Uncategorized Archives - Light and Landscapes

October Aurora in Shenandoah National Park: Part 2

October 17, 2024 by John Caplis

Having just photographed a G3 strong geomagnetic storm on the night of 7-8 Oct, imagine my surprise when a long lasting X1.8 solar flare on the sun launched another coronal mass ejection (CME) of plasma directly toward the earth on the next night. This CME was expected to arrive during the middle of the day on Thursday, Oct 10. The NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center issued a G4 severe geomagnetic storm watch for 10-11 Oct. In a G4 or G5 storm in Virginia, it is possible to have the aurora directly overhead, with much of the aurora visible to the naked eye.

For those of us in Northern Virginia who missed the G5 extreme storm on May 10th (due to rain and cloudy skies), this was a very exciting development. The May 10th storm was the strongest display of aurora since 2003! As predicted, the effects of the CME began to arrive around noon on 10 Oct.

We departed for Shenandoah National Park around 4:30 pm with high hopes that the CME-driven storm would continue late into the night. We arrived at Hogback Mountain overlook around 6 pm and set up our cameras. As the sun began to dip below the horizon at 7:30 pm, we could already see red aurora to the north reaching high into the sky.

As the skies grew dark, the aurora conditions were approaching G5 extreme storm levels:

The moon was low in the sky and half full. It illuminated what looked like haze (or smoke) in the sky, creating diffuse atmospheric conditions for the aurora.

Taken with a super-wide angle lens at 10 mm. The vertical field of view covers a 120 degree arc from the horizon to directly overhead in the sky. The red aurora at the top of the image was directly over my head when I took this image.

Aurora over Skyline Drive in the eastern sky.

Red aurora in the sky to the south, with the moon peaking out from behind a tree.

The aurora faded after twilight, partially washed out by the moon. However, at 10:20 pm, a severe-strength substorm once again put on an impressive aurora display:

One of my main goals for photographing this G4 storm was to capture multiple aurora colors in the sky at the same time. For weak displays in VA, aurora is usually limited to a red glow on the horizon. For stronger displays, red pillars may be accompanied by a lower layer of green aurora. During a G4 or G5 storm the aurora will extend higher into the sky and may involve additional colors, such as yellow, orange, pink, blue and and violet.

Around 1 am on 11 Oct, another substorm lit up the sky.

The band of green aurora at the bottom was moving so fast, I could not get a fast enough shutter speed to freeze its motion. It looked like green water sloshing around in a glass.

One of the last images of the night, the fading aurora with part of the Milky Way visible overhead.

The NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center recorded the peak of the G4 storm from 1100 am 10 Oct – 0200 am 11 Oct Eastern Standard Time (1500 10 Oct – 0600 11 Oct UTC). KP values during substorms clocked in at 7+ to 8+. It was a wild ride!

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October Aurora in Shenandoah National Park: Part 1

October 16, 2024 by John Caplis

Beautiful aurora over the Front Royal area during a G3 strong geomagnetic solar substorm at 1:00 am on Oct 8th.

I have long desired to get a beautiful image of the aurora in Northern Virginia skies. But up to this point, such images had eluded me. When I got a Kp 7 aurora alert, indicating that conditions for a G3 strong geomagnetic storm had been reached at 10:30 pm on Oct 7, I quickly studied the aurora forecast. Everything looked promising and the skies were clear as a bell. I debated whether to head out at this late hour, but ultimately decided to make the ninety minute drive to the blue ridge mountains.

When we arrived at Hogback Mountain overlook on Skyline Drive in the Shenandoah National Park, a second substorm started to light up the sky. We quickly set up our cameras and started clicking away. Those beautiful images were finally happening!

This image was taken at 15mm, which covered just over 100 degrees of the horizon in the field of view!

Here were the aurora conditions according to the Spaceweatherlive.com app from the 1:00 am (5:00 UTC) G3 strong geomagnetic substorm. It was listed at Kp 7.3. It lasted around 30 minutes before the aurora faded away again. The aurora did not make another strong appearance for the rest of the night. We headed home around 2:30 am, happy that we had seen a strong aurora display in very clear skies.

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Creative Photography at the Handley Library in Winchester, VA

August 27, 2024 by John Caplis

I recently met up with friends from the Manassas Warrenton Camera Club at the Handley Library in Winchester, VA. The library presents great opportunities for using some specialty gear for creative effect, including the Canon RF 10-20 mm super-wide angle lens, the Canon EF 17 mm tilt-shift lens (TSE 17mm), and an infrared-converted Canon R6 camera body. The TSE 17 mm lens allows for vertical perspective correction within the lens itself, making it a great choice in general for photographing architecture. Infrared cameras are great for adding an “otherworldly feel” to a landscape. I combined the R6 infrared camera with the TSE 17 mm lens to capture some exterior shots with a really different look. The super-color infrared filter captures both infrared and certain bands of visible light. This allows the image to be manipulated in post processing using a color channel swap, which turns the skies dark blue and the foliage gold. I was pleased that the channel swap also preserved the green tones of the library roof.

I love this side view of the library as an infrared image. The foliage adds a lot of character, especially the evergreen tree. Because there are power lines running close aboard and parallel to the side of the building, the only way to photograph an unobstructed view here is to stand up close. This requires either pointing a wide angle lens upward (the library is a tall building), which creates major perspective distortion, or using a wide angle tilt-shift lens. While you could correct for some of the distortion from the normal wide angle lens in post-processing, at this close distance and upward angle, it would definitely be a challenge. I used a generous amount of upward “shift” applied to the lens barrel of the TSE-17 mm, while keeping the camera level. As a result, none of these exterior infrared images required any perspective correction in processing. All had beautifully straight vertical lines!!!

The dog walker. Is it just me, or does this guy look like Alfred Hitchcock? Front entrance to the Handley Library. I added the red color to make the dog walker stand out in the scene.

Shooting low on the porch of the library, using the railing and the portico to create receding lines toward the center of the image.

Once inside the library, the first thing you encounter is a beautiful four-story entrance foyer, featuring a stained glass ceiling at the top of the interior dome. The real star of the show, however, are two spiral staircases that connect the first, second and third floors. Depending upon where you placed your camera in relationship to the stair railings, you can make some very different images. I really loved the curves and repeating shapes in the stairwells. To capture these amazing interior scenes, I experimented with the Canon R5 and the RF 10-20 mm super-wide angle lens. The 10-20 mm super wide’s expansive field of view was a great tool for taking in these interior architectural scenes while adding some interesting distortion from the very wide angle of view whenever tilting the lens off center.

Looking up into the stained glass dome at the library entrance. Taken with the 10-20 mm super-wide angle lens at 10 mm. Shooting straight up, this lens compresses everything vertically (the top of this dome is easily four stories above the foyer floor).

View from second floor hallway. Taken with the 10-20 mm super-wide angle lens at 13 mm.

View from the third story hallway. Taken with the 10-20 mm super-wide angle lens at 10 mm. At this widest setting, there is some noticeable stretching of the image the further away you get from the center of the image as a result of the extremely wide field of view.

The oldest portion of the library had glass floors/ceilings, as seen here in the overheads of this alcove. The bookshelves shown on the second floor are load-bearing structures that support the building floor above it.

Winding railing at the bottom of one of the two main spiral staircases. 10-20 mm super-wide angle lens at 20 mm. At this narrow setting, there is very little distortion within the field of view. With these portrait oriented shots, having the windows vertically aligned up and down works well.

At 10 mm on the super-wide angle lens, the balusters create spokes leading to the heart of the spiral. This image reminds me of a breaking wave on the ocean. Do you see it?

Multiple floors of winding rail and curving steps from the third story of the spiral staircase. Taken with the TSE-17 mm. Leaning over the edge of this rail and including the floor in the image without capturing your feet (in this wide field of view) is a real challenge. Think leaning over forward without any support while holding the weight of your camera in your hand, and doing abdominal crunches to steady your upper body. I was sweating by the end of this photo session!

10-20 mm super-wide angle lens at 14 mm. Another total ab cruncher here! Also a bit of vertigo!

Taken with the 10-20 mm super-wide angle lens at 16 mm. A tighter crop that gives more emphasis on the spiral on both sets of stairs. The light coming through the windows was extremely bright, as this was mid morning. Most of these interior stairwell images were taken handheld using a three image burst set for exposure bracketing. I manually merged the window from the darkest image with the interior from the brightest image using layers and masks to create a single balanced exposure.

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2024 Sunflower Sunsets

August 18, 2024 by John Caplis

It was another enjoyable sunflower season at Burnside Farms! Beautiful glowing sunsets, red and pink twilight clouds, an expansive sky of scattered golden clouds, and some really dramatic storm clouds. Below are my favorite images for this year’s Summer of Sunflowers:

The first image of the summer. I wasn’t sure if there would even be a sunset as I was driving over to the fields. As I arrived at the farm, an orange hazy sun broke through the clouds just in time for a beautiful sunset.

The Canon RF 10-20 mm f4 super-wide angle lens is a great tool for capturing an expansive sky of scattered clouds. This was taken at 12 mm, with the lens positioned very close to the front flowers.

As the sun set, the scattered clouds took on a golden glow.

In this shot, I wanted to highlight the textures of some unopened buds that were mixed in with the sunflowers.

I love capturing the backlit glow of the sunflower petals as the sun gets low.

A smoky haze from summer wildfires in Canada created an orange-brown sky with a red ball for a sun. I love this combination with the yellow sunflowers.

Thunderhead partially lit by sunset light from beyond the horizon. While not a tornado, it sure started to look like one for a while!

A perspective showing the extreme vertical nature of this beast of a cloud.

A cloudburst of rain backlit by the sunset.

Just another hazy, lazy sunset over a beautiful field of sunflowers!

Tips for Sunflower Sunsets:

Composition is important when selecting where to set up your tripod. Pick a spot where the flowers are evenly spaced out in the frame across the foreground. Flowers in the immediate foreground should be interesting and well formed. Large gaps between flowers can be distracting to the flow of your scene. Most sunflower heads should be facing the camera and not overly drooping. However, having a few that are drooping in the frame can add some variety and interest to the image.
If you want to create an immersive view of a vast field of flowers, elevate your camera above the foreground to ensure you can see the receding rows of flowers leading all the way to the background.
Focus stacking a series of images will ensure that all the flowers are sharp from front to back. I usually take a series of three images: one focused on the front flowers, one focused about a third of the way back in the flowers, and one focused on the background that is exposed for the lighting in the sky. I manually blend these images as layers with masks into a single final image.
Whenever possible, capture the drama of sunset or twilight colors and lighting and their effects on the clouds in the sky.
Setting an aperture to f16 or smaller when shooting the background will usually add some pleasing diffractive rays to the setting sun.

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Photographing The Great American Eclipse

May 1, 2024 by John Caplis

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Photographing Frozen Methane Bubbles at Abraham Lake in the Canadian Rockies

April 5, 2024 by John Caplis

Beautiful clouds during golden hour over my favorite patch of bubbles from our first visit to the lake.

Every winter, people from all over the world visit Abraham Lake to photograph its frozen methane bubbles. The man-made lake is a reservoir surrounded by mountains and fed by the Saskatchewan River. It has the same stunning blue colors as other glacial lakes due to the presence of rock flour (glacial till) in the water. Set deep within the Canadian Rockies, it is a four-hour drive from Calgary or Edmonton, Alberta. While other lakes in Canada have methane bubbles that freeze into the ice, Abraham’s icy surface is usually clear of snow due to high winds in this area.

Abraham Lake is large, covering 20 square miles in area and measuring over 20 miles long. Finding bubbles on the lake is not too difficult, but like other things with landscape photography, it is a matter of timing, location, and luck. Planning is critical to a successful photo visit. Early in winter, you may find bubbles at the southern end of the lake. As the season progresses into late December and early January, the middle (or belly) of the lake freezes, and the bubbles stack on top of each other as the ice grows thicker. From mid January to mid February, the bubbles in the belly of the lake are usually in good condition. By late February and early March, the ice becomes hazy and opaque, due to repeated thaw and freeze cycles on the ice surface. The lake may also be covered with snow at any time during the winter after storms pass through. Winds will usually clear the ice in a few days.

We visited Abraham Lake twice during the last week of January as part of a workshop led by Rachael Jones Ross (Astralis Photography). Our first time was after a heavy snow, and we anticipated that most of the lake would be covered in snow, but Abraham Lake was one of the few places forecasted to have clear skies, and there was a solar storm expected that night. We arrived right before sunset and were happy to see that the ice was clear of snow. We found some great clusters of bubbles that we photographed, both as stand-alone bubble images, and as blue-hour foregrounds that we could blend with aurora taken later that night. I really liked the bubble images from this session, as we had areas of smooth, clear ice, golden hour lighting, and interesting clouds in the sky. As we waited for possible aurora, I also shot many bubble images under the light of the full moon, which was now in the sky. Sadly, the aurora never materialized, and the skies clouded over again, but we got some great bubble images.

The beginning of sunset behind the mountains.

Rachael scouting for bubbles in the ice in front of Mount Michener. Whenever I could, I tried to find bubble clusters that were stacked on top of each other. I find these stacks to be visually fascinating!

Clusters of large, shaped bubbles in negative space make attractive foregrounds. Aligned with prominent mountains, it captures the grand scene of winter at Abraham Lake!

We returned to Abraham Lake about three days later to shoot the bubbles in the early afternoon. Abraham Lake is normally very windy and cold in the winter. The week prior to our visit it was -40 F here. The week of our workshop, however, was unusually warm, and the surface of the ice was actively melting by the time of our second visit. There was a thin layer of water on top of the ice, and there were melt channels where methane was rising up through the ice everywhere. This gave the ice a more opaque, gritty appearance. It also made kneeling on the ice to take photos uncomfortable, as the water on the ice makes your knees and your hands much colder! While my winter clothing and gloves were waterproof, it is only a matter of time before some of the moisture and the cold gets through. I much prefer the below freezing weather! It was also extremely windy that day, and anything not carefully anchored down would quickly sail across the ice.

The melting ice had a very gritty appearance on our return visit to the lake. It was sunny and the temperature was in the upper 30’s F.

As bubbles in clear ice was harder to find, I tried other compositions, such as these crossing ice cracks leading your eye toward Mount Michener, timed with the passing of interesting clouds.

More of my favorite bubble images can be seen in this Frozen Bubbles on Abraham Lake gallery.

Tips for Photography at Abraham Lake

Ice safety first! Always be aware of where you are walking and the conditions of the ice below. Cracks and bubbles in the ice help you to see how thick the ice is that you are walking on. Wear ice cleats to ensure you do not slip and fall. Be courteous and avoid walking across the more attractive patches of bubbles, as the cleats will scar the ice surface.
Get down low and close to the bubbles with a wide-angle lens. This will emphasize them in the foreground of your composition. Use a portrait orientation to create layered compositions that align attractive bubbles with the mountains, clouds, and changing lighting in the background.
While it may be tempting to fill the entire lower half of your frame with bubbles, in many cases it works better to isolate an interesting cluster of bubbles surrounded by some negative space. Look for bubble clusters that have interesting shapes, are larger in size, and are stacked on top of one another. This adds depth to the ice in the image and takes advantage of repeating shapes and patterns.
Dress warm and expect it to be windy on the ice. Using metal claw type feet on your tripod will help it stay anchored in place while you are shooting a scene. Spiked feet do not have enough contact with the ice to keep your tripod from sliding or moving with the wind.
Use focus stacking techniques to get sharpness throughout the scene from the bubbles all the way back to the mountains. I would recommend separate exposures at three different focal lengths: very close in on the bubbles, on the ice toward the middle of your scene, and close to the mountains in the background. A polarizer helps cut glare on the ice and makes your bubbles in the foreground stand out better against the dark blue or green color of the ice. You can dial your polarizer effect back for the middle focal length area if you want catch reflected light on the ice toward the background. The use of a graduated ND filter will lower the brightness of the sky and make your bubbles appear lighter in the scene.
Make sure you take time to just enjoy the wonder of the bubbles in the lake! They are stunning to look at when you are not busy taking images.
Morning twilight and sunrise is a good time to shoot the bubbles at the belly of the lake. The sun will rise behind Mount Michener and you can capture color in the sky and reflected on the ice. Unfortunately, we did not make it to a sunrise here. I now have a good reason to go back for another visit!

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Using Photopills to capture the Snow Full Moon Over the National Mall

April 1, 2024 by John Caplis

We had a fantastic rise of the Snow full moon in February. When the full moon rises in the east behind the National Mall, it is always of interest to DC-area photographers, but some full moon dates are better than others. How can you determine if things will line up for a great shot? A great tool for planning moon rise images is Photopills, which you can easily install on your phone and/or tablet. Below is a screenshot from my IPAD for my plan to photograph the moonrise on February 25.

Planning for the Shot Using Photopills:

In the “planner” mode, you can look up and mark your shooting location on the map. In this case, it was the Netherlands Carillon Bell Tower, as shown by the “red pin”. For the date you select, it will show the azimuth of the moonrise direction as a blue line, and as you advance the time bar at the bottom (shown here for 7:16 pm) by sliding your finger across it, a second blue line will move across the map and will show the azimuth of the moon for the selected time. The panels on the right provide more of the information you will need.

The fourth and fifth panels provides the time of sunset, the time and azimuth of the moonrise location, and the timing of the blue hour during civil and nautical twilight. Ideally, you want the moon to rise after sunset during the golden or blue hour portion of civil twilight. On this night, the sun set at 5:56 pm, and civil twilight ended at 6:23 pm. The moon rose at 7:10 pm at an azimuth of 84.1 degrees on the horizon. This azimuth puts the moonrise in a great alignment with the monuments for this shooting location. As you can see on the map, the moon will rise just to the left of Lincoln Memorial. The second thing to note is that the moon will rise well after civil twilight and the sky will be very dark, without any twilight color in the sky. This timing issue can be overcome by shooting the scene during the blue hour portion of civil twilight, and capturing the moon later, which can be blended into a composite image.

But can you tell how the moon will appear in the sky in relationship to the landmarks below? As you advance the time bar, you can see the movement of the moon and how it relates to the position of the landmarks. The third panel gives the azimuth and elevation of the moon in the sky for any selected point on the time bar. You can also select the black pin icon in the second panel, and drop a “black pin” at the location of a landmark.

When using the black pin, the second panel gives you the distance, altitude difference, and azimuth between your shooting location and the landmark. If you advance the moon line using the time bar to coincide with the black pin, the second panel will also provide the height of the moon over the ground at the site of the black pin. In this screenshot, I have placed the black pin at the left edge of Lincoln memorial, and aligned the moon with the black pin. From the third panel, I can see that the moon is at an azimuth of 85.2 degrees and almost one degree of elevation over the horizon. From the second panel, I can also see that the center of the moon will be 142 feet over the ground, and will appear as 47 feet across in relationship to things on the ground. I have also adjusted (in Map Settings) the width appearance of the moon line’s to be proportional to the size of the landmarks on the ground. By doing an online search, I was able to obtain that the height of the Lincoln Memorial is approximately 99 feet tall. By comparing the heights of the moon in Photopills with the published height of the memorial, I can tell that the moon will clear the left edge of the Memorial as it rises. Here is an eventual photo that captured this relationship.

Another aspect of the moon rising at this particular azimuth is that it will also just clear the top of the Washington Monument as it makes its way across the sky. You can see this by placing the black pin at the base of the Washington Monument, and aligning the moon line with the black pin/monument on the map. The second panel shows that the moon will be over the top of the Washington Monument at 7:30 pm, at an azimuth of 87.4 degrees, 3.37 degrees in elevation in the sky, 607 feet high over the ground, and will appear to be 83 feet across. According to the internet, the Washington Monument is 555 feet high, so the moon is clearing the monument by approximately 10 feet. You can also see that the moon will appear wider than the base of the monument itself by looking at the width of the moon line.

Here is a vertically cropped image (without the blue hour sky blended in) showing the relationship of the moon as it passed over the Washington Monument.

Capturing the Blue Hour Scene and the Moonrise Progression:

Even though the moon was rising after twilight, we arrived early and set up to capture the scene with the pleasing color and light of the blue hour. You can check your alignment once you get to your shooting location using the “Augmented Reality” tool in Photopills which uses your phone’s camera to display the moon rise location over the scene.

All the images of the blue hour scene and the subsequent moon rise series were taken with a 100-500 mm lens set to 238 mm. I auto-focused on the Washington Monument, took the image with a cable release remote using the following settings: f16, ISO 200, and 8 seconds. When framing up your blue hour scene, it is important to know where the moon will be rising, and make sure you leave enough space on that side of the image for the moonrise and still have balance across your composition. Here is the blue hour shot:

Here is the blue hour shot blended with the image of the moon appearing on the horizon.

After you get your blue hour shot, you will need to adjust your camera settings to capture the moon. In general, you will want to lower your f-stop to let more light in, and increase your ISO so that you can increase your shutter speed to keep the moon in sharp focus. My moon settings started at f 7.1, ISO 2000, and 1/30 sec. Your focus should be set at infinity, which you can do initially by auto-focusing on the Capitol Building. You should then switch to manual focus and adjust it manually for the moon once it is visible. I recommend you slightly underexpose the moon, (maybe by 2/3 of a stop) to ensure you don’t overexpose the moon and lose detail. This will make the rest of your overall scene pretty dark, but that is OK because you will be blending only the moon from each moonrise image into your blue hour scene, which was taken earlier with the same framing and composition. Once the moon appears over the horizon, I suggest shooting at short intervals to start, and then a minute or so apart when it is over the middle of the Lincoln Memorial, until it has cleared the top of the Washington Monument and beyond. This shooting sequence will give you lots of options for final images, and also provide enough material for putting together a composite image of the moon’s progression across the sky. Since the moon is getting brighter as it rises in the sky, you also will need to adjust your camera settings to ensure you do not overexpose the moon as it continues to rise. As the moon rose, my shutter speed gradually increased to 1/320 sec at ISO 1600.

Processing and Assembling the Final Composite Images:

The final steps are to process your individual captures, and then assemble your final blended images. I always start by processing the blue hour scene. I next process each moon image, ensuring the moon looks sharp, is detailed with good contrast, and closely matches the color and exposure I saw in the sky. Once you have made these adjustments in Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw (or other raw editor), open the images up in Photoshop. Make your blue hour scene the background layer, and then stack your moon rise image as a layer on top of your blue hour scene. Once the images are stacked, you should auto-align the blue hour scene and the moon rise image. Once aligned, you can set the blend mode for the moon layer to “lighten”. This will blend the moon image into the blue hour scene. I have put together a more step by step article and video on how to do these blending steps at Creating Fine Art Images of a Moonrise Using Photoshop Blending Techniques – Light and Landscapes (johncaplisphotography.com).

If you want to put together a composite of multiple moon images showing its progression across the sky, you will have to experiment with stacking different moon captures to see which ones will give you proper spacing and separation across the sky. If you messed up the timing at any point in your series, you can easily adjust the position of a moon image to achieve the proper spacing. The steps to accomplish this repositioning are also covered in the article and video above. Here is my final composite image of the moonrise progression blended into my blue hour scene. The size and position of the moon displayed throughout is true to the scene. The individual captures of the moon were adjusted in processing to ensure the gradual color change and brightness of the moon was reasonably well preserved while maintaining visual balance.

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Snowstorms and Sunsets

January 18, 2024 by John Caplis

The aftermath of a good snowstorm is one of my favorite times to go out and capture the world. Everything is covered in a white blanket of snow, ponds are covered in ice, and if the timing is right, clearing storm clouds can turn the sky into a stunning display of color. The recent storm on MLK Day covered my neighborhood in five inches of beautiful snow. The sunset that followed the next day was amazing, with several bursts of color throughout the twilight period. It’s not often that you have time to try different compositions in different spots during the same sunset.

My initial composition as the clouds turned red. The ice was very opaque because it snowed the entire time the pond was freezing up, which created a very soft diffuse reflection of color.

I decided to try a few vertical compositions to include a snow covered foreground in the image. This was difficult because most of the snow along the shoreline was full of footprints from children that had been playing in the area.

In this image, I was looking for a clean and balanced snow line to frame the bottom of the scene.

As I was experimenting with another foreground spot in the waning light, another layer of clouds lower in the sky unexpectedly turned deep red and remained colorful until the end of twilight.

As the reds in the clouds exploded for the second time, I recomposed this image to capture more of the color in the sky.

You can see a collection of my favorite images taken at this pond over the years in my On Wellington Pond photo gallery.

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Top Photography Moments of 2023

January 1, 2024 by John Caplis

Happy New Year! I hope 2024 is filled with good fortune, happiness, and exciting adventures for everyone. 2023 had some extraordinary times, including chasing the aurora in the Lofoten Islands of Norway, and an annular solar eclipse in New Mexico. Here is a collection of some favorite photographic experiences from 2023:

January – Aurora over Rorbu in Lofoten Islands, Norway

January – Rorbu at Hamnoy in Lofoten Islands, Norway

March – Cathedral of St Mathew the Apostle, Washington, D.C.

April – Tulip Sunset at Burnside Farms, Nokesville, VA

April – Aurora at Hogback Overlook, Shenandoah National Park, VA

July – Sunrise at Roanoke Marshes Lighthouse, Manteo, North Carolina

July – Milky Way over Bodie Island Lighthouse, Outer Banks, NC

August – Sunflower Sunset at Burnside Farms, Nokesville, VA

August – Fireworks over Sunflowers, Burnside Farms, Nokesville VA

August – Moonrise over the National Mall, Washington, D.C.

October – Balloon Fiesta, Albuquerque, New Mexico

Ring of Fire Annular Eclipse, Bisti Badlands, New Mexico — “Ring of Fire” Annular Eclipse, Bisti Badlands, New Mexico

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Creating a Wide-Angle Landscape Image of the 2023 Annular “Ring of Fire” Solar Eclipse

November 8, 2023 by John Caplis

On October 14, 2023, millions of people were able to experience a rare “Ring of Fire” annular solar eclipse that crossed over the western United States, from Oregon to Texas. The path crossed over many amazing national parks, national monuments, and wilderness areas in the southwest, offering endless possibilities for scenic places to view the eclipse. One of the biggest challenges for making a landscape image of this annular eclipse was that it occurred late in the morning and high in the sky at an elevation of 30 degrees or more above the horizon. As a result, most landscape images of this eclipse required the use of a wide-angle lens. An annular eclipse that is high in the sky is also very bright and requires a very dark solar filter in order to view or photograph it. Wide angle images showing both the landscape and the eclipse will be a composite that blends an unfiltered landscape image with images of the eclipse taken through a solar filter.

Planning for the Shot

New Mexico Annular Eclipse Map — Credit: https://www.greatamericaneclipse.com/

When I heard the path of totality for the 2023 annular solar eclipse would pass over the NW corner of New Mexico, I was immediately energized and started to visualize several possible eclipse images. As I was already planning a visit to family in Albuquerque, I decided to focus on the badlands in the San Juan Basin south of Farmington, NM. I decided early into my creative process that I would make an “artistic impression” of the eclipse over a distinctive rock formation featured prominently in the foreground. My first thought was a composite image of the eclipse over the Alien Throne (in the Ah Sli She Pah Wilderness), and the second was a composite image of the eclipse over the Egg Hatchery, or “Cracked Eggs” in the Bisti Badlands (also known as the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness). As eclipses are a wonder of our cosmos, I wanted to shoot a landscape that evoked a sense of being on an alien planet.

San Juan Badlands Map — Credit: https://www.americansouthwest.net/new_mexico/san-juan-basin/badlands.html

Having never hiked to the Alien Throne before, I made a scouting trip there the day before the eclipse. I was surprised by how many photographers were already camped out there waiting for the eclipse, including a photo workshop group led by Marc Muench. I took some foreground shots of the Alien Throne for later use in a possible composite image, and decided to instead make the Egg Hatchery at Bisti my shooting location for the eclipse. During my research into possible locations, I had checked how the annular eclipse would appear over the cracked eggs, and it lined up perfectly for making a composite landscape image. The Photographers Ephemeris (TPE) screenshot from my iphone below shows the alignment of the cracked eggs, the badland hills in the background, with the the eclipse occurring behind the hills. The hills rise up approximately 9 degrees from the horizon, while the annular phase of the eclipse would be at an azimuth of 135 degrees on the horizon and an elevation of 34.5 degrees in the sky.

The Photographer Ephemeris screenshot — TPE Screenshot of Eclipse at Cracked Eggs in Bisti Badlands

Capturing and Processing the Individual Shots for the Composite Image

On the morning of the eclipse, there were many, many people at the Bisti Badlands parking area. To my surprise, however, after hiking 45 minutes to the cracked eggs, there were no photographers there. I had my pick of any foreground I wanted, and I chose two of my favorite “eggs” to anchor a composition. My excitement grew as I realized I had a chance to make a unique image of this annular eclipse! I quickly set up two tripods, one with a camera and wide-angle lens (for shooting an unfiltered foreground image), and the other with a second camera and a telephoto lens (for shooting close ups of the eclipse).

Setting up Cameras for the Eclipse at the Cracked Eggs

With the sun about two thirds behind the moon, I shot an unfiltered image of the eclipse over the landscape with a 15-35 mm wide angle lens (f16, 1/200 sec, ISO 100). This would be used as the foreground and sky for the composite image. A focal length of 18 mm allowed me to create a composition that included two distinctive cracked eggs, long shadows in the foreground, badland hills in the background, and the eclipse in the top third of the frame. The positioning of the camera and the wide-angle lens exaggerated the length of the shadows, which created some nice leading lines into the scene. I also intentionally reduced the exposure of the scene in processing to simulate (and exaggerate) the slight dimming of the sky that occurred during the annular phase. Reducing the light was another artistic decision I made to create a twilight-like feeling, and I knew the darker sky would also provide better contrast for showing the different eclipse phases.

Using solar filters on both lenses, I shot a number of different eclipse phases spanning a period of approximately 45 minutes with both cameras. The total annular phase (ie “ring of fire”) occurred halfway during the period and was centered over the two eggs in the foreground. I did not shoot at equally spaced intervals for each eclipse shots, but instead focused on capturing the phases that I knew I wanted to show in my composite image. As a result, I knew the eclipse phases I was capturing would not be equally spaced in time, even though they would be equally spaced out in my composite image. This was another creative decision I made for my image.

When shooting the close-up shots of the eclipse with the telephoto lens, I put the camera in a portrait orientation, and placed all the eclipse phases in the top third of the frame, starting in the upper left hand corner and allowed the eclipse phases to form a sequence that moved across the frame to the right, while leaving enough head room for the sun to rise while staying in the frame. As the sun moves in the sky more than you have space in your frame (when shooting a series of close up images over a 45 minute period), I did have to adjust the position of the sun in the frame for some shots. While I was using a 100-500 mm telephoto zoom lens, I only zoomed in half way (a focal length of 250 mm). This ensured that each eclipse phase was shot at a size and location that could easily be blended into the sky of the composite image, without resizing and with minimal movement. All the close-up telephoto images were shot at f8, 1/1000 sec, ISO 100.

Telephoto Close-Up Images of the Annular Eclipse

When using a 16.5-stop Nisi solar filters, the visible portions of the sun through these filters appear as pure white crescents or rings and the portions of the sun blocked by the moon appear black. Other filters intentionally create a yellow color cast for the eclipse, as people expect the sun to appear yellow in the sky (even though the white color is more accurate). I decided to add a yellow color cast to the visible portions of the sun in the eclipse, as I felt it was more intuitive, and potentially less confusing, as people normally associate a white crescents or circles in the sky with the moon. This coloration can easily be done in processing by adding a yellow “solid color” adjustment layer in Photoshop to each eclipse image and setting the blend mode for the adjustment layer to “color burn”.

Method for Colorizing Eclipse Phases — Credit: Alan Dyer, “How to Photograph The Solar Eclipses” (ebook)

Making the Composite Image

The composite image is created by opening the foreground image in Photoshop, and then stacking each of the close-up images, in the order they occurred, on top as layers. You can blend each eclipse layer into the sky of the foreground image by setting the blend mode for each eclipse layer to “lighten”. You can also convert each eclipse layer into a “smart object”, which allows for fine tuning the spacing and location of each phase in the sky.

In addition to the mechanics of assembling the blended image, there are many creative choices that must be made to realize your artistic vision for the composite image. How many eclipse phases do you include, and which ones do you show? How large should the eclipse appear, and what path should it follow in the sky? I wanted the annular “ring of fire” to be centered over the eggs while be located as accurately as possible in terms of location on the horizon and elevation in the sky. I used the “ring of fire” image taken with the wide angle lens to fine tune the location of the blended close up image of the “ring of fire” in the sky. I also wanted to show what the eclipse looked like at certain times before and after the the ring of fire that were very distinctive from each another. I was less concerned about matching up the placement of the other phases, and did not attempt to make each of these phases precise to the location where they occurred in the sky. I also wanted to show the progression of the eclipse from left to right while rising in the sky. Another creative choice I made was to show the eclipse phases in the composite image at the same size as they were captured in the close-up shots using the telephoto lens. I believe this sizing made each phase more visible and impactful, but it did make the eclipse appear somewhat larger in the sky than what you saw through eclipse glasses. The spacing is also spread out further across the sky than what occurred in reality.

Composite Image of the 2023 Annular "Ring of Fire" Solar Eclipse at the Bisti Badlan — Composite Image of the 2023 Annular “Ring of Fire” Solar Eclipse at the Bisti Badlands

You might be wondering, why shoot the eclipse phases with a separate telephoto lens, instead of just using the wide angle lens, since both had adequate solar filters on them? Wide angle lens will emphasize objects in the foreground (and make them appear larger if they are very close to your lens), which is great for your landscape. On the other hand, however, they will make objects in the distance appear smaller. I assembled a composite image using the eclipse shots I took with the wide angle lens, at the same focal length and framing that were used for the foreground and sky, to demonstrate this size distortion.

Composite Image of Annular Eclipse using images taken with a wide angle lens — Composite Image of Annular Eclipse with all images taken using a wide angle lens

This composite does show the actual placement of the eclipse in the sky over the landscape, but as you can see, due to the size distortion, it makes the eclipse appear way too small in the image in my opinion. From my recollection, the eclipse looked bigger in the sky when I viewed it through eclipse glasses, and it certainly appeared more dramatic. The eclipse is the reason for the composition and it should appear believable but prominent in the image. The small size shown in this version of the composite does not convey the wonder of the event I witnessed, or make for a very impactful image.

One final artistic effect I experimented with was blending a sunburst (or sunstar) effect from an unfiltered shot of the partially eclipsed sun with the filtered eclipse shot of the ring of fire. A sunburst is created by the refraction of light through the very small aperture when you set your lens to f16 or higher.

Unfiltered shot of the eclipse (Sunburst)

In processing, I matched the coloration of the sunburst to the color of the ring of fire, and then blended the rays emanating from the sunburst that extended beyond the ring of fire into the image.

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