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The Great American Eclipse has come and gone but for those precious memories which will last a lifetime. I packed up the car and took my two boys down to Nashville, TN in order to see the total phase of the eclipse which was not going to be visible from the Mid-Atlantic region. It was truly a sight to behold, and everything I had heard it would be... and more.
Funny thing is, after all the planning and waiting, it all came down to chance at the last moment. Clouds started to build up during the beginning phases of the eclipse and then covered the sun two minutes before totality. Suddenly, it looked as if it was going to be a wash. But right as totality began, the clouds parted and we got a perfect view of the total eclipse for the entire 2 minutes and 11 seconds of totality. The sky grew dark, the horizon glowed orange like sunset, and the gnats appeared out of nowhere. The crowd cheered and clapped as the sun's ghostly corona became visible. Then the clouds moved back in and most of the second half of the eclipse was lost from view. But for those 2 minutes and 11 seconds the world stood still for this wonderful spectacle. There will be another total eclipse visible from the United States in seven years... it's on my calendar already!
The above image is my composite of the eclipse. I did my best to replicate the view through the eclipse glasses for the partial phases and then what was seen with the naked eye for the totality shot. If you look closely, you can see several sunspots on the partial eclipse photos.
I think the most important technique tip I can offer is that when time is of the essence and you are unsure of exposure times, use the auto-bracketing feature of your camera. I had never shot an eclipse and practicing on the whole sun can only get you so far. Therefore, I enabled the auto-bracketing feature which set my camera to take five pictures with a single click of the shutter, each image would be one whole stop apart. This gave me plenty of options when I got home, and ensured that I could pick the best exposures. This was especially important during totality when I was busy looking at the sky more than at my camera. So, I walked away from my first eclipse with a composite image that I am very proud of ...thanks in large part to auto-bracketing.
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