know of any great photo apps that you use.

Until next time…

-Jerry