We scouted for two days and selected the Battlefield in Lexington to be the spot where we hoped to photograph the 2017 solar eclipse events. Happy to share.
We arrived very early and were fortunate to be the first ones on the site.
With hours of waiting ahead of us, we looked for other interesting things to photograph. There were quite a few of these very small mushrooms.
At this point the sun was shining and in spite of very good evidence that a a pretty good storm was headed our way, people continued to arrive and set up chairs, tents, and food.
A group of astronomers arrived early and set up right on top of the small hill. They cordoned off some lanes and it was their hope that people would come up and see the sun through their telescopes. I would certainly have been one of them. Alas, the weather really deteriorated, the rain moved in and they moved on to Higginsville in search of a better place.
About an hour and a half before the eclipse was to start, the storm moved in! Many people retreated to their cars (we did). It rained hard for about ten minutes and then sprinkled for a bit after that.
But, as you know, there are die-hards in every crowd! These folks toughed it out. I returned just as the rain let up to document their commitment. We could see a bit of blue to the west and were ever so hopeful that we would have sun breaking through the clouds in time to fully see the eclipse.
People started returning as soon as the rain let up. It was still very overcast and the field was very wet for those who had chosen to bring blankets to sit on. Nothing seemed to deter the excitement.
Finally, the sun came out and the eclipse started. This was a common scene. People were either looking up or on their phone. The lady on the right had brought her dog and its leash is what she is holding. The gentleman on the far left never moved. He may have slept through the entire event!
Minutes before totality it got much cooler and the whole place became darker. But, unlike a sunset which has a side reference point of light and color from light to dark, this darkening was much, much faster and it was evenly distributed.
Just before totality.
Taken a minute later than the image above, this photograph shows the eerie colors that show up on the horizon. But, unlike a sunset, these colors surround you on the horizon. Then, they too disappeared into greater darkness.
Darkness.
Taken with a Nikon D810, at 260mm with a Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 with a 1.4 tele-converter. Develop adjustments in Lightroom: highlight slider -25, white +15, black -4, clarity 10, no saturation or vibrancy, red luminance -24 and magenta -27. Note: the highlight slider very much affects the size of the white corona surrounding the moon. I picked a value that looked realistic based on what I was seeing through my glasses.
Three prominences!!! WOW
The Diamond Ring. This ring-like image occurs right at a split second before complete totality end. Same metadata and adjustments. All of these images were taken with the camera hand-held.
A bigger diamond for you, my dear! I decided this was a good time to stop photographing just in case I would ruin my lens (or my eyesight).
Just as Totality ended.
After totality ended, people started leaving. But many stayed behind to watch the second half of the show.