Sunday, May 20, 2012

Annular Eclipse through the Arizona wild fires


Late this afternoon, I decided that I was going to ditch my evening responsibilities and chase after the annular eclipse that was going to be happening around sun down. Now, I looked on line about how to photograph this type of eclipse, and the sites all said that you absolutely needed a special filter for your camera, otherwise you'd do damage to the camera (and your eyes if you looked through the view finder).

But...

It is the beginning of fire season in Arizona, and we have a couple of wild fires burning a bit north of the city, up in the mountains. So I packed my camera and my tripod, and took off chasing the smoke. I figured that maybe there might be enough smoke to act as a natural filter. About the time I got up the first real hill out of Phoenix and up to Sunset Point, I hit the bulls eye!

So, here is a sampling of the 70+ shots I took today. I am so tickled!!








































EDIT: And here is a shot my daughter took of me while I was distracted taking my own pictures.
Last photo by Michelle McCollum.

5 comments:

  1. oh my gosh this is amazing! great photos! i'll tweet about it in the morning :)

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  2. Those are incredible! You were lucky to get a natural filter from the smoke, none of my pictures turned out because it was too bright here.

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  3. Oh my goodness, these are breathtaking! More beautiful photos to show my sons tonight! Thanks for sharing ~ the fires and smoke with the eclipse...AMAZING!

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  4. Ooooooh. Those are very cool.

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  5. Thank you, everyone! It was an amazing experience. I'm tickled that you all like the results.

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