Partial Eclipse

The solar flare on the bottom left of this video could be seen with the naked eye at totality.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c4gwd5rwvx5t

Cloud cover hid the whole thing where i was
Glad i didn't bother with it

That’s a shame - cloudless for months!

My friends and family around Edinburgh saw basically nothing due to heavy clouds.

We went to a village called Consuegra De Murera in central Spain where there were a few hundred people watching the eclipse from a country road between fields of sunflowers. In the village there was a small bar with a couple of (extremely good) local small-batch beers on tap and caterers had been hired to make burgers after the event, which weren't half bad either. The atmosphere was fantastic - everyone in great spirits enjoying themselves and having a great time. The people of rural Spain are unsurpassed in their friendliness which really makes an event like this that much more special.

While the others in my group were having a drink in the village I went on ahead to grab a good spot and get set up. I thought that ten minutes would be enough but due to the complexity of what I hoped to use it took around twenty. I had no problem getting a good space with no-one in front of me that might have gotten in the way.

I saw just two other people with "proper" cameras and telephoto lenses and neither looked like their setups were as long as I had with mine, of course that doesn't mean they go worse shots and they may well have gotten better results if they were executed well.

My setup:

Camera 1: Canon 70D with battery grip, Tamron 100-400mm and ND 100,000 solar filter on a Slik tripod. Both camera and lens were bought (used) this year specifically for the eclipse, as was the eclipse filter, which together were my biggest outlay for the project. I focused on the sun before starting and then turned AF off and used masking tape to prevent any focus movement. I used a wired remote trigger to reduce shake, which was a problem because taking shots every five minutes the sun had moved and I had to re-frame by adjusting the tripod. I put a baseball cap over the front of the lens hood when not shooting to prevent any damage to the gear, just in case.

Camera 2: Panasonic Lumix S5 with Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 DG DN. This is my main camera normally but wasn't used for the telephoto shots because (1) I didn't want to risk damage to it in case of a slip on my part leaving the solar filter off at the wrong moment or someone knocking the tripod (2) it's full-frame so I'd have gotten just a 400mm focal length instead of the 640mm effective focal length with the 70D and (3) I wanted it for wider landscape shots during the eclipse itself.

Camera 3: Yashica Mat 124G 6x6 medium format TLR loaded with Fujifilm Pro 400H. This camera was on a second tripod next to the main one and left prepared for a totality landscape shot. Pre-set everything with a best guess as I'd have no time to meter or adjust. Lens cap on with masking tape to secure it until a couple of minutes before totality. Used a standard threaded trigger remote to fire a single shot during totality but I think I messed up and the shot will be massively under-exposed.

Camera 4: Canon EOS 30 film SLR loaded with Portra 160. A couple of times during partiality I removed the 70D and stuck the EOS 30 on the back of the lens to take a few shots, because I wanted to have something on film.

Camera 5: Canon 6D as backup for the 70D in case of mishap or failure. Not used.

Unfortunately not a single piece of Pentax equipment involved. I had the K 50/1.2 and S-M-C Tak 85/1.8 with me in case I had time to take some shots around the village but they didn't get any use - too many other things to juggle.

Every five minutes during partiality I framed and fired a seven-shot bracketed burst straight at the sun. I have no intention of putting together one of these combined shots to show the progress of the eclipse over time but I did want some telephoto shots to show partiality.

As totality arrived I removed the solar filter, carefully blocking the light with my body until totality was fully there. I adjusted the settings and fired off bracketed bursts every few seconds to try to get different exposures of the different artifacts. This was the most critical part and was partly successful but I didn't really get Baily's beads and some of the shots were blurred because I must have knocked the camera or the tripod.

I also took a few shots with the S5 to show the landscape with the eclipse and this was my biggest mistake - I should have had the S5 on a tripod to allow slower shutter speeds. Since it was hand-held, even though the camera has IBIS I was limited and these shots were taken at ISO 4000+. Still, getting the solar filter back on, or at least blocking the light after totality until the filter can go back on, is critical to not destroying the gear and managing that for two cameras (three if you could the Yashica) is riskier than doing it for fewer.

I did also manage a bit of time to bask in the eclipse and enjoy the light and atmosphere, after all most of what I needed to do with the 70D was just pressing and holding a button on the remote trigger. It was incredible and I see why they say that even a 99% eclipse is not 99% of the experience of a total eclipse.

So that's it done for better or worse. By far the most planning and investment in a single photography project that I have ever done, especially the research into how to execute eclipse photography and into potential cameras and lenses to use for the telephoto part. Overall a grand experience of eight months of preparation for a 90 second climax. I'm happy about how some parts of it turned out while others I think I could have done better. I've gained a lot of experience and knowledge that I hope to be able to use in the future - a chunk of the lower half of Spain will experience an anular eclipse in January 2028 so I hope to be able to see that. The gear that I bought specifically will stay until at least then, though I might look into the possibility of upgrading the 70D to something newer in the meantime, but it's not a priority and I might be better keeping the camera that I now have experience of using for this purpose.

As I say, nothing Pentax was used so I probably shouldn't post any of the results directly, but below is my Flickr album for it. Just one photo in there as I type but I will of course add more.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jonathandmacdonald/albums/72177720335044638/

I have to say that I admire your commitment!
The research and planning that you obviously put into this has produced some great results.
Your account above is incredibly detailed and useful

Thank you veey much for posting this

I was all set to do the partial from Richmond Park, with the hope that approaching/departing flight at LHR might intersect with the sun. Then realising it was too late to get a Solar filter, as all the reliable sources telling me that even stacking a BigStopper on top of a SuperStopper was risky due to the UV/IW wavelengths. To be used on a Nikon D500 or Z8 with 80-400G (longest Pentax lens is 200 mm). I'll only be 82 in 2050.

Very nice set!

Many thanks. I've just seen that DPR featured one of my photos in an article on readers' eclipse photos. Mine is the fifth one down and I see that a little further down a Pentaxian with a K3 III was featured too.

https://www.dpreview.com/photography/these-photographers-understood-the-assignme...

Yes, only a proper eclipse filter will do or those IR & UV wavelingths will fry your gear even if the visible wavelengths don't. I almost had a panic attack about ten days ago when I was unsure if the ND 100,000 that I got for the eclipse would be suitable or not. It is, but that didn't stop me from hanging a basball cap over the lens hood when I wasn't shooting. I got the filter months ago for €31 and when I looked last week it had gone up to €50.

I had a few friends round for "eclipse" drinks.

At the max totality we went to my front garden to look at it with the aid of a colander and white paper It worked perfectly.

What I was completely unprepared for was the effect of the sun shining through leaves on the front of my house. Quite extraordinary.

ps. ground floor left window.... Rudy photobombed me !


eclipse by Peter Schluter, on Flickr

Any excuse, eh?

The images produced by pinhole cameras among the leaves have amazed me, too. I don't remember seeing images like that from previous partial eclipses.

Steve

You know it.....

It was a bit cloudy here on the North East coast so it was not to good, still the beer in the bar ws good.