stillphotojournalist.com » Useful Tools and Software http://stillphotojournalist.com ...Capturing life, one frame at a time Fri, 02 Oct 2009 18:34:31 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 When and where will the sun and moon rise and set? – A common photographer’s question solved! http://stillphotojournalist.com/2009/10/when-and-where-will-the-sun-and-moon-rise-and-set-a-common-photographers-question-solved/ http://stillphotojournalist.com/2009/10/when-and-where-will-the-sun-and-moon-rise-and-set-a-common-photographers-question-solved/#comments Fri, 02 Oct 2009 18:22:01 +0000 Dave Clark http://stillphotojournalist.com/?p=181 One very common question for a photographer planning a landscape shot is where the sun and moon will be setting or rising.
This question has been coming up a lot recently for me, as I will be traveling to Kauai next week to get married. Since we’re getting married on the beach in Hanalei Bay, I wanted to find the best time and location for our ceremony in order to get those glowing shots that only a good Hawaiian sunset could provide the light for. As well, I wanted to know where the sun will be setting on that day as my memory from living there tells me that it sets behind the mountains at this time of year and not over the ocean as it does in the summer.

Ironically, one of the local photographers that I know came across some software yesterday and sent the link to me without knowing that I was even looking for this info (Thanks Garry!).
The software he informed me of is called The Photographer’s Ephemeris and is currently “free” software being developed by Stephen Trainor.
While sunrise and sunset information is readily available on the internet, the location of where the sun will rise and set is not so easily found, nor is the ability to have all of this information in one easy to use application.

Using this application’s Google Maps interface allows one to pinpoint a location on a topographical map and be able to find the times and locations for the sun/moon rise and set.
Some more advanced features even allow you to find out when they will rise and set behind mountains, in the case of my wedding for instance.

Here is a screenshot of the software that I took while checking on our wedding location.
The Photographer's Ephimeris

The software works on PC, Mac and even Linux. Stephen is also working on an iPhone version as well.
Find out all of the details by visiting Stephen’s site at http://stephentrainor.com/tools

]]> http://stillphotojournalist.com/2009/10/when-and-where-will-the-sun-and-moon-rise-and-set-a-common-photographers-question-solved/feed/ 2 OnOne Software’s DSLR Camera Remote for your iPhone and iPod touch http://stillphotojournalist.com/2009/09/onone-softwares-dslr-camera-remote-for-your-iphone-and-ipod-touch/ http://stillphotojournalist.com/2009/09/onone-softwares-dslr-camera-remote-for-your-iphone-and-ipod-touch/#comments Tue, 15 Sep 2009 05:50:43 +0000 Dave Clark http://stillphotojournalist.com/?p=152 Do you own an iPhone or an iPod touch?
If so, you may want to check out this little piece of software that I was recently turned on to.

OnOne software’s DSLR Camera Remote.
For the low price of $1.99 (or $19.99 for the professional version), you can have a powerful tool which allows you to:

  • Remotely fire your Canon or Nikon DSLR Camera
  • Remotely control your camera’s settings, like shutter speed, aperture, white balance and more
  • View images saved on the camera from your iPhone or iPod touch
  • Look through your camera’s viewfinder remotely (requires a camera with LiveView)


To make it work, you need to plug your camera into a WiFi enabled computer and run the DSLR Camera Remote Server software. Then you simply connect your iPhone or iPod Touch to the WiFi and run the DSLR Camera Remote app.

For the extremely low price, this seems like a bargain for the amount of cool stuff you can do with it. The remote wedding ceremony camera certainly comes to my mind.

The software can be found here

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