The free web application The Photographer's Ephemeris (TPE) provides the exact position of the sun and moon as viewed from a particular location on a given date and time. You need to create a free account the first time you use it. TPE also provides shadow length and whether or not a subject will be in shade at a given time. Click on the first icon below to open The Photographer's Ephemeris centered on the location shown. Clicking the second icon gives the National Weather Service Point Forecast for the location. Clicking on the third gives a wind forecast from windy.com, and the fourth estimated snow depth:
Little Finland |
You can also import all of the points of interest on the Little Finland map into TPE Desktop by downloading this POI file and the choosing Locations Import in TPE Desktop.
TPE is published by Crookneck Consulting LLC and the web application is free to use.
There are many apps available for your phone or tablet to help with shot planning. My favorites are Photopills and TPE for Android/iOS or TPE 3D for iOS only. Both applications support the importing of Points of Interest / Locations. To import POIs for the Little Finland into one of these apps proceed as follows:
The Sunrise Sunset calculator above provides a monthly calendar showing Sunrise/Sunset and Moonrise/Moonset and Moon phase for a whole month. More detailed information can be obtained by clicking on one of the Photographer's Ephemeris icons above or via one of the mobile applications listed.
Sunrise Sunset times are given at Heart Arch in Little Finland. All times reflect DST when in effect.
Windy.com shows current and forecast snow depth estimates based on several weather models. Weather models use a variety of different grid sizes and varying update frequencies. Grid sizes are 9 km for the ECMWF model, 13 km for the Icon Model, and 7 km for the ICON-EU model (Europe only). I use the ECMWF model usually. Elevations and topography can vary significantly within a grid, so use snow depth estimates with caution, especially in mountainous areas. Windy.com also provides estimates of snow density. The density of dry new snow (powder) varies from 50-70 kg/m3, damp new snow from 100-200 kg/m3, and settled snow from 200-300 kg/m3. The higher the density, the greater the risk of fall.
Clicking on the snow icon below opens windy.com at zoom level 11 and shows the weather picker. The windy.com map is color-coded. A legend is on the bottom right of the screen. Gray indicates no snow, cool colors like blue and green mean little to moderate snow and warm colors indicate significant snow. If you zoom in, you can see a numerical estimated amount of snow at a precise location, but you will lose the color coding. The model opens showing the current estimated snow depth; use the time slider on the bottom left to view forecast snow depth.