I have seen a partial eclipse 'live' before but never a total eclipse. When I discovered that some parts of the US were to experience a total eclipse on August 21st 2017 I began my planning. This week, months of planning and preparation came to fruition, I'd picked the right location, acquired the right gear, made the 12 hour drive, arrived on time, set up and captured this beautiful event entirely as planned. I couldn't be happier about it. I realise that for many just seeing the images it's a shrug of the shoulders 'that's cool' moment so I've made a page with all the shots in one gallery and the full story elsewhere on the site which you can see by clicking here. Alternatively you can click the image below for a larger version of the 'highlights' and watch the 2 second video and then move on with your life.
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We are all happy to post those shots that we set out to achieve and managed to capture, but the truth is, for every one of those there are several 'misses' that never stray from the laptop. I aimed to shoot the Perseids meteor shower last night but the waning gibbous moon really illuminated the night sky making my efforts to catch it almost impossible. You can see on the right side of the image where the moon is illuminating the smoke from distant forest fires and causing a 'white out'.
Rather than give it up altogether I lounged around the back garden on the patio furniture making a star trail and catching what few meteors were visible. There was even a glimpse of an aurora on the distant horizon and though I saw about 20 meteors in the 2.5 hours I was outside I only caught 7 on camera, most of which disappeared in the star stacking merge. I still really enjoyed being out there looking up at the stars and expect to be making more of these trails in the winter when the dry clear (smoke free) skies return. In real terms this was a miss , but what a beautiful miss it turned out to be. I've added a new tutorial on the 'Tips & More' section of the site today for capturing sunsets. It's something that we all love to do but can be frustrating when your camera doesn't reflect the beauty you were seeing at the time of shooting. It's a short piece that will help you get more from your sunrise and sunset photography and hopefully provide a few new ideas for the next time you are out shooting. You can go direct to the tutorial by clicking here.
Today I have made a start on expanding the useful information on the site beginning with a new 'Tips & More' tab. My first entry is on night photography and can be found directly from this link or by visiting the 'Tips & More' page at any time.
I have also created a link from there to the Image Tales section where you can read some of the stories and find more information behind the images. I intend to expand this section too as the stories behind the images seem to be something people are interested in. On the theme of night photography, the image below is the western part of downtown Calgary taken in January 2016, visit the Night Photography page to learn more on making images like this. |
Chris WaltersYou can read more about me in the 'about' section in the menu above, on the homepage, or by clicking here
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