Living and working as a photographer in Colorado takes me into the Rocky Mountains all the time. Used to be, I had to consult a map or someone with better knowledge in order to identify different mountain peaks in my photographs. This doesn’t touch on the fact that many of my clients and friends ask me what the different peaks are when we are out and about. My solution to this problem has been an iPhone application called “Peak Finder.” It’s also available on Android.

Peak Finder has been around for a while now. I’ve been using it for about 10 years. Over those 10 years it has become much a more sophisticated and capable application.

Peak Finder claims to have a database of 1 million peaks around the world. I’ve used it in the Rocky Mountains and it can identify most peaks I’ve tried to identify, from the Dakotas to the the Pacific Northwest. It works in real time and offline. Just point your iPhone at a mountain range and Peak Finder will tell you the mountain peaks you are looking at. There’s a camera function that will overlay the peak names on an actual photo. Pretty handy. It also works offline. You can point to any location on a map and then tell the app to use that point as the reference point and it will take you there virtually and show you the peaks visible from that viewpoint. The mobile app has numerous other features you’ll find helpful.

Peak Finder also has an internet based Desktop PC interface for a desktop web browser.

I use the web browser interface all the time while editing photos in the studio. I can load Peak Finder in my web browser and call up a virtual panoramic view of any photo I have where I know the general or specific location. It helps me to identify mountain peaks in all my photos.

Another handy feature of Peak Finder is showing the path of the Sun and Moon along with their rising and setting times. I’ve used it many times to determine the precise location on the horizon of the sunrise, sunset, moon-rise and orbital path in the sky.

I don’t promote commercial products very often, but Peak Finder is one of those apps that I highly recommend for both your mobile phone and for the desktop. I find it invaluable. I’ll also tell you that I’m not being paid to promote this application. It’s just a darn good piece of work.