How do you pass up a probably once in a lifetime opportunity to photography something like a total solar eclipse? I didn't get to practice shooting a lot (one afternoon for an hour) but I sure did a lot of thinking. I had notes on exposure, procedure written down for interval timing, bracketing, everything I could think of... and I still missed one thing, but I got most of it pretty right I think.
I probably have 500 images to go through, but this may be my favorite one of the whole bunch. I had 2 cameras going with a wide angle and the biggest telephoto I have (100-400 v1). I had to pull out my old trusty 5D2 for this shot. I wanted the higher resolution of the 5D4 for the telephoto shots. This is one image, not a composite, and edited only in Lr. I had calculated and knew I needed the 15mm to get some foreground and get the sun in the frame as well. I would have loved to use a longer focal length but I wanted to get a chance at this shot.
This image was taken on Lake Chatuge in Hiawassee, Georgia. I did a lot of scouting to find this place. It was actually pretty secluded despite the crowds. I had exactly one person for company, a guy that happened by on his motorcycle from Atlanta. The lead up to this outing was pretty stressful for me. I had a computer system go down, which kept me from scouting when I originally wanted or as much as I wanted. I spent roughly 25 hours driving around north GA on Saturday and Sunday scouting for a place. This is the last one I checked out Sunday late afternoon. I owe my wife big time for putting up with me being so focused on this for 3 days straight. Anyway, probably my favorite shot of the day, and in fact my favorite for a good long time.