When a Solar Eclipse passes just a few hours north of where you live and you have no obligations tying you down... You just don't say no to the opportunity to go and see it. You just don't.
I didn't find out about the Annular Solar Eclipse until just two days before it. As much fun as it would be to photograph it... The proper equipment to do it, is thousands of dollars... and not even really an area that a Landscape/Fine Art Photographer is really equipped for. (Even worse is that I put my good tripod in the wrong car the night before and didn't realise it until it was far too late. Ooops.)
I would have loved to take my dad's advice to find interesting ways to photograph it, like through a small cloud bank, or filtered through tree branches and leaves (creates an effect on the ground like hundreds of pinhole cameras) ... But this is northern Arizona we're talking about. What clouds? What trees? (If you've never had the pleasure of driving Route 89 north of Flagstaff, it's kind of a barren wasteland of colorful rock and the sun never seems to go away.)
Now I debated where to go for this. True, I could have gone for the southern rim of the Grand Canyon and seen both the spectacular part of the Canyon and the Eclipse... but that was not on the center line. The GC at that end was only going to get an 86% Eclipse. But just about 45 more minutes north and I could see the full "Ring of Fire" that the Annular Eclipse is known for. If you're going to go for it.. then go all the way, right?
I started my trek north with Marble Canyon and the Navajo Bridge as my destination in mind. Beautiful sight for certain... but a crappy location for the eclipse. The sun was going to dip behind the cliffs for the eclipse so I had to back track. The advise I got from a local was to head for Page. I still had well over an hour before it was going to begin which really was plenty of time, so I headed east.
I only made it few miles before I spotted a few cars pulled off the road and although I don't usually 'follow the herd', this seemed like a good time to.
.... To be continued ....
