Some of you may know that I got into drones through my love of traditional photography. It gives me, as they say, a different perspective on the image. One that your everyday Joe/Jane Schmoe doesn’t get or see.
Anyway, I was planning my latest (and first in what feels like forever) trip out with my camera and I almost always go for sunrise / sunset times because the light is so much nicer. Whilst using one of the many tools it dawned on me that a cool addition to drone scene, if possible and deemed worthy, would be to have Photo Ephemeris style info available directly in the site. So the site I use is: https://app.photoephemeris.com/ as the Android app was mothballed a few years back.
I’m not asking for all the functionality of the full blown TPE, but it would be super cool to be able to access sun direction and rise / set times which is a good 70/80% of what I use the site for.
The other cool addon for me - not so much drone usage as they are in the air - would be high and low tide times.
As a coastal flyer I check the tides often… Easiest way I found was go to the BBC Tides page, click the location required and bookmark it. Works a treat and spot on accuracy. You also get a live tide level graph.
Generally knowing the direction of the sun in the morning and evening is useful for photography. This does vary significantly at different times of the year. I use the suncalc app for this. Search for a location and it gives sunrise and sunset times, blue hour and golden hour and direction that the sun will be shining. You can pick any date to find out when the light will be right for a photo.
There are a number of apps giving information about sunrise/sunset and direction. I have one which also gives moon status and rise/set time. Very useful for astro photography. Tide tables are quite numerous. You just need to keep searching for one that is appropriate for your needs. Unfortunately I have just got a new phone and in the process of sorting through which apps to scrap and which to keep.
I’ve been using Photo Ephemeris for years for my landscape photography, it’s a great app. Just as important as the sunrise/sunset times is the direction of where these are going to take place.
I think the direction would be extremely useful - yesterday for e.g. I popped down to Southerndown to try and get the sun setting on Witches Point as it would have been directly opposite and hopefully give a nice light.
As it was, it was waaay too windy for my M3P and as it was a storm rolled in 10m before sunset
So for clarity, direction and sunrise / set times.
I used to until they suspended teh Android version saying it wasn’t up to par with the Apple one and that was 2021. It’s been two years and still nothing on the horizon so I have to use the desktop bersion.
Sorry, not a clue on that side but their website has API as one of its pages so my guess is yes. It takes you away from the TPE site to: https://www.radiantdrift.com/
Appears to be free for now with paid plans expected to launch “late 2023”…
TPE are just one app that does this type of data though and whilst I haven’t used others I am pretty sure I’ve seen them out there. All that to sayTPE is teh one I know, but i iot doesn’t “fit” then maybe another will.
