Total Solar Eclipse

April 8, 2024 — My entire experience

Remember your experience, and enjoy it through my photography!

Scroll through my complete eclipse experience, read the stories behind the final images I created.

My cell phone photo of eclipse totality.

Eerie to be sure, but laking when compared with the images I captured with my real camera.

My eclipse photo set up.

One camera, one lens, no tracker. Plus notes, and an app to help me know the exact times different phases would be happening.

My fashionable look at eclipse time.

Outside, in my backyard, with my family. Equipped with silly glasses we fashioned with pearler beads.

An experience to remember.
An experience to celebrate.

See the images I created and read about them below.
Remember your own total solar eclipse experience through my photos.

One of my favorite parts of watching the total eclipse with my family in our backyard, was how much my kid enjoyed it too. I was expecting them to be in and out of the house through the whole thing, but they actually spent pretty much the whole time outside enjoying it! Experiencing the temperature drop, shadows, and reflections. It was so cool, and super fun to hear the neighbors enjoying the whole experience as well!

After months of planning, and the amazing experience of the total eclipse with family, it was time to see what photos I got, and put them together into my final eclipse images. That’s the fun part for me as an artist!

Final bookmark and large panorama designs.

A complete linear look at the whole event, 2 different ways.
A stylized S-curve.

One of my favorite image designs is figuring out how to make a rectangular piece of art out of a circular subject. We are used to seeing art in regular rectangular frames.
Time for the eclipse?

This design reminds me of a clock. It was the inspiration for the actual working clock I crafted afterwards.
Baily’s Beads and the Diamond Ring Effects.

Effects that happen very fast the moments just before and after totality. Such a quickly changing light show. Ushering the “black hole” of totality in and out of view.
Moment of totality.

2 minutes of quiet, awe inspiring, dimness encompassing the entire environment. The only time it is safe to remove protective eyewear and lens filters.

My Eclipse Photos

And the stories behind their creation.

Group 1: Sweeping panoramic renditions of the entire solar eclipse from beginning to end.

Corona Burst Eclipse Pano

I knew I wanted to make a large panoramic image of my eclipse experience, but it took a process to figure out how I wanted to present it. Do I randomize the partial phases and include all of the totality phases? Do I make some phases look larger than others? I had so many images to comb through and determine if I liked different exposures better for different phases or reasons.

I decided I wanted Totality in the middle and the partial phases stretching out from there, a common look for eclipse compositions, but I think it's classic for a reason. It is pleasant to look at and easy to comprehend.

Because the Corona itself stretches out so far in its starburst shape, I decided to make 2 different compositions so no parts of Totality out shined the others.

I was able to capture some small Baily's Beads before the moment of totality, and more dominant ones afterwards, along with the Diamond Ring effect as well. So I incorporated all those effects into the Totality middle section of the second panorama.

Then I had to determine which before and after partial sun phases and exposures to include for each panorama. I decided I didn't want the partial phases on one side to be exactly the same size on the other side because I think it's easier to tell they weren't just copies of each other flipped, but in fact each one is a separate image. The final panoramas feel more authentic to me this way.

I wanted the Corona to be the brightest part of the first panorama, so I started the more full Sun parts with darker exposures, and chose lighter ones as the Sun got smaller until the bursting white Corona in the middle. This also makes it easier to see the Sun Spots that were active during the eclipse.

With the exception of the Beads and Diamond themselves, those Totality images are rather dark. I thought it would be fun, and visually interesting, to reverse the look by starting the larger partial Sun phases with brighter exposures and choosing darker exposures as they went into the center for the second panorama. That way the darker sliver Sun images don't distract or steal attention from the interest in the Totality phases either. I once again wanted the Sun phases to be slightly different sizes, each one unique, for an authentic feel.

I like the visual of the clouds in the smaller middle sizes of the Sun as it is coming back out from behind the Moon. A visual representation that there were a few high clouds in the sky for part of the event.

The last difference between the panoramas I want to mention is the number of partial sun phases in each final image is different; 5 on each side of Totality in the Corona pano, and only 4 on each side in the Beads/Diamond pano. This is because the visual of the different bead type effects physically takes up more room, and I didn't want the prints to have to be too skinny, I wanted some height to them. The farther you stretch a pano, the skinnier it has to be to keep the proportions correct.

Beads and Ring Eclipse Pano

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These panoramic images are 10x30 inches.

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Group 2: Different ways to see the entire solar eclipse from beginning to end.

My solar eclipse experience was amazing. By some weather fluke of nature, we had surprisingly clear skies on eclipse day. The weather looked dodgy at best, very cloudy and rainy leading up to the event, and cloudy and rainy again for days after.

It was my first real Total Solar Eclipse experience. My first attempt at photographing, and immersing myself in the whole event.

Total Solar Eclipse Spiral

Don't get dizzy!

This is roughly 1/3 of the photos I took during the eclipse. You might say I got a little trigger happy at times. It's such a fun and interesting event, it's hard to be restrained, and I'm glad I wasn't, because look at this spiral of eclipse fun from beginning to end.

I like the variation in exposures to get some brighter and some darker partial phases, the bright white spots of totality, and the darker ones with visible solar prominences.

This is a 20×20 square image

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Video of snapshots from our time watching the eclipse and a quick look at all my images.

I did so much research on how to photograph it, where the path of totality was, when exactly I was going to experience different phases of the eclipse, what phases exist, and how to make it fun for my family.

The thing about how to photograph it, is there is tons of information and it doesn’t all match up. There is as much advice as there are people giving it- basically if you think maybe something is correct, and you look enough, you can find someone disagreeing as often as you can find someone agreeing with you. This makes final decisions still on you as the photographer. But isn’t that always the case when it comes down to it?

S-Curve with Totality Cross

To contrast the large panoramic images, I also wanted to showcase all the different phases of totality in one image, and have a whole eclipse experience look within a more rectangular shape. A shape we are more used to seeing when consuming and enjoying art.

This is actually the last Eclipse composite I created. I kept coming up with circular designs, which I suppose makes sense given the round shape of the Sun. I love the square look of those images, but I wanted the whole time to create a more rectangular design for a more traditional size of frame.

There is a natural curved look that happens when flipping through the photos of the Sun getting smaller and then larger again. I embellished it, and added the linear length of time passing, and came up with this gentle s-curve centered around the Sun's Corona bursting in the middle as it happens during Totality when the Sun is lined up perfectly with the Moon.

There are so many effects that happen so quickly in the seconds before and after Totality of the Eclipse that I wanted to showcase those as well. They are each unique and so beautifully fleeting. While considering how to incorporate those effects, I thought about my panoramas, but didn't want to create multiple rectangular designs. I wanted one image that fit nicely in a rectangular frame with interest throughout. One image to simply show you the best parts of the Total Eclipse experience. That is when I noticed the almost cursive x like nature of my composition, it just needed a cross line.

I selected my favorite image of all the special Eclipse effects I captured, the Diamond Ring, Baily's Beads before and after Totality, and the Solar Prominences that graced our eyes that day. They give one cross section of the image interest, while the orange fading and growing Sun do the same for the other side.

I have spent hours looking through this image in awe and wonderment. I could spend hours more, and I invite you to do the same. I like that the Corona and Diamond Ring announce themselves proudly, they almost punch you in the face, the partial phases of the Sun gracefully flow your vision through the event, the Baily's Beads invite you to look closer, and the Solar Prominences demand you give them more attention by being so subtle.

This image is 16x20 inches.

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Time for the Eclipse

Do you see what I did there? This image reminds me of a clock. The time passing as the Eclipse progressed is represented by a circle beginning and ending with the full sun at the bottom, in the 6 o'clock position. All around the Corona and a large view of the Solar Prominences during Totality. The top of the image from left to right shows the Sun giving way to Baily's Beads just before Totality, the Diamond Ring and finally Baily's Beads again just after Totality and a sliver of the Sun as it begins to return from behind the Moon. You can see we had a few high clouds move across the eclipse as the Sun was emerging again as well.

Another way this image really comes full circle is that there are 10 images before Totality, as well as 10 after Totality. With the 2 images during Totality being centered in the image. This representation feels like the whole package to me. It shows you all of the phases in one shot each. Which means it can be printed smaller and not feel overly busy.

Please take some time and enjoy this total solar eclipse.

This image is a 12x12 inch square.

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Check out the actual clock I created with my total eclipse images!

Group 3: Phases of totality showcased individually.

Eclipse Totality

The main purpose people seek out total solar eclipses. Totality and the black hole sun looking corona burst that goes with it.
A starburst display from Earth's own personal star.

It is the reason the eclipse that happened April 8, 2025 has been on my calendar since the partial eclipse I could have seen in 2017 with my family was clouded out. We put our glasses on and went outside anyway, just for the fun of it, but as soon as we came back inside I looked up the next eclipse and put it on my calendar. The best part was we were living in the path of totality for this one!

We had my sister and her family join us for back yard eclipse fun, and it turned out amazing!

The clouded out Aug 2017 partial solar eclipse.

The only safe time to remove your eye protection is during totality, and you have to be in the path of totality to take advantage of it.

We had 2 minutes of dark totality bliss.

The experience of looking at the sun, like a black hole, with your bare eyes is hard to describe. If you experienced this for yourself, we have something rare shared together, and that is special.

It would be special too, to see a solar eclipse from near the center of the path of totality, and get to enjoy that wonder a little bit longer.

This image is a 12x12 inch square.

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Baily’s Beads at Totality

This is one of my favorite eclipse photos of the whole day! It was my biggest goal- to catch the Baily's Beads I didn't even learn about until researching how to photograph the event. I really wanted to capture this fleeting effect. When I saw this image while looking through my photos, I was super ecstatic that I not only fulfilled that goal, but wow, there is amazing light diffraction flaring around those Beads from the lens. So cool!

The Corona is glowing, and the Solar Prominences are easily visible. Sort of a best of all worlds kind of image. And this is what it looked like in my camera.

a 20×20 inch size

This image is a 12x12 inch square.

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Solar Prominence

The Solar Prominences were such a huge part of the special uniqueness of the April 8th Total Solar Eclipse, that I wanted to really showcase them in a photo all their own. The corona is just a glow around the moon so the red color of the prominences can come through on the image.

The 360 degree sunset horizon was another cool feature of eclipse totality. I was told that during the 2017 eclipse it got even darker, more like night, than this one. I think that is because the sun is near max activity right now, which gives us these prominences, but also more total light to the darkness of totality. Would you agree? The sun was near minimum activity in 2017, so I think the flares and light they bring were absent then… The thinks we ponder when having rare and unique experiences. Even with millions of other people living the same experience, for years before and years to come, it feels so personally special at the same time.

This image is a 12x12 inch square.

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Group 4: Phases of totality showcased together.

Eclipse Totality Wormhole

If you could teleport anywhere, where would it be?

This image reminds me of a wormhole, because I'm a big Sci-Fi geek. It's also akin to Rainbow Road in Mario Kart. Either way, it makes me think of what ifs, like what if we could teleport anywhere for a weekend?

My husband said he'd love to go to Bora Bora and stay in a glass floor hut over the water. I didn't even know that was a thing, but wow they look amazing.

I'd love to teleport somewhere quiet with great clear, dark skies this weekend, it's new moon weekend, and I could really use the Star Therapy. So I think since the New Moon is this weekend, and that's an important factor in my fantasy, Bora Bora can be next weekend.

Coming back to reality now, this image was so fun to make; I was really watching the wormhole grow before my eyes, with walls like a Slinky, as I created it. I had to determine how many rings I should use, too many made it look too busy and blew out the details of the individual rings, but too few didn't get the tunnel look I was envisioning and trying to achieve. I settled on a few of each before and after Totality Phase effect.

I also had to decide how wavy I wanted the tunnel to end up, how Slinky-like I could make it look. I experimented with a more soundwave look, but again the details of each ring were getting distorted and blown-out. So I ended up with the look before you, definitely a tunnel, but simple and made of obvious separate Eclipse images. Finally, I love that the Solar Prominences flow through the whole image. The Eclipse is changing so rapidly, but the Sun is bursting in those few spots for the duration.

This image is a 12x12 inch square.

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Baily’s Beads and Corona Mash-up

I did not initially think I was going to create this mash-up image. Here's the story of how and why I ended up creating it.

My husband said it would be cool to see the Baily's Beads and Corona from the eclipse on the same Sun. Sometimes that's all it takes for me to get curious and see if I can accomplish his vision.

For a few days I tried putting these 2 effects together in different ways, never fully knowing what he meant. It wasn't until I sat him down for the 3rd time and told him I don't understand what you mean, please explain it again. He told me his idea again, stack them on the same Sun, and finally the lightbulb clicked.

I created this Baily's Beads and Corona Mashup, and it took a lot of versions to get it right. At first the corona blew out the beads and the prominence so you couldn't see them at all. Then the corona looked almost grey so the other effects could come through. The prominence lost all its warm red color, and the beads didn't shine the right way.

I did as well as I could lining up the images, but for quite a while there was almost a ghost line around the outside of the sun. A fuzziness that really bugged my husband, so I kept tweaking it and reworking it until I landed on this. A happy medium of being able to see all the effects, but maybe none of them are 100% perfect.

I think my husband was right, it IS cool to see the Baily's Beads and Corona effects on the same Sun, while the solar prominence stays visible too.

This image is a 12x12 inch square.

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Shown here as a matted 8×10 print

Circle Totality Phases

The story on this image is a funny one. It's one of the images I made trying to satisfy my husband's curiosity of Baily's Beads and Corona on one Sun. I had no idea what he meant at this point, and when I showed him this result, he said, "That is crazy!" It was not his mash-up vision at all!

This one really reminds me of a portal or a vortex or a dart board with the full sun bullseye in the middle. It might be fun to mount on cork board and use for a dart board? I don't know, I have mixed feelings about throwing things at my art.

I like how the Corona bursting around the outside can be flowing off the image, and it still looks cool. A good way to really fill the frame with Eclipse Totality effects.

This image is a 12x12 inch square.

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Check out the coasters I created.
This one is made with this totality effects image.

Coaster Project

Total Solar and Lunar Eclipse Mash-Up

Almost a year after the Solar Eclipse, there was a Total Lunar Eclipse, and I lived in the path of totality again! What was even more perfect- the event was taking place in roughly the same place in the sky. So I set up my camera in the same area of my backyard, and pointed it in the same direction up in the sky to photograph the lunar eclipse as I had 11 months earlier for the solar eclipse.

This felt something like destiny to me, I couldn’t help but composite the two events together, it was just too fun!

Two Total Eclipses, No Waiting!
Talk about a TOTAL Eclipse experience!