It was truly incredible to witness the solar eclipse right from the convenience of my own backyard. An opportunity just 0.5% of the world's population get to experience since the path of totality is very narrow. Although, to be honest, I was not very keen on shooting the eclipse that day as the weather called for possible rain and cloud cover. Plus, I live slightly outside the path of totality based on what I found online. But, I took my camera out just for fun to see what I can capture. As the forecast predicted, there was heavy cloud cover prior to the eclipse as you can see from the picture below.
Cloud cover prior to solar eclipse
I kept firing that trigger button as the clouds themselves made for some cool smoky vibe around the sun and moon. It was sort of other-worldly, and I really loved the mystical appearance it helped create in the photo above.
Just before totality
Anyway, as the moon inched closer and closer to the sun, it got darker and darker. It was certainly unusual to experience a nighttime ambiance in the middle of the day (1:40pm). Clouds slowly disappeared, birds started chirping and the temperature cooled down - all within a total of 4 minutes which to me felt much shorter as I was trying to capture the totality the best I can.
Totality with visible red prominences (Full Resolution)
As for my apparatus, I used the only telephoto lens I have which is the 70-200mm. Coupling that with the crop sensor Canon M50, I was able to get a focal length of 320mm. It was decent enough to capture the red prominences within sun's white corona. Although, as a note to self, it may not be a bad idea to invest in a lens with a longer focal length for next time.
All in all, this was a very humbling experience to capture the coincidental meet of the sun and moon. Lets see what I can capture during the next eclipse in 2044!