Des Moines's riverfront doubles every sunset: still water in the evening calm mirrors the color, so golden and blue hour shots get twice the sky. Bridges and banks give you clean leading lines for free. The times below are computed live for Des Moines's exact coordinates and update automatically for any date you pick.
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 golden hour spot: the Principal Riverwalk arch. Arrive 30 minutes before the window opens to set up, and keep shooting into blue hour — it's shorter than you think.
Golden hour in Des Moines is the hour before sunset — and sunset here runs from 4:44 PM in December to 8:52 PM in June. The table below gives the exact window for every month, in Des Moines's own time zone.
Use the live times above for today's exact window. As a rule, evening golden hour in Des Moines starts about 42 minutes before sunset and ends at sunset. In June that is 8:08 PM – 8:50 PM; in December it is 4:00 PM – 4:45 PM.
Sunset in Des Moines is earliest at 4:44 PM on December 2 and latest at 8:52 PM on June 20, a swing of about 4 hours across the year.
Golden hour lasts about 42 minutes in midsummer and 45 minutes in midwinter. The longest evening golden hour falls in December at about 45 minutes; the shortest is in September at about 36 minutes.
| Month | Sunrise | Sunset | Golden hour (evening) | Length | Daylight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 7:38 AM | 5:09 PM | 4:26 PM – 5:09 PM | 43 min | 9h 31m |
| February | 7:09 AM | 5:48 PM | 5:09 PM – 5:48 PM | 39 min | 10h 39m |
| March | 7:26 AM | 7:21 PM | 6:44 PM – 7:21 PM | 37 min | 11h 55m |
| April | 6:34 AM | 7:55 PM | 7:17 PM – 7:55 PM | 38 min | 13h 21m |
| May | 5:55 AM | 8:27 PM | 7:47 PM – 8:27 PM | 40 min | 14h 32m |
| June | 5:39 AM | 8:50 PM | 8:08 PM – 8:50 PM | 42 min | 15h 11m |
| July | 5:53 AM | 8:47 PM | 8:06 PM – 8:47 PM | 41 min | 14h 53m |
| August | 6:23 AM | 8:13 PM | 7:35 PM – 8:13 PM | 38 min | 13h 51m |
| September | 6:54 AM | 7:23 PM | 6:47 PM – 7:23 PM | 36 min | 12h 29m |
| October | 7:26 AM | 6:33 PM | 5:55 PM – 6:33 PM | 38 min | 11h 06m |
| November | 7:03 AM | 4:54 PM | 4:12 PM – 4:54 PM | 42 min | 9h 51m |
| December | 7:34 AM | 4:45 PM | 4:00 PM – 4:45 PM | 45 min | 9h 11m |
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.
