Like many people across the United States, I got a chance to experience a total solar eclipse yesterday, April 8, 2024. The path of totality ran very close to my home. I wasn’t able to travel to see the total eclipse in 2017, so I was extremely excited to get the opportunity to witness this one.
Leading up to the event, I checked weather forecasts and cloud cover forecasts, and picked out around 15 potential locations to view the eclipse. This being my first total eclipse, I didn’t want to have to worry about finding anything crazy in the foreground for unique photographs. While I wanted to photograph the eclipse, I first and foremost wanted to experience it. As such, my sole concern was finding a place with a good amount of totality and a forecast for relatively clear skies.
The morning of the 8th arrived, and I scouted cloud forecasts and settled on Oxford, Ohio, near the Indiana border, which was in the center of a section that was forecast for minimal cloud cover. It turns out I could have stayed closer to home, as skies cleared over much of western and central Ohio, but I’m still glad I made the choice to maximize my chances, as the weather was absolutely perfect for eclipse viewing.
I brought two cameras with me so I could do close up shots of the sun throughout the phases of the partial eclipse and during totality, as well as capture a couple wide views and some video of the event.
I used my Nikon Z8 with the Nikkor Z 180-600mm f/5.6-6.3 VR with a 1.4x Teleconverter for the closeup shots, and my Nikon Zf with Nikkor Z 14-24mm f/2.8 S for the wide shot and video. Both were mounted on tripods. I used a Nisi Solar filter (16.6 stop) on the 180-600 for shooting the eclipse in its partial stages. I shot the partial stages every few minutes throughout the duration of the eclipse, and as the time approached for totality, I started rolling video on my Zf about a minute before totality, and as the moon finally covered the sun, I took some quick shots of that final moment, plus some of the corona…then made sure to just look around and experience it.
Below is the video I shot showing the moment of totality. As you can hear, everyone was rather excited, including me. Be sure to select 4K resolution when enlarging, or whatever your display resolution is, as YouTube sometimes defaults to crazily low resolutions on embeds.
I stopped the video about 45 seconds into totality, and then took the wide angle still you’ll see a little further down. I took a few more shots of the corona with the 180-600, bracketing exposures in a 5 shot bracket with two stops between each. For the last minute or so of totality, I just took it all in.
The eclipse was simply beautiful. The color gradations, the eeriness of the light, the blacked out sun in the sky….it was breathtaking, and something I will never forget. Below are a handful of shots I took during the eclipse. I am very happy with the results I got, but nothing here really captures the feeling or look of experiencing it. The first is an 11 shot composite of the entirety of the eclipse from beginning to end. Click on an image to enlarge.
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