Six Unconventional Photos of the Eclipse and the Stories Behind Them

Lets face it, even days after the total eclipse over the United States, people are still completely enthralled by the celestial event. Hundreds of thousands took to the sky on August 21st, 2017 and witnessed the rare occasion, and of course many photographers took advantage of the day. We’ve seen some incredible images come out of the event (check out Top 10 Solar Eclipse Photos Found Around the Web).

I set out to find a few images that were a bit more unconventional the day the eclipse took place. I always love seeing new perspectives or creative ways to post process a photo, and these images definitely show a different side of the eclipse.

Lindsey Bergstrom

Lindsey Bergstrom took advantage of the eclipse as a unique moment to capture a once-in-a-lifetime portrait of her daughter, "The beautiful crescent shadows in our alley were perfection and the perfect backdrop for a portrait. This portrait will serve as my memory of what it was like to experience the eclipse with my 8 year old."  

Marissa Roseillier

Marissa and her family wanted to really enjoy the eclipse as a family instead of being totally distracted behind her camera. “My husband and I wanted to do something different with the kids rather than simply looking at the eclipse with glasses. So he propped some binoculars their grandpa gave them with the large side angled towards the sun. This reflected the eclipse down on the concrete below. My older son was tracing outlines of the eclipse's reflection right before this image was taken which you see on the black paper in the photograph. Then my younger son asked if he could hold the eclipse in his hands. My husband held his hand out, touching his and I snapped this image.  When I look at it, it makes me think he has the whole world in his hands!” 

Krista Melone

Krista Melone had a moment just before totality hit to grab this hilarious shot. She had this to say about the moment, “We live in Boise so we had 99.6% coverage that day, and every 10 minutes the kids were going outside to check where it was at. About 10 minutes before ‘totality' I took that photo as the light had gotten [eerier] and it was strangely quiet. There was no posing involved, both my kids hilariously just dropped their arms and stared up at the sky like the mothership was coming to take them away, and the way the shadows were being cast on their neck made them look so extraterrestrial like that I cracked up and knew I wanted to share the photo.” 

Daniel Dean

Daniel Dean drove 54 miles to be in the path of totality, and though weather threatened to hinder his view, he still got a great shot. “I pulled out my Canon 5D MK IV and put on my 70 - 300 USM Lens. I set my focus to infinity and waited for the eclipse to begin. I shot the eclipse picture at 1/6 shutter speed, 100 ISO, f/13 manually focused at 300mm. I used a 2-second shutter delay option on my camera to limit camera shake and had my camera mounted on a Manfrotto MT055xPRO3 Tripod with a 502HD head. By using a longer shutter speed, I was able to achieve a sharp eclipse while simultaneously capturing the motion blur of the clouds via the long exposure. This was the shot that I took at the end of the totality phase when the sun began to reemerge. This final shot has not been resized or retouched.” 

Pam Jones

Pam Jones told me, “I don't have any experience with shooting an eclipse but I read a ton of articles, got a solar filter for my camera etc. We drove up to Clayton, GA to see totality, but when the eclipse started I was so mesmerized by the event that I hardly even looked at my camera!  It was like I was hypnotized by that black circle in the sky! I had to change my settings from using the filter and bump up the ISO. But honestly - I set the focus to infinity, made sure the sun was centered on live-view, and kept snapping away! I even forgot to bracket, so I took a shot, changed the f/stop, snapped, f/stop, snap etc! When I brought the images into Lightroom I didn't have to do too much editing. I lightened it up a bit, added some color, and darkened the moon some. It took a total of about one or two minutes.”

Shay Nartker

“I knew for weeks the eclipse was coming but didn’t think much of it. I didn’t prepare at all. I  just wanted to experience the moment with my friends, or so I thought. However, as with most photographers the day of changed my mind and of course I wanted to try and capture the eclipse, or at least the essence of the eclipse as it was happening. I was at work on the roof with my co-workers and brought my camera along. I had absolutely no filters or any type of protection to cover my lens. On a whim, I asked to borrow a pair of eclipse viewing glasses. I fitted them as best I could over my lens which gave me enough cover to be comfortable with shooting, and adjusted my settings to capture the eclipse through the insanely tinted lenses. These glasses were a bit different than the others and to my surprise when shooting I was able to also angle them to capture some pretty rad lens flares and abstract shapes being reflected on the backside of the lenses. I found an angle I liked and fired away resulting in the final image. I loved the way it turned out. It felt different and it felt like it was in my style as I’m always working to create great imagery in camera with outside effects.” 

Lead Image used by permission from Marissa Roseillier.