I did not get the shot I had hoped for - a couple mistakes with TPE and not getting the exposures dialed in. More practice needed.
Myself and another RMNP member ended up about 4 miles east on Service Route 5083, roughly 12 miles east/southeast of Shiprock out in ranch land. This is before the Hogback. Ideal for compression in the 400-600 mm range.
The mistake - I used the sun/moon positions at sunset, not at the eclipse time. So I was 5-10 degrees off on the horizon. Needed to be further north.
Compositionally, getting that far away for compression had the adverse effect of magnifying the elevation difference. I have to say in hindsight trading a larger shiprock for a smaller sun makes sense, as Richard's post show.
I need to figure out exposure - trying to do this while trying to avoid looking at the sun and of course with the Baader film not able to recompose the scene - just a mess.
Three (generally embarrassing) shots -
One near sunset where we generally hoped it would happen. More ready then but still trying to compose staring into the sun.
One earlier in the afternoon shot showing the frame fill from 560 mm effective.
And one of the actual annular through Baader film, though woefully blurred out or overexposed. That I got to figure out. It seems the film changed the focal plane perhaps???
Anyway, my first time shooting this. We got a total in 2017 across the central US; and an annular in 2024 in Texas. Start planning!
And the moment of annularity. Focus, overexposure? You can see the faint bit of Shiprock and how far off we were using the wrong time on TPE. Dumb mistake, and got to apologize to my fellow RMNP friend with me. This shot was done quickly at 70mm after I jettisoned the 400mm just to get everything in frame. Arghh!
We did get a nice visit from the local Navajo rancher who had not problem with us being on his property.
That first one isn't bad at all, Karl. I kinda like the eclipsed flare even.
I do wish Shiprock was a bit more prominent, but what are you gonna do?
Well, one thing you can do next time is to fine tune your location using a compass and this 'Sun/Moon Altitude/Azimuth Table'. Also, the group I was with used LiveView to check for composition and focus.
Thanks John, Great meeting you and everyone else in Moab.
I'll probably crop (cut the top) and use some spot exposure tools to bring out Shiprock better. I've been on the road and no time to edit yet... so this is from an untouched RAW.
LiveView - yeah I was, but with Baader I had to search around and without Baader I would sometimes blowout the image. Like I said, a mess, especially with the unexpected calculation error (wrong time) with TPE.
Thanks John, Great meeting you and everyone else in Moab.
I'll probably crop (cut the top) and use some spot exposure tools to bring out Shiprock better. I've been on the road and no time to edit yet... so this is from an untouched RAW.
LiveView - yeah I was, but with Baader I had to search around and without Baader I would sometimes blowout the image.
Karl - can you let me know what error you had with TPE? I'm not aware of any issues with calculations in the program, but obviously I'd like to investigate any issues you had.
>>Karl - can you let me know what error you had with TPE? I'm not aware of any issues with calculations in the program, but obviously I'd like to investigate any issues you had. <<
Human Error.
Eclipse was around 7:35 pm local; Sunset was around 8:15 local. In those 40 minutes, the sun moves significantly right across my western horizon. I was looking at the Sunset (default) geometry; not the @ 7:35 geometry which was to the right. I was about 2 miles off at 12 miles away axis "ShipRock". I began to realize this about 15 minutes before peak and perhaps should have blasted north further into ranch land - but then who knows what would have been in our way (power lines, low hills).
Oddly, I had done all those by-time calculations for the Supermoon a few weeks ago and it worked well. Not sure why I had not worked it by time for the Eclipse. I guess "eclipse @sunset" threw me. Live and learn. At least the sunset lineup was close.
Ah, I see. Sorry it didn't work out quite as planned.
If it's any consolation, my shoot was a bust too. I was hoping to get the partially eclipsed sun next to Longs Peak, shooting from Lagermann Reservoir. However, the clouds got the better of it. I realised 10 minutes after peak that I should have started heading north about 20 minutes earlier
Karl, I made basically the same error with TPE for this one, only in my case I think it worked out better than I expected. I'll look forward to seeing your processing of that first shot. As we all have discovered, catching a solar eclipse with any kind of landscape feature is no easy feat!
Discussion
9 repliesI did not get the shot I had hoped for - a couple mistakes with TPE and not getting the exposures dialed in. More practice needed.
Myself and another RMNP member ended up about 4 miles east on Service Route 5083, roughly 12 miles east/southeast of Shiprock out in ranch land. This is before the Hogback. Ideal for compression in the 400-600 mm range.
The mistake - I used the sun/moon positions at sunset, not at the eclipse time. So I was 5-10 degrees off on the horizon. Needed to be further north.
Compositionally, getting that far away for compression had the adverse effect of magnifying the elevation difference. I have to say in hindsight trading a larger shiprock for a smaller sun makes sense, as Richard's post show.
I need to figure out exposure - trying to do this while trying to avoid looking at the sun and of course with the Baader film not able to recompose the scene - just a mess.
Three (generally embarrassing) shots -
One near sunset where we generally hoped it would happen. More ready then but still trying to compose staring into the sun.
One earlier in the afternoon shot showing the frame fill from 560 mm effective.
And one of the actual annular through Baader film, though woefully blurred out or overexposed. That I got to figure out. It seems the film changed the focal plane perhaps???
Anyway, my first time shooting this. We got a total in 2017 across the central US; and an annular in 2024 in Texas. Start planning!
(note this was a test shot and not properly leveled)
We did get a nice visit from the local Navajo rancher who had not problem with us being on his property.
I do wish Shiprock was a bit more prominent, but what are you gonna do?
Well, one thing you can do next time is to fine tune your location using a compass and this 'Sun/Moon Altitude/Azimuth Table'. Also, the group I was with used LiveView to check for composition and focus.
Nice meeting you in Moab!
I'll probably crop (cut the top) and use some spot exposure tools to bring out Shiprock better. I've been on the road and no time to edit yet... so this is from an untouched RAW.
LiveView - yeah I was, but with Baader I had to search around and without Baader I would sometimes blowout the image. Like I said, a mess, especially with the unexpected calculation error (wrong time) with TPE.
I'll probably crop (cut the top) and use some spot exposure tools to bring out Shiprock better. I've been on the road and no time to edit yet... so this is from an untouched RAW.
LiveView - yeah I was, but with Baader I had to search around and without Baader I would sometimes blowout the image.
Human Error.
Eclipse was around 7:35 pm local; Sunset was around 8:15 local. In those 40 minutes, the sun moves significantly right across my western horizon. I was looking at the Sunset (default) geometry; not the @ 7:35 geometry which was to the right. I was about 2 miles off at 12 miles away axis "ShipRock". I began to realize this about 15 minutes before peak and perhaps should have blasted north further into ranch land - but then who knows what would have been in our way (power lines, low hills).
Oddly, I had done all those by-time calculations for the Supermoon a few weeks ago and it worked well. Not sure why I had not worked it by time for the Eclipse. I guess "eclipse @sunset" threw me. Live and learn. At least the sunset lineup was close.
Thank-you for asking.
If it's any consolation, my shoot was a bust too. I was hoping to get the partially eclipsed sun next to Longs Peak, shooting from Lagermann Reservoir. However, the clouds got the better of it. I realised 10 minutes after peak that I should have started heading north about 20 minutes earlier
August 21 2017, here we come...