Beforethe shutter.

From first idea to ready to shoot.

Save the places that inspire you. Explore the light and weather, plan your route and pack your gear. Your next photograph starts here, on your Mac.

Occasional development notes and one email when it ships. Confirm your email address to join; unsubscribe anytime. Privacy notice.

Coming to the Mac App Store · Free Basic · No account

How it works

One route from the first idea to the shutter.

FRAMEWARD is a landscape photography planning app for macOS. It keeps the whole journey in one place: the place, the moment, the plan, and the field.

Step 1

Find your place.

Keep locations, reference photographs and notes together.

A Spot holds the place and the reasons to return: the photographs that inspired it, the notes about season, direction and access, and the coordinates you shoot from. Collections group Spots by region or by project, and a Sensitive Spot stays protected for the places you do not hand out.

Photos and notes

On the Spot itself, not in a folder that drifts away.

GPX import

A track you already walked becomes a set of Spots.

Step 2

Choose your moment.

Explore light times and forecast conditions for the places you want to photograph.

Three separate things, each named for what it is. None of them promises beautiful light; they tell you what the sun and the models say, so the decision stays yours.

Light times and sun direction

Blue hour, golden hour and sun bearings for the day and the place, computed on your Mac.

Apple Weather, in Basic

Current conditions, hourly and daily forecasts and available alerts for one selected Spot.

The conditions field, in Complete

Forecast ingredients from the ICON-EU model of the German weather service, cells of about 7 km, painted over the visible map in Europe for the coming days. An uncalibrated interpretation, not a probability and not a safety forecast, and separate from Apple Weather.

Step 3

Make your plan.

Bring your stops, route and equipment together in a Trip.

A Trip is the Spots you chose as ordered stops along one route. Record the cameras, lenses, tripods, filters and accessories you own with their weight, assign what you will carry to the Trip and read the packed total before you leave. Trips, Gear and the packed weight are part of Basic.

Ordered stops

One route, in the order you will drive or walk it.

Honest weights

The number on your back is a real one.

Step 4

Go prepared.

Take your maps and exported plan into the field.

Download the world overview once, then the regions you shoot; the map on your Mac then works with no signal and makes no map-provider request. Export the plan as GPX or KML for the device on the dashboard, or take a Field Pack offline. FRAMEWARD is a Mac app: there is no phone app, no cloud sync and no turn-by-turn navigation.

Offline maps

World overview and regional maps, stored on your disk.

Exports

GPX, KML and a Field Pack, plus backups you can leave with.

Local-first

Your plans stay on your Mac.

Spots, photographs, notes, Trips and Gear live in a local database on your Mac. There is no FRAMEWARD account and no library sync. Apple receives the visible map area while the online map is open, Check weather sends the selected Spot's saved coordinates to Apple Weather, and the conditions field asks only for a region block and an hour. The privacy notice lists every service the app talks to.

Pricing, at launch

Free to plan. One purchase for the rest.

FRAMEWARD Basic

Free

No trial and no time limit.

  • Up to six Spots
  • Photos, notes, collections and Sensitive Spots
  • Trips, Gear and packed weight
  • Light times and sun direction
  • Apple Weather for one selected Spot
  • Offline world overview and regional maps
  • GPX, KML and Field Pack exports
  • Backups
Not yet available

FRAMEWARD Complete

€9.99once

Paid once through the Mac App Store, which shows the price in your local currency. Everything in Basic, and exactly two more things.

  • Unlimited Spots
  • The conditions field in Europe
Not yet available

Nothing renews. Planned pricing, confirmed when the Mac App Store listing opens. There is no checkout on this site: purchases, receipts, VAT and refunds are handled by Apple under its own terms.

FAQ

Honest answers, including the inconvenient ones.

Is the app available?

Not yet. FRAMEWARD is in development and will be distributed through the Mac App Store. The signup on this page sends occasional development notes and one email when it ships.

What is free?

FRAMEWARD Basic: up to six Spots with photos, notes, collections and Sensitive Spots; Trips, Gear and the packed weight; light times and sun direction; Apple Weather for one selected Spot; the offline world overview and regional maps; GPX, KML and Field Pack exports; backups. No trial and no time limit.

Is there a subscription?

No. FRAMEWARD Complete is a one-time purchase of €9.99 through the Mac App Store, shown in your local currency. It adds unlimited Spots and the conditions field in Europe. Nothing renews.

Does FRAMEWARD work offline?

Your library, Trips, Gear, light times, exports and downloaded map regions work offline. Apple Maps and Apple Weather need a connection; without one, FRAMEWARD falls back to the map stored on your Mac. The last fetched run of the conditions field stays readable; new hours need a connection.

Where does the conditions field work?

In Europe, where the ICON-EU model of the German weather service (Deutscher Wetterdienst) reaches, in cells of about 7 km. Forecast hours run hourly through three days and every three hours through five, where available. FRAMEWARD's server converts each model run into signed region files; your Mac downloads the files for the part of the map on screen and interprets them locally. Outside the model's domain the app says so and paints nothing.

How is the field different from Apple Weather?

Apple Weather is a forecast for one selected Spot: current conditions, hourly and daily forecasts and available alerts, in every tier. The conditions field is FRAMEWARD's interpretation of a national weather model over the visible map, for photographic conditions such as afterglow, sea of fog, starry nights and fresh snow, and it comes with Complete. A reading is an uncalibrated interpretation of forecast ingredients, not a probability and not a safety forecast. The two are separate, and Apple Weather data is never used for the field.

Where does my data go?

Your library stays in a local database on your Mac. There is no FRAMEWARD account and no library sync. While the online map is open, Apple receives the visible map area. Check weather sends the selected Spot's saved shooting coordinates to Apple Weather, and a Sensitive Spot asks for one-use permission first. The conditions field requests a region block and an hour, never a Spot, a name or a coordinate; the field server sees ordinary connection data, like any web host, and keeps no account. The offline map makes no request. The privacy notice has the details.

Which Macs does it run on?

FRAMEWARD is a macOS app coming to the Mac App Store. The current private beta targets Apple silicon and macOS 15. Final compatibility will be confirmed in the App Store listing.

Is FRAMEWARD a PhotoPills alternative?

FRAMEWARD can complement PhotoPills rather than replace it. PhotoPills provides mobile tools for planning the Sun, Moon, Milky Way and other celestial conditions. FRAMEWARD focuses on a private Mac workspace for organising photography Spots, managing Gear, planning Trips and preparing for the field. The conditions field compares photographic conditions across the map from a national weather model.

FRAMEWARD is independent and is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by PhotoPills.

More detail: landscape photography planning for Mac.

Your next photograph starts before you leave.

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