Be there when the light is.
A field journal for nature photographers: 17,570 U.S. locations with sunrise and sunset directions, golden hour by month, Milky Way windows and dark-sky estimates — plus bloom calendars, aurora odds and 103 free tools that run in your browser.
How it works
Plan a shoot in three steps
Find the place
Browse waterfalls, overlooks, lighthouses, parks and ghost towns by state — or search any name.
Read the light
Every page shows where the sun rises and sets each season, golden hour by month and when the Milky Way is up.
Check the sky
Live cloud forecast at sunrise and sunset, moon phase, aurora Kp and tides — then go.
Tonight, where you are
The night sky in one glance
Computed in your browser for your time zone.
Photo locations
17,570 waterfalls, overlooks, lighthouses, parks and more — each with light and night-sky data.
Open →National parks
465 NPS sites with photo spots, golden hour, Milky Way and permits.
Open →Night sky
Milky Way by state, aurora Kp thresholds, meteor showers and moon phases.
Open →Nature calendars
What blooms and which birds, butterflies and mammals are around, month by month.
Open →Golden hour by city
Live sunrise, sunset and golden hour for 2,600 cities.
Open →Camera & lens database
1,043 cameras and 1,160 lenses with NPF and hyperfocal tables.
Open →Right now · October
Autumn color and the Orionids
Fall color peaks across most states; the Orionids peak around October 21.
Covered Bridge
Covered Bridge
Covered Bridge
Covered Bridge
Covered Bridge
Covered Bridge
Covered Bridge
Covered BridgeExplore by subject
What do you want to photograph?
Fifty states
Pick a state
Alabama227
Alaska708
Arizona754
Arkansas133
California1,588
Colorado691
Connecticut195
Delaware65District of Columbia7
Florida410
Georgia362
Hawaii293
Idaho336
Illinois174
Indiana222
Iowa81
Kansas48
Kentucky146
Louisiana104
Maine308
Maryland172
Massachusetts356
Michigan653
Minnesota303
Mississippi95
Missouri251
Montana465
Nebraska59
Nevada388
New Hampshire253
New Jersey141
New Mexico234
New York677
North Carolina482
North Dakota100
Ohio317
Oklahoma95
Oregon923
Pennsylvania576
Rhode Island76
South Carolina121
South Dakota76
Tennessee343
Texas307
Utah664
Vermont200
Virginia394
Washington974
West Virginia150
Wisconsin296
Wyoming577103 free tools
Calculators that live in your browser
Depth of field, hyperfocal, NPF star limits, ND filters, sun & moon on a map, EXIF viewer, tiny planets — your photos never leave your device.
Online kaleidoscope maker
Turn any flower or leaf into a 4–24 mirror kaleidoscope and export up to 4096 px — the browser successor to the classic Photoshop kaleidoscope templates.
Make one →Field guides
Learn the craft
Built from open data — USGS GNIS, GeoNames, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, the National Park Service, NASA POWER, NOAA, USNO, iNaturalist and Lensfun. See all sources.