Eleven years ago, I created a photograph called Black Starlight, where I photographed the sun as it rose over the Hudson River. I shot the sun in 15-minute intervals, and ended up with this picture – and a blog post – for my troubles.
The photo was okay – it didn’t win any competitions or the like, but it was an experiment. My problem with it was that in 2012, I didn’t have – nor did I know of – a solar flare filter that would have blocked out most of the ambient light and actually made the sun LOOK like a proverbial solar sphere.
Well, I’ve got an upcoming eclipse trip, and one of my plans is to use one of my Nikon Df cameras as a stationary time-lapse camera, to shoot in intervals as the sun goes through its eclipse phases, while I use the other Nikon Df camera (and my big bad mirror lens) to get the sun (and the eclipse phases) in big juicy sunspot detail.
Monday morning. Back to the Hudson River park in Watervliet. It’s 5:50 a.m. I’ve got the Df with a Vivitar 19mm f/3.5 ultra-wide lens on the chassis. I’ll use my remote shutter to snap off frames in five-minute intervals.
Okay. The sun’s come up. Get that shot.
Fantastic. Now count down five minutes.
5:55 a.m. Shoot again.
6:00 a.m. Shoot again.
Eventually the park filled with the usual morning visitors – bicyclists, dog walkers, joggers, fishermen, some guy who just needed an outlet to puff down some menthols – while I continued to capture the sun as it rose over the Hudson River.
8:00 a.m. Man, I’m tired. Wiped out. I’m cooked.
Back to the house.
Assemble these frames. The sun bursts are too close together. Toss out every OTHER frame, so that it appears to be a 10-minute interval.
And let’s see what came out.
Ka-boom. Ka-freakin’ boom.
Short pile for sure. I can find a home for this. Most definitely.
This is just what I want. And it’s a marked improvement over the Black Sunlight photo from 11 years ago.
In other words … it’s okay to update your creations. You just need to update your equipment. And your skills. And your patience. 😀
Chuck The Writer 
Impressive effect.
Your 2012 effort was perfectly entitled, offering nice, crisp, “Star-of-Bethlehemish” images.
(And you would have knocked my socks off if you were able to capture an airborne carp, flirting with what – to me – looks like a chomping predator.)
Best of luck with the eclipse!
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