Alexandria's golden hour is short, specific, and worth planning around. The times below are computed live for Alexandria's exact coordinates (38.8048, -77.0469) and update automatically for any date you pick — sunset, sunrise, golden hour and blue hour, all in local time. On this side of the country, sunrise is the underrated window — the sun comes up over the Atlantic side and morning golden hour is quieter than the evening one.
The month-by-month table below is in this city's own local time. The live times above follow your device's timezone. Mountains, ridgelines and buildings can shorten the usable window — scout your horizon.
Local tip: Shoot with the sun behind your subject during golden hour and expose for the face — the rim light does the rest.
Golden hour in Alexandria is the hour before sunset — and sunset here runs from 4:46 PM in November to 8:37 PM in June. The table below gives the exact window for every month, in Alexandria's own time zone.
Use the live times above for today's exact window. As a rule, evening golden hour in Alexandria starts about 40 minutes before sunset and ends at sunset. In June that is 7:55 PM – 8:35 PM; in December it is 4:05 PM – 4:47 PM.
Sunset in Alexandria is earliest at 4:46 PM on November 30 and latest at 8:37 PM on June 23, a swing of about 4 hours across the year.
Golden hour lasts about 40 minutes in midsummer and 42 minutes in midwinter. The longest evening golden hour falls in December at about 42 minutes; the shortest is in March at about 35 minutes.
| Month | Sunrise | Sunset | Golden hour (evening) | Length | Daylight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 7:24 AM | 5:10 PM | 4:30 PM – 5:10 PM | 40 min | 9h 46m |
| February | 6:59 AM | 5:45 PM | 5:08 PM – 5:45 PM | 37 min | 10h 47m |
| March | 7:19 AM | 7:15 PM | 6:40 PM – 7:15 PM | 35 min | 11h 56m |
| April | 6:31 AM | 7:45 PM | 7:09 PM – 7:45 PM | 36 min | 13h 14m |
| May | 5:55 AM | 8:13 PM | 7:35 PM – 8:13 PM | 38 min | 14h 18m |
| June | 5:42 AM | 8:35 PM | 7:55 PM – 8:35 PM | 40 min | 14h 52m |
| July | 5:55 AM | 8:32 PM | 7:53 PM – 8:32 PM | 39 min | 14h 37m |
| August | 6:22 AM | 8:02 PM | 7:26 PM – 8:02 PM | 36 min | 13h 41m |
| September | 6:49 AM | 7:16 PM | 6:41 PM – 7:16 PM | 35 min | 12h 27m |
| October | 7:17 AM | 6:29 PM | 5:53 PM – 6:29 PM | 36 min | 11h 12m |
| November | 6:50 AM | 4:54 PM | 4:15 PM – 4:54 PM | 39 min | 10h 04m |
| December | 7:19 AM | 4:47 PM | 4:05 PM – 4:47 PM | 42 min | 9h 28m |
Golden hour is the stretch just after sunrise and just before sunset, when the low sun turns hard daylight into soft, warm, directional light — the most flattering natural light for portraits, real estate, product and landscape photography. Blue hour follows sunset (and precedes sunrise): a short window of deep, even blue that's ideal for twilight real estate shots and skylines. Both windows change with latitude and season, which is why this page computes them live instead of guessing.
Kanyon Studio is a San Diego photography and video studio — golden hour is our home field. Brand shoots, products, real estate and portraits, planned around exactly this light.
