Chasing Shadows

The first time I saw a total solar eclipse was in Romania in 1999. My home was in an area with something like 98% partial coverage. We didn’t have internet at home back then, so I couldn’t easily look up what the difference between 98% and totality really was. I almost stayed at home. Luckily, on the morning of the eclipse, perhaps swayed by my begs and pleas to go there, my dad found a work-related excuse to drive to the zone of totality. That’s when I learned that the difference between 99 and 100% is literally night and day. It was the most amazing natural spectacle I had ever witnessed. So wonderful that, in 2009, I travelled all the way to Shanghai, this time armed with a DSLR camera, to see and photograph the longest total solar eclipse of this century. We spent over 6 minutes in complete darkness, under a thick cloud that blocked our view of the corona. It was pretty heartbreaking. It took another 8 years to get “revenge”. In August 2017, I flew a third of the way around the world (again), this time from Tokyo to Wyoming, to catch the Great American Eclipse. I had always wanted to see Yellowstone, so I figured it would be worth the trip, even if we were unlucky with the weather. Fortunately, the eclipse happened on a gorgeous summer day with not a single cloud in the sky. So, 18 years, 11 days, and 8 hours after my first experience with being in the Moon’s shadow, I got my first photos of this amazing phenomenon. And some pictures of Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks as a bonus!

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