In July 2019, I joined an organised trip with Elia Locardi and a group of awesome photographers to capture the total solar eclipse in the Atacama region of Chile. The high chances of good weather in combination with an awesome group to witness it with was an opportunity too good to pass on.
During the preparation process of the eclipse I was brainstorming with friend and awesome Photographer Albert Dros how to approach the eclipse. I was in doubts on what to do during the event. Getting the standard awesome but "standard" shots of the eclipse, or take a different approach and try and do something most others wouldn't. I was unsure about the choice mostly because the special shot would be risky and had a good chance of failing, meaning not getting away with a good photo's of such an amazing and rare moment.
In the end Albert convinced me by saying "everyone is doing the standard shot, there will be thousands of pictures of the normal eclipse approach and none will really stand-out".
This left us with the next question, what were the possibilities we could do with something different. Albert loved getting a human element in the shot since it is quite rare. Additionally the direction and low elevation of the eclipse would provide for this opportunity.
Now came the next challenge, with a group of photographers and everyone wanting to get "the shot", how would we get a person in the frame. The answer was simple, someone would have to be willing to model. Albert and I agreed we could make it a joint venture, working together on the shot, him being the photographer and me being the model.
With the decision made of me being the model, my friend Alex Gurevich decided to take advantage of the opportunity and also go for "the special shot".
After roaming the area we were at for about 2 hours, we found an incline which provided for the right angle, but with the distance of about 600 meters, verbal communication was no option. Luckily our guides had portable radios which we could borrow, don't forget, I had no clue where the eclipse would be (left, right or up) from their perspective.
We did a bunch of test shots and decided upon stances.
I didn't want to fully waste my opportunity of getting away with something so I set my own camera more wide angle and close and had it run with an intervalometer. Not adjusting setting would mean I would have to adjust in photoshop, so I chose the settings to give me as much wiggle room possible.
Additionally I chose to try a drone self during the eclipse and possibly be the first to do that ever! The results you can see below.
Albert wrote a nice blog post about the event which you can find here.
(copyright applicable to all photo's)
