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Golden Hour in Hayward, CA

Great light in Hayward isn't luck — it's timing. This page calculates today's sunset, sunrise, golden hour and blue hour for Hayward's exact location, live, and works for any date you choose. With a west-facing coastline nearby, evenings are the show — the sun drops toward the Pacific and the last hour of light runs warm and long.

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.

Where to shoot it

Local tip: For skylines and wide shots, the 15 minutes after sunset usually beats the sunset itself: the sky holds color while buildings and streetlights come up.

In Hayward, sunset ranges from 4:49 PM in December to 8:34 PM in June. Every time on this page is calculated for Hayward's coordinates (37.6688, -122.0808) and shown in America/Los_Angeles.

Sunrise, sunset and golden hour in Hayward by month

MonthSunriseSunsetGolden hour (evening)LengthDaylight
January7:22 AM5:13 PM4:34 PM – 5:13 PM39 min9h 52m
February6:57 AM5:47 PM5:11 PM – 5:47 PM36 min10h 50m
March7:19 AM7:15 PM6:41 PM – 7:15 PM34 min11h 57m
April6:33 AM7:44 PM7:08 PM – 7:44 PM36 min13h 11m
May5:58 AM8:11 PM7:33 PM – 8:11 PM38 min14h 13m
June5:46 AM8:31 PM7:52 PM – 8:31 PM39 min14h 46m
July5:58 AM8:29 PM7:51 PM – 8:29 PM38 min14h 31m
August6:24 AM8:00 PM7:24 PM – 8:00 PM36 min13h 36m
September6:50 AM7:15 PM6:41 PM – 7:15 PM34 min12h 25m
October7:16 AM6:30 PM5:55 PM – 6:30 PM35 min11h 14m
November6:48 AM4:57 PM4:18 PM – 4:57 PM39 min10h 09m
December7:16 AM4:50 PM4:09 PM – 4:50 PM41 min9h 35m

How the light changes through the year in Hayward

Golden hour is not the same length all year in Hayward. It is longest in December at about 41 minutes and shortest in March at about 34 minutes — a difference of 7 minutes of usable warm light per evening.

Hayward gets 5h 11m more daylight on the longest day than the shortest. Sunset moves from 4:50 PM in December to 8:31 PM in June, so an evening shoot that works in summer will be shooting in the dark at the same clock time in winter.

Blue hour follows sunset and is worth planning for separately: in June it runs until about 9:02 PM, and in December until about 5:20 PM.

The year at a glance

  • Earliest sunset: 4:49 PM on December 1
  • Latest sunset: 8:34 PM on June 26
  • Longest day: 14h 46m on June 20
  • Shortest day: 9h 33m on December 21
  • Golden hour length: about 39 minutes in June, 41 minutes in December
  • Time zone: America/Los_Angeles

What is golden hour?

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.

Chasing the light for a shoot?

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.