Sunset Beach Eclipse May 20th 2012
May 20 2012 Solar Eclipse near Sunset Beach / Huntington Beach, CA - timelapse / composition of "phases" of the eclipse during the approximate 2 hour duration.
Near Dog Beach in Huntington Beach CA. Life Guard Stand 24 is in the foreground.
How I Shot this:
Used a Canon 7D with a lens with a doubler to cut the light further, and a solar filter created from multiple sheets of thin Neutral Density (ND) filters more commonly used on movie lights. Over the course of the eclipse I removed the ND sheets one at a time as the sun got lower in the sky and the clouds came in. For the final shot, I’m down to a single ND filter, from the 8 I started with.
The 7D was setup very high on a tall tripod to ensure no one would get in front of it. I used a timer to shoot pictures every minute. The multiple layers of ND allowed me to shoot at f22, ISO 100 and with reasonable shutter speeds. The lens could stop down further, but there was no need, since f22 produced a sharp enough shot.
Obviously I didn't end up using every shot from the 7D’s time-lapse – because over the time that we were there I took almost 150 shots. Clouds came in starting around 7pm, obscuring some of the later images a bit as you can see.
The final image of the sunset is the image used for the overall background. I adjusted the path of the individual sun images because a friend asked for this as a background image for their PC. The original image was a square, with the sun much higher in the sky.
The final assembly of all of the shots was done in Adobe After Effects, since I took 150 pictures the plan is to have a video of this time-lapse, in addition to this overlay photo.
Quite a few questions on Facebook about the location and position of the Sun. The beach here faces Southwest, which can easily become confusing. We think the Pacific Coast is exactly west facing, but it's not, in some places it faces South / SouthWest.
Comments and faves
jun_kimura（JAP), PhotoDu.de / CreativeDomainPhotography.com, nino_90, Apple Crisp, and 698 other people added this photo to their favorites.
PhotoDu.de / CreativeDomainPhotography.com (12 months ago | reply)
Excellent work.
branson_fu (12 months ago | reply)
Great capture!!! It's been shared by Nasa's Milky Way Scientists on Facebook... You've got many great comments for this amazing capture!
purduebob (12 months ago | reply)
... nice effort and results
ComputerHotline (12 months ago | reply)
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sunset_Beach_ Eclipse_May_...
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Found in a search. (?)
miguelyn... (12 months ago | reply)
Excellent!
eugien72769 (12 months ago | reply)
EXCELLENT shot!.. I m totally jealous, I ended up catching it at about 20% here in Austin area.. glad someone got a progressive shot of it all! Just made the coveted background pic on both monitors! Kudos!
rwasi (12 months ago | reply)
_ _ _ _ !! no word
amazing ...
Purple Cloud Lily (12 months ago | reply)
fantastic. Selling any prints?
art+works (Steve Shriver) (12 months ago | reply)
nice job! Thanks for sharing it!
emmi1990 (12 months ago | reply)
lovely!
ijaz.afzal (12 months ago | reply)
Excellent, thanks for sharing! Stealing to my FB cover!
Essence Captured ~ PhotoLori (12 months ago | reply)
Very Awesome. That photo is going viral. Too bad you didn't put your name on it. :(
Jdelorm (12 months ago | reply)
Great pic!
Lothlorienoaks (12 months ago | reply)
Would love a print of this! Very nice.
Rubytuesday714 (12 months ago | reply)
Beautiful, nothing like a California sunset!
Rubytuesday714 (12 months ago | reply)
This is xctly where my Golden Retriver learned how to swim, thanks for this reminder!
Carolyn Chentnik (12 months ago | reply)
best pic i've seen of this! LOVE it!
misfitmarie (12 months ago | reply)
amazing.... thank you for sharing!
Sameeradame (12 months ago | reply)
Excellent Image!! :)
Precious Roy (12 months ago | reply)
rad!!
Fritter and Waste (12 months ago | reply)
Truly spectacular!
TroubleEnsued (12 months ago | reply)
Amazing! Truly the most evocative photograph of an eclipse that I've ever seen.
K8tilyn (12 months ago | reply)
absolutely Fabulous!!!
$aï (12 months ago | reply)
So fuckin' nice !!!
Love it ! <3
Haris Bahrudin (12 months ago | reply)
Amazing. Combining eclipse with landscape photography.
my2collies (12 months ago | reply)
I'd be interested in buying a high-res print of this. I love it very much- excellent job! You can contact me if you are interested:
Cindy Naas Stapleton on Facebook
AlicePopkorn (12 months ago | reply)
wonderful !!
Buchannantess (12 months ago | reply)
I'm so jealous! I wouldn't even have known that there was an eclipse if not for seeing this picture!
grammardog (12 months ago | reply)
Stunning!
fruitfulharvest1983 (12 months ago | reply)
Ah-mazing!!!
RioParadiso Studio (12 months ago | reply)
Seen in explorer... congratulationss!!
agdaorta (12 months ago | reply)
wow
SHERYL YATES (12 months ago | reply)
Like a fantasy. Way cool.......thank you
DeeJayRoyalT (12 months ago | reply)
This is CRAZY fantastic. What an incredible time-lapse. Awesome!
dbaniaga...aka: Dude (12 months ago | reply)
What everyone else said times 3...
Well done!
soonil_hong01 (12 months ago | reply)
Great shot!!!
MwaO (12 months ago | reply)
So stunning shots!
Rafa Hernández. (12 months ago | reply)
Just Superb!! what a great image you produced!! Congrats!
I am located more at the south, in Laguna Beach and here we had heavy clouds since 4:00 PM so there was no chance to see the eclipse, not to mention taking photos. I decided then to head east and as I was driving down to Laguna Niguel - Aliso Viejo area, I could see the eclipse naturally filtered with the clouds of the marine layer:
LFA FOTO (12 months ago | reply)
Great Stuff Mister !!
I am here in Newport
and all I got was a couple shots
through the marine layer !!!
Ron&Linda (12 months ago | reply)
Wow
Rice and D (12 months ago | reply)
Awesome! Thanks for sharing the "how to"!
p_raj_rajesh (12 months ago | reply)
Spectacular!
Taylor Kaitlin (12 months ago | reply)
stop. omg. this is so perfectttttttt
dsoulux (12 months ago | reply)
absolutely beautiful photo!!
Robby Ryke (12 months ago | reply)
Truly awesome!
Dan Hiris (12 months ago | reply)
Been trying to figure out how this trajectory worked. Very strange.
morph00 (12 months ago | reply)
Very nice, I like the technique used! Great composition!
emilymygattlee (12 months ago | reply)
Amazing work. Thanks for sharing your technique! This has got to be the best pic of the eclipse out there. We had clouds obscuring our view up here in Wisconsin!
jmp.photo (12 months ago | reply)
Excellent work, I very impressed.