I have photographed solar eclipses seven times over the last 47 years, and in the first part of this series I described my first efforts in the pre-internet era – and the hard lessons that you learn when chasing the shadow of an eclipse. The most important one is that even with the best planning, you can never to be certain to avoid clouds obliterating your view!
In this second installment, we head to Vizcaíno Desert and the Caribbean for my next experiences of photographing solar eclipses…
My third solar eclipse: May 10, 1994
We again made the trek from south-west Canada to Mexico’s Baja (where I had seen my second total solar eclipse in 1991) peninsula by car. This time it was for an annular eclipse.
When the Earth is closest to the sun and the moon is farthest from the Earth, the Moon is not visually big enough to block the sun. Thus you get an annular eclipse or the “Ring of Fire”, a bright ring of sunlight visible around the Moon.
Again, we made no particular plans, or preparations (other than to take the camera gear). With stops in Oregon, California, as well as at Ensenada and Guerro Negro in the Baja. We simply pickup up motels as we got to the end of each day’s drive.
On the morning of the eclipse, we drove south, into the desert, hoping to go to El Arco, which was on the centre line. But the road was closed and so we decided to stop, near the turnoff, where we found two chaps from Ontario, California all set up and ready. Because we were off the center line, but still in the path, the moon was not centred over the sun and the ring was lopsided. But the seeing was good, even if the day was unbearably hot.
My fourth solar eclipse: February 26, 1998
I’d previously been to Venezuela twice, and before Hugo Chavez it was a wonderful country. The ‘98 Eclipse was going to go through Maracaibo, in western Venezuela, so it seemed like the reasonable destination. After talking about my plans with one of my customers, he offered that his wife was from Maracaibo, and that he’d bring her in for a chat about the town. She told me that there you judged a hotel not by its facilities, but by the number of locks on doors and the quality of the bars of the windows. She pointed out that the area was rife with gangs, and tourists in rented cars were prime targets. I changed my plans.
In the end, I booked a Caribbean cruise. The cruise line had two meteorologists on board, and as with land eclipses, mobility is the key. Thus, our ship sailed all night to find a hole in the clouds. It worked, and we had a fabulous view from somewhere near Curaçao. That said, I’m not sure I’d do it again. The ten-day cruise was lovely and we got to visit much of the Caribbean. The viewing from the stern was terrific, but photography from aboard ship, even with the shorter, 500mm lens was not as satisfactory as one would hope. Even in calm seas and with the stabilizers out, the ship moves constantly. With an f/8 aperture and Kodachrome 64 slide film, shutter speeds were limited, so my photos were all a bit blurry.
One fun thing was the discovery that the holes in my wife’s straw sun-hat made great pinhole lenses, casting lovely images of the partial phases on her neck and the deck. If you’ve not got a wife with a straw hat, an old colander will do.
If you’ve ever experienced the air at minus 45, you know that if it’s not overcast the seeing is startlingly clear. The eclipse on March 9 the year before had been visible in Siberia, when it was still winter. One chap aboard ship had been there and “Eclipse Chic” is to wear a T-shirt from your previous eclipse... but in Siberia he’d not been able to buy one. So he’d had one made up, which simply read: “I was in Siberia for the last one. I earned this one!’
Remember, never get so involved in your photography, that you forget to look up. It’s what you come for. Blurry photos or not, I don’t regret a single penny spent on that trip. The cruise was worth it, and the eclipse was the icing on the cake.
The internet was beginning to influence eclipse chaser’s behavior, but aboard ship, it was irrelevant.
Four Eclipses down, three to go…
The final installment of David Young's 47-year diary of a solar eclipse photographer will be published soon
Start planning for the August 2026 solar eclipse - and don't remember to buy a solar filter for your camera
