Context

Hailing from northern Illinois, and the total eclipse peaking in southern Illinois… chance of a lifetime. We viewed the total eclipse of 2017 on August 21st, just south of St. Louis Missouri, near southern Illinois. We went down a day early, and scouted locations to shoot, and to check out the weather. We were watching the clouds close, as there was a big system in the area (to the north and to the west. It barely missed us and we lucked out.

The shoot was hectic, grueling, and technically extraordinarily difficult, but managed to pull it off. Interestingly, no one at the campground was viewing the eclipse, since we were in a forest (but I scouted where the sun would be ahead of time and knew we could see it thru an opening in the trees… so no one was around… we had the place to ourselves).

the tricky parts
focusing (argh!)!, exposure (wow)! moon speed! bright, OMG, the brightness!, earth rotation! the timing!, lights out during totality! focus drift due to heated equipment! straight friggin up! occasional clouds! visitors at worst time! sweat, sweat, sweat… OMG, the heat!!

Other images from the shoot can be found here.

      

 

Partial eclipse phase

 

Total eclipse phase