Tag Archives: calendar

Sunrise/Sunset Times for Photographers

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Phoenix times now updated.

SunI’ve just updated my calendar of sunrise and sunset times for the Phoenix area. I’ll be keeping this up-to-date as a published calendar. Subscribe at webcal://ical.me.com/mlanger/Sun.ics. I know you can subscribe with this link using iCal, but I think you can also subscribe with other calendar formats such as Google Calendar.

If you’d prefer to download and import the files, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015 are currently available.

If you’re a photographer or pilot, you know how helpful it can be to have this exact information. Every year for the past ten years or so, I’ve been updating iCal with this information so it’s always available on my computers and other electronic devices (think BlackBerry, iPad, etc.).

The last time I offered to create these files for photographers, I had a lot of folks ask for them but no one seemed willing to cough up a little dough for the time it takes me to create the files.

So here’s the deal: If you want sunrise/sunset times for 2011-2015 — that’s FIVE YEARS WORTH — in ics format, you’ll need to use this Paypal link to send me some coffee money. Be sure to include either the GPS coordinates for the place you want sunrise/sunset times for OR the Zip code. I’ll try to get the resulting files to you in e-mail within 72 hours. (Keep in mind that the more coffee you buy me, the more motivated (or caffeinated) I’ll be to send those files quickly.)

And no, I won’t add you to any e-mail list. I have way better things to do with my time than bother strangers who were kind enough to buy me coffee.

Helicopter Calendar

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I order my office calendar far in advance.

Last year, I waited too long to order the helicopter calendar that always hangs in my office. It was sold out and the publisher ran out of stock. I got stuck with a frog calendar that I bought in mid-January. (At least it didn’t cost very much.)

This year, I ordered early — last week in fact — to round out an order at Amazon.com for a pair of DustBuster batteries. The batteries and calendar arrived today.

I’m disappointed. Brown Trout, the calendar publisher, usually has much better photos than these. Most of them were taken from the ground of a helicopter landing, taking off, or just sitting there. Three of them are of Grand Canyon tour operator helicopters (a Papillon Bell 206L, a Papillon Bell 407, and a Grand Canyon Helicopters Eurocopter EC130) and I’m willing to bet all three photos were taken on the same day at the companies’ respective landing zones. Papillon Copter 9 (which I flew several times; it’s a utility ship and rather underpowered when compared to the others) is obviously doing its takeoff run, the 407 is sitting on the pad, and the Ecostar is probably landing. Four photos were taken from the ground or some high place looking up at the helicopter, so you can see its underside. And, if I’m not mistaken, all of the photos were taken in Arizona.

You can see twelve better photos of helicopters in a single issue of Vertical magazine.

But since Brown Trout seems to be the only helicopter calendar publisher, I’m pretty much stuck with this calendar.

And it is much better than the frogs.