Nature Photography

[azurbanclucker]

Nice. I'm planning on driving to San Antonio if the weather is decent and catching it myself. I got an image of a partial eclipse back in 2017. I hate I didn't travel to see totality. I wasn't too far away. It will be a 10-11hr drive for me this time.

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My goal is to get some images like these (not mine) from Lighthound on FredMiranda.com next April, and I'm going to use this annular eclipse as a practice run. It will be 10 years before we get another one....

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I'm using a thousand oaks optical full aperture solarlite polymer filter.

It's a slip on (not threaded) so I can snatch it off quick to photograph totality on next April's eclipse.

https://thousandoaksoptical.com/shop/solar-filters/full-aperture-solarlite-polymer/

They're not terribly expensive but you can diy one for about 1/4 the price by buying a sheet of the solar film and depending on the size of the sheet, you'll have enough material to make multiple and put them on binoculars, etc. (For the picture of the eclipse above, I just taped a pair of solar glasses to the end of my lens, lol) They sell the film on amazon for $15-30.

https://www.amazon.com/Thousand-Oak...hvlocphy=&hvtargid=pla-4584482468681710&psc=1

Here's the kicker though. Most all of these filters and films are solar viewing safe, optical density of 5.0 which is 15.5 stops. The issue is they block so much light that your shutter speed is going to be annoyingly slow. I had to take my ISO to 800 on that image, just to get 1/200th of a second shutter speed at F/10. Normally it's around 1/50th or so with a low iso.

This is not a deal breaker for the eclipse but I want to shoot some ISS transits also and I'm going to need a lot more shutter speed for that.

So if you look hard on the internet there is a solar film for photography that is NOT viewing safe but safe for the camera. It is called astrosolar photo film OD 3.8 by baader planetarium. It is only 12 stops so you'll get a lot more SS but you can NOT look through the optical viewfinder on your DSLR, only live view.

I ordered an 8x12 sheet of it from alpine astronomical on Sept 21. I emailed them 3 days ago and she said it was supposed to ship that day and they were understaffed and were swamped with orders from the eclipse. I still haven't received it yet but I'm going to DIY a slip on filter with it. Might not use it for the eclipse but I'm going to use it for ISS transits....

https://alpineastro.com/products/astrosolar-photo-film-od-3-8?variant=32120993251405



Make sure you get right in the center of the path of totality, and I would recommend checking an app or website like astropheric www.astrospheric.com to monitor cloud cover to try and pick a good spot the day of....

Amusingly, I ordered the threaded version (67-T). Go here yesterday, and of course, partly cloudy today.

First light:

D7000/Nikkor 70-300 VR / 1.0 sec f/5.6

Longest glass I have so now to practice.

 

[mdees88]

Amusingly, I ordered the threaded version (67-T). Go here yesterday, and of course, partly cloudy today.

First light:
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D7000/Nikkor 70-300 VR / 1.0 sec f/5.6

Longest glass I have so now to practice.

That's a nice image with the clouds. I almost bought the threaded, nothing wrong with that.

I started out trying to use manual focus but couldn't consistently get the sunspots sharp. I ended up using zone af and it's been pretty reliable. 300mm on a crop body should be adequate reach.

I emailed them about my astroloar film again. They apologized, it got overlooked, they've been swamped with orders, yada yada... it should be here by Thursday. Geez..... glad I got the thousand oaks.

 

[azurbanclucker]

That's a nice image with the clouds. I almost bought the threaded, nothing wrong with that.

I started out trying to use manual focus but couldn't consistently get the sunspots sharp. I ended up using zone af and it's been pretty reliable. 300mm on a crop body should be adequate reach.

I emailed them about my astroloar film again. They apologized, it got overlooked, they've been swamped with orders, yada yada... it should be here by Thursday. Geez..... glad I got the thousand oaks.

heh. It's actually on the FX body (the D610). I'm just so used to typing out "D7000" It's clearly automatic

 

[azurbanclucker]

Switched to af and let the camera make the call.

 

[mdees88]

Switched to af and let the camera make the call.

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That looks good. You can see the sun spots. I have been shooting around minus 2 exposure compensation. It makes the sun a little darker orange but it gives me more shutter speed so I have better odds of everything being sharp.

 

[azurbanclucker]

I gad grandiose plans to go several hours North and shoot this. Didn't end up working out, so instead have this collage from my driveway. Each slice is ~ 3 minutes apart.

 

[casportpony]

That's awesome!

 

[mdees88]

I gad grandiose plans to go several hours North and shoot this. Didn't end up working out, so instead have this collage from my driveway. Each slice is ~ 3 minutes apart.

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Very nice! I almost skipped out too but I ended up going. My trip was long and quite stressful, but I'm glad I went. I learned a lot of what not to do at the next one, lol. I'll post a pic in a little bit...

 

[mdees88]

The trip was very smooth until the morning of. I was hoping I could shoot at the hotel but the clouds were too bad. I drove an hour NW and got to my secondary location about 2 hours early and there were still clouds. I continued to drive northwest for about 45 minutes, still clouds. I drove another 30-45 minutes and just got to the edge of them. I pulled off the side of the highway and was able to get set up 2 minutes before it began. Pure chaos, lol...

Funny thing is a guy stopped on the other side of the highway, started setting up and asked when it was going to start. I said in about 30 seconds. I thought I was scrambling...

I got through the first half with zero clouds, had a few on the back half but still got the shots I needed (I think).

Here is a quick jpeg composite I clipped, sliced, and diced on my phone. Won't get to edit anything until tonight when I get back home.

Not that anyone cares, but I'll post for future reference on how not to screw up next time. I used exposure bracketing 0, -1, and -2 stops. The problem was I shot in AV mode instead of manual and the exposure would change wildly depending on where the camera decided to lock focus so i had many -2 shots that were still overexposed. I should've shot in manual like I had practiced and bracketed -1, -2, and -3. My shutterspeeds were super slow and there was a lot of wind so quite a few of my shots are soft but i took a lot of extras.

I think my backup camera may have saved the day though. The astrosolar OD 3.8 film finally came in (best filter film ever btw) and I put it on my other camera. I used it freehand, 560mm at F10 and had shutterspeeds of 1-2000th to 1/6400 at ISO 100. Way better than my 1/8-1/20th of a second at ISO 640. Those images are tack sharp and exposed well. Can't wait to get them in lightroom....

Here is a sample jpeg shot through some clouds with the homemade filter. I can't get over how sharp the sun spots are, and this camera has exactly half the reach as my other one (560mm vs 1120mm), and was shot handheld, lol...

One of the coolest and most disappointing parts of the trip was during my final 2 hr drive to the setup spot. I saw a bunch of vultures on the side of the road and mixed in with them were some crested caracaras aka Mexican eagles. They are beautiful birds and I've always wanted to photograph one. I probably saw a dozen of them while driving through the hill country. I was in such a mad rush I didn't have time to stop and grab any pics. I was planning to go to Missouri or Arkansas for next April's eclipse but I may go back to San Antonio and try and get some Mexican eagle images too...

 

[azurbanclucker]

Got to spend some time in my happy place today.