Do you like to plan your location shots? Will you be visiting a location and want to know where the sun is going to be at a particular time of the day? Will the building or mountain block the sun right before sunset? Well, if you’re like me, you want to know these answers before you get to the location, and that’s why you need this app.

In this excellent video by Tony and Chelsea Northrup, the app isn’t that much of a secret. The app is Google Earth for the Mac or PC. So, why watch the video now that I told you the name of the app? Because Tony does a great job of demonstrating how to utilize Google Earth to scout your next photography location, not only for determining the position of the sun, because there are other wonderful apps like Sun Seeker or one of my favorites, Dark Sky, for weather information. Using Google Earth gives you so much more information in a visual manner. For example, Google Earth also permits you to develop a rough idea of the composition of the image before you even arrive or where the shadows will be.

Tony demonstrates using Google Earth by zeroing in on the DUMBO area of Brooklyn, a place I visited just this past weekend for Photoville 2019. Because my visit was still fresh in my mind, I could easily relate to what Google Earth was displaying as Tony moved around the DUMBO area. I have to say that the demonstration has convinced me to load Google Earth on my computer, and I’m using it to plan for an upcoming shot I have in a few weeks.