When you are making your plans for Monday’s eclipse, remember that there will be thousands of images made of the sun. You will be able to see stunning images of the corona, and the “diamond”, and all that jazz. People will composite gorgeous images like the one above, and share them far and wide. There will be videos and stop motion animations that show the whole event from start to finish in better detail than you could ever hope to see in person.
“So”, you might be thinking, “What’s the point of watching the eclipse myself?”
There are people who travel from eclipse zone to eclipse zone just to capture these images. Professionals, who know how to bracket their exposure and have telephoto lenses. These images will be breathtakingly gorgeous, there’s no doubt about that.

Photo courtesy of: National Geographic
And if you want to take some of your own, there are thousands of resources out there with tips on how to make it happen, including the National Geographic Article, “How to Photograph a Solar Eclipse“, linked above. Here’s a great one I read by CNET about photographing the eclipse with your smart phone.
But the most interesting images will be the ones that include the context.
As a lifestyle photographer, I know that everything is about characters, relationship and context. Those are the elements you need to tell a story. And this is no different.
The most interesting eclipse images will show what people are doing before, during, and after the eclipse. They’ll show emotions. They’ll show crowds, and they’ll show wide open land. They’ll show animals, trees, and oceans. They’ll show cities and skylines. They’ll show homes and back yards.
The most interesting images of the eclipse will be the ones you take from your own unique perspective. The journalistic photographs – the ones that show how this impacts your individual life – will be the ones worth sharing.
So relax, be safe, and enjoy this experience. Ensure that everyone wears approved eclipse glasses if they are going to look directly at the sun. Change your angle and change what you include in your frame. See how much variety you can capture. Open your senses to the bigger story. That is the story you will be able to look back on and share.
Here’s a video about staying safe during the eclipse:
And here’s a short video that gives an overview of the event path:
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