Photo composite of the 2023 Annular Eclipse, taken in Valley of the Gods, Utah. To date my most ambitious photograph. I spent hours researching locations, camera settings, and making sure my gear was appropriate. After driving 1300 miles to get there, I spent two days hiking the region to find the best spot and then working the composition.
Day of I set my camera and tripod up and before the sun rose I took a sky exposure so I'd have a nice dark sky to set the eclipse against. For the eclipse I took exposures at regular intervals with a solar filter in order to capture a smooth transit of the moon across the sun. The most stressful part was during the Ring of Fire phase because I had to quickly remove the solar filter and expose for the foreground in order to capture the strange, gray light and soft shadows during this short period, then place the solar filter back on and resume regular exposures again for the last half.
My lens choice (55mm) was slightly too long so In both the sky exposure and the foreground exposure I had to take a 3 image vertical panorama as well. In post production I aligned and blended the panoramas, combined all the eclipse photos, and made lighting and colour adjustments as needed. My goal was to capture the true-to-life experience as well as possible, and to that end I think I succeeded.
For some self criticism: I somewhat regret using the S curve. I should have instead moved to the right so the finger would have pointed directly at the Ring of Fire and found a different foreground element.