I Built a Free Global Golden Hour Forecast Tool — No Signup Required

Description and use

A free web app that shows precise golden hour times and real photos for 159 cities without signup.

Problem

Photographers, creators, and travelers need an easy way to find when the light is warm and golden in any city, but existing weather apps only give sunrise/sunset times and lack details about golden hour quality or visual context.

Outcome

The tool delivers accurate golden hour data and visual context for 159 cities, enabling users to plan shoots quickly without signing up, improving efficiency for photographers and travelers.

Workflow

• 1. User types a city name into the search field.
• 2. The frontend sends a request to the backend API to fetch sun calculations via SunCalc.
• 3. The backend retrieves a recent golden hour photo from Pexels or Pixabay and stores it in Cloudflare R2.
• 4. The API returns golden hour start/end times, peak score, and image URL.
• 5. The frontend renders the times, score, and wallpaper for the user.
• 6. User can view the photo and plan their shoot accordingly.

Evidence

GoldenHour.Forecast helps photographers, creators, and travelers find the perfect time to shoot anywhere in the world — with real HD wallpapers for every city.

Source

I built this as a side project using modern web tech: React + Vite + Tailwind CSS, Cloudflare Pages, Cloudflare R2, Pexels + Pixabay, SunCalc.

Source