Plan shoots around the light,
and run the business behind them.
Apex Lucis is the complete platform for professional photographers — business management, location intelligence, and live environmental data, all in one beautifully integrated app.
Works across all your Apple devices. iPhone, iPad and Mac.
The hours
worth driving for.
Four things decide whether a shoot is worth the petrol — the light, the forecast, the tide and what is moving. Apex Lucis checks all four, across every location you have saved, and ranks what it finds.
Stop checking
four apps.
A scan runs across your saved locations and scores every window it finds, so the best hour anywhere comes first — and a quiet Tuesday is never crowded out by a location-rich Saturday.
- Scans your saved locations 10 days ahead, as far as the forecast reaches
- Ranks each window on light quality, weather, tide state and wildlife activity
- No single day can take over the list
- Turn any window straight into a booking, with the tide and light times already on it
- Free scans cover 3 locations over 3 days
The conditions.
Before you leave home.
Real conditions data, intelligently combined into a single shoot score.
Know the tide.
Own the shore.
Fully offline tide predictions from over 7,500 harmonic stations across 128 countries — no external API. Combined with WeatherKit forecasts to produce a shoot condition score from 0–10.
- 48-hour tide chart with high/low extremes
- Photography window classification: Very Low → Very High
- Works with no signal — the tide data is already on your phone
- Combined weather and light quality score
Find the wildlife,
not just the location.
See what species have been spotted near your planned shoot location.
- Find out what wildlife can be seen at a location.
- On Device AI generated Wildlife guides. (where supported)
- Seasonality — the months each species is actually about
- Feeds straight into Optimal Windows when you are choosing a date
Run your business.
Not spreadsheets.
Everything from first enquiry to final invoice, designed for how photographers actually work.
From enquiry
to confirmed booking.
The Kanban pipeline moves leads through every stage — Enquiry, Contacted, Quoted, Won — giving you a clear view of your pipeline value at any moment.
- Visual pipeline
- Quote builder with package pricing
- PDF contract generation with signed-status tracking
- One-tap conversion from lead to confirmed booking
- Hot lead alerts for enquiries within 48 hours
Paid on time.
Every time.
Booking management with EventKit calendar sync, automated invoice generation, and overdue payment alerts so nothing slips through the cracks.
- Calendar sync with reminders for shoot day
- Invoice status tracking: Draft, Sent, Paid, Overdue
- Revenue dashboard with month-on-month comparison
- Contact hub for clients, vendors, and collaborators
- Package pricing with configurable rates
The job isn't done when
you put the camera down.
A booking knows what it still owes — the gallery, the album, the prints — and each one keeps its own promised date. So the client waiting a fortnight for their gallery is not waiting on the album that takes three months.
- Track each thing you owe separately: imported, culled, edited, delivered
- A promised date per item, taken from the package you actually sold
- A nudge before a promise slips, not after it has
- Ask for the review, and get back in touch a year later, with the wording already written
Automations
Rules that do the remembering for you — the enquiry that has gone quiet, the invoice that is now overdue, the gallery promised for Friday. Each one prepares the work and puts it in front of you. Nothing is ever sent without you.
Bookings
Everything about a shoot in one place — who, where, the crew and kit, the invoice, the contract, and the light and tide for that day at that spot. Open the booking and you are looking at the whole job.
Clients
Everyone you shoot for, with their history attached — what you have photographed for them, what they paid, and when you last spoke.
Contacts
Everyone you work with rather than for — crew, freelancers, models, suppliers and vendors — kept apart from the clients who hire you, so the two lists never muddle.
Expenses
Every cost in one list — travel, permits, kit, studio hire — sorted, flagged for what is tax-deductible, and already counted in your P&L when you need the figure.
Insights
Which months actually earn, where enquiries stall, and what a booking is really worth once the travel and the crew are paid for.
Invoices
Deposit and balance, itemised from the packages you sold, with your branding and your payment details — and a chase sequence ready when one goes unpaid.
Leads
See what every open enquiry is worth and which ones have gone quiet. Move one to Won and it becomes a booking, with everything you already typed carried across.
Packages
Price your standard offerings once, then put them on a booking in a tap — including what each one promises to deliver, and how long you said it would take.
Profit and Loss
What came in, what went out, and what you actually kept — for any period you choose, and ready for the conversation with your accountant.
Be in the right place
at the right moment.
Precision tools that put you in exactly the right spot when the light is perfect.
Know where you are shooting
The Locations module lets you plan everything you need to know about a location before you visit.
- Address with Longitude and Latitude
- Check the light, weather, tides and wildlife
- Store Photos against a location to be used for reference
- Manage notes, and access information, including parking
- See all permits registered for the location
Plan that moon shot before leaving home.
Moon Alignment lets you see the best time to visit a location to get the moon exactly where you need it.
- Set where you want to stand, and what subject you want to have in-front of the moon
- Set a date range to get the best times
- Decide what lens you are using, to understand how big the moon will be in the frame
- Set your tolerances
Call Sheets
A call sheet is a day-of-shoot schedule. It lists who needs to be where, when, and what they'll be doing — broken into time slots, each with a crew list, location, and attached shot list.
Crew and Models
The Crew section (accessible from within a booking's detail) manages the roster of people assigned to a specific shoot — their roles, fees, and model releases.
Equipment Manager
Track all your photography equipment — what you own, its condition, when it was last serviced, and what insurance covers it. Group gear into kits for quick assignment to shoots.
Locations
Your location library. Every place you photograph, scout, or want to remember goes here. Locations can be linked to bookings, environmental data, and moon alignment calculations.
Moon Alignment
Moon Alignment solves one of landscape photography's most complex planning problems: working out the exact date, time, and camera position needed to photograph the moon rising or setting behind a specific subject, framed at a specific size in the image.
Permits
Many photography locations — especially public spaces, parks, beaches, historic buildings, and commercial areas — require permits for professional photography. The Permits manager tracks your applications, their status, conditions, and expiry dates.
Shot Lists
A shot list is a pre-planned inventory of individual photographs you intend to capture on a shoot. Planning shots in advance ensures you don't miss anything important and helps you brief your crew efficiently.
Studio Hire
If you hire a commercial photography studio rather than shooting on location, Studio Bookings tracks the reservation, the space specifications, and any equipment hired from the studio.
Trip Manager
If a shoot requires travel — flying to a location, staying overnight, driving significant distances — the Trip Planner tracks your accommodation and travel legs in one place, calculates mileage claims, and keeps all costs in view.
Widgets & Shortcuts
The next booking and the coming light on your home screen, without opening anything. Ask Siri for the golden hour at a location, add an expense on the way back to the car, or start your shoot — and find any booking, client or location straight from Spotlight.
The next shoot,
without unlocking anything.
Apex Lucis is built for Apple rather than ported to it — so the things you check most often are a glance away, and the things you do most often are one phrase.
- Widgets for the next booking and the day's light
- Siri and Shortcuts for golden hour, expenses and starting a shoot
- Bookings, clients and locations findable from Spotlight
- iPhone, iPad and Mac, through your own private iCloud
Bring your Brand
Use your own Invoices, Model Release Forms and Contracts to ensure brand consistency.
Your paperwork,
in your own livery.
- Apex Lucis provides five PDF templates to get you started.
- Bring your own Templates for Invoices, Model Release Forms, Call Sheets, Contracts, and Crew Sheets.
- Simply import your existing templates (as RTF documents) via the Template Manager to use your own branded templates.
The awkward emails,
already written.
Seven ready-written messages for the moments a job actually needs one. Edit any of them in your own voice — and nothing is ever sent without you.
- Replying to an enquiry, and confirming the booking
- Chasing an unpaid invoice — politely, then less so
- Telling a client their photographs are ready
- Asking for a review, and getting back in touch a year later
- Free in every copy of Apex Lucis
Free to start.
Pro when you're ready.
Download Apex Lucis free — tides, light, weather and wildlife included. Pro adds the business side and the deeper planning tools.
- ✓ Tides, light, weather and wildlife — all of it
- ✓ Bookings, leads, clients, invoices and expenses
- ✓ Locations, gear, shot lists, permits, trips and studios
- ✓ Optimal Windows — 3 locations, 3 days
- ✓ Message templates for every stage of a job
- ✓ iPhone, iPad and Mac, synced through your own iCloud account
- ✓ Everything in Free
- ✓ Optimal Windows — every location, 10 days
- ✓ Moon Alignment
- ✓ Profit and Loss
- ✓ Business Insights
- ✓ Crew, Call Sheets and Model Releases
- ✓ Automations
- ✓ Your own PDF templates
- ✓ 30-day free trial
- ✓ Every Pro feature added from here
Subscription managed via the App Store. Cancel anytime in Settings → Apple Account → Subscriptions. Privacy Policy · Terms of Use
You're
covered.
Answers to the most common questions, and direct routes if you need help.
Contact Support
Reach out, and I'll get back to you as soon as possible.
Release Notes
Read the full changelog for every update, including bug fixes and improvements.
Terms & Privacy
The privacy policy, subscription terms, and the App Store EULA are all referenced here.
Pro adds Optimal Windows across every saved location for 10 days, Moon Alignment, Profit and Loss, Business Insights, Crew and Call Sheets, Automations, and your own PDF templates.
Everything else is free — all the tide, light, weather and wildlife data, the whole diary and invoicing side, the message templates, and a free Optimal Windows scan covering 3 locations over 3 days.
Yes — Apex Lucis Pro includes a 30-day free trial. You won't be charged until the trial period ends, and you can cancel at any time from Settings → Apple Account → Subscriptions on your iPhone.
Open the Settings app on your iPhone → tap your name at the top → Subscriptions → Apex Lucis Pro → Cancel Subscription. You keep Pro access until the end of your current billing period. Apex Lucis has no ability to process refunds directly — for refunds, use Apple's reportaproblem.apple.com.
The ephemeris engine (sun, moon, golden hour, blue hour) works fully offline, as do tide predictions. WeatherKit and Wildlife require an internet connection initially to get the data, but it's cached on your device afterwards.
The planner uses Apex Lucis's own custom-built ephemeris engine — no third-party astronomy library — accurate to within about 1° when checked against tools like Stellarium and PhotoPills. The alignment tolerance is ±2° azimuth and ±3° altitude by default, which is generous enough to account for atmospheric refraction and typical composition flexibility. You can tighten tolerances down to ±0.5° for more precise planning.
All business data — clients, leads, bookings, invoices — is stored in SwiftData on your device and synced via iCloud CloudKit using your personal iCloud account. No one ever has access to your business data.
Yes — CloudKit sync is included for all users. Sign in with the same Apple Account on a new Apple device and your locations, bookings, clients, leads, and wildlife field guides will sync automatically.
Yes — Your data is yours, and you should have access to it. Using the export feature you can get a spreadsheet of all your stored data.