"Bob Williams" wrote in message
...
mianileng wrote:
Ever since I made one of my occasional visits to NASA's
eclipse site last year, I've been eagerly looking forward to
this day. The eclipse was to be only slightly over 90% of
total in my area and I knew a photo of it wouldn't be anywhere
nearly as spectacular as in the totality zone. But it's the
first major solar eclipse I'd have a chance to photograph.

Alas, sunrise came and the morning sky was heavily overcast,
with thick fog rolling in too. There wasn't even a faintly
luminous spot to indicate where the sun was. My friends and I
watched TV, the clock and the darkening sky as the moment of
maximum eclipse came and went.

Some time later, the weather relented a bit and we began to
catch glimpses of the receding eclipse. I started shooting and
went on to take some 60 shots. The clouds were moving so fast
that the brightness level changed literally from second to
second.

I saw no point in trying to check my exposures in between
shots as the next one would need a different level anyway. I
went entirely by guesstimate and kept turning the shutter and
aperture dials, using exposure values from f/11 at 1/2000 sec
with a filter to f/4 at 1/20 sec without a filter.

I was pleasantly surprised when I later found that more than
half of the shots had acceptable exposure, at least acceptable
to me, given the circumstances and my total lack of experience
in shooting a solar eclipse.

Here's the very first shot, taken about 10 minutes after the
moment of maximum eclipse:
http://s48.photobucket.com/albums/f2...-22Jul09_1.jpg


I like the effect with the clouds.
It gives the image a surreal, mysterious look.
Kudos on your persistence.
Bob Williams

Thanks. I too felt that the pictures with thick wooly clouds
looked better than those with thinner, almost uniform clouds.