Yesterday was the annular eclipse, meaning the moon was closer to the sun than the Earth, resulting in a 'ring of fire' around the moon at the peak of the eclipse. I was super excited and planned out my trip to the middle of the path of totality, got my camera and supplies ready ahead of time, and even got a buddy of mine to tag along with me hoping to nab some character shots. However, things went pretty poorly.
First off, I researched polarized filters for my Canon EOS camera and ordered one that the description listed as fitting. When I received it I checked to see if it fit my high-definition lens attachment and it fit! However, when I got ready to shoot pics, it didn't fit on the main lens. Because of this, I had to rig it to my telephoto lens. So the only shots I could get were extreme close-ups, which ruled out all of the cool shots I was planning in my head.
When I got to my preferred site (St. Louis Catholic Church in Castroville), I realized that there was no way I could get the church and the eclipse in the same shot even if I didn't have a filter malfunction. On top of that, it was cloudy. I'm not complaining too much, as the clouds did end up giving some of the photos some definition.
And I took a LOT of photos, just over 1,200. When I finally got everything sorted & rigged up, I just kept snapping away for the duration of the eclipse. The plan is to find a few that I'm able to correct with Photoshop and maybe get something decent out of them.
Overall, I'm pretty disappointed with myself, but it gives me a lot to learn from before the total eclipse coming up on April 8, 2024.
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