By the Light of Totality is a prime example of what I stated in an earlier post, “most of my favorite photographs were envisioned ahead of time”. As long as I can remember I’ve been fascinated with astronomy. As a child I had a favorite astronomy book, The Sky Observers Guide, it was part of the Golden Guide series. There was a photo in that book that stuck in my mind through adulthood. It was a multi-exposure image of a solar eclipse over Minneapolis. Ever since I developed an interest in photography I wanted to create an eclipse image using a similar technique. My photo is a lunar eclipse instead of a solar eclipse.
When I planned the photograph my first inclination was to have a cityscape in the foreground. When I researched the eclipse more I realized that it would happen too high in the sky to effectively include a cityscape. At the last moment I decided use my backyard for the photograph and trees for the foreground element.
The photo from the golden guide was taken by placing the camera on a tripod and taking multiple exposures on the same negative. Since I used digital capture I was able to accomplish the same effect by taking multiple images and selectively layering them.
I had to determine the start time and end of the eclipse and figure out what focal length lens would effectively cover the entire event, it was 28mm. I used a second camera with a 430mm equivalent focal length lens as well to capture a higher resolution image of the moon. Photos from each camera were taken on a 15 minute interval. When the moon was in the full shadow of the earth (known as totality), I took a longer timed image which exposed the stars, trees, and clouds. This is how the photo got its title.
While photographing the eclipse I had an audience of deer in the field behind me. They approached within about 30 yards and wouldn’t scare away. I also had problems with my batteries dying in the clock I used to measure the 15 minute intervals. I finally used the clock on my cell phone.
During this eclipse the Red Sox were playing against the Cardinals in the World Series. Near halfway through the eclipse I heard in the distance horns tooting and fireworks, it was then that I knew that the Red Sox had won.
In all I used 16 images to create the final image. It took about a month for me to finish the project. At this point it is my best selling image.
A customer at one of my shows a few years ago was named Diana. Her birthday was the same day as the eclipse, October 27th. She also shared a name with the Greek god of the moon and hunt, Diana. My customer was also a Red Sox fan, and because of all those reasons she had to purchase the photograph.
Dan