lots of people milling about the streets today, all looking up as the partial solar eclipse was progressing. i thought it was the best time to do some street photography. but of course, there being lots of people, there were lots of photobombers, too!
as i was getting ready to go back to the office, i saw this group of young students being marched down by their teachers, or they're probably in day camps and they made a special trip downtown to watch the eclipse. the children were each carrying a box, in various sizes with a tinfoil pasted onto a corner and pricked with a pin. like that girl peeking at the big projection box. they were so cute, all lined up against the concrete wall of the union station. later on tourists and other passersby also lined up to peek through that projection box.
some of the students asked to see what i had captured in my camera and it was so heartwarming to see the awe in their faces, not at my photograph per se, but at the phenomenon that i captured. then other people asked to see it, too. i was by this time really late going back to the office but i took another shot at the eclipse before i went inside our building. http://365project.org/summerfield/365-still/2017-08-21
i shot the eclipse using a variable ND filter set to its maximum dark setting, over a hoya circular polarizer that also has a variable setting, and i combined them with two gel films of very dark blue and very dark purple. i thought of doing that after i read some of the suggestions on a query on the discussion page. this community has a lot of brilliant people who selflessly share their knowledge with us who know not quite a lot about photography. i am so grateful to 365 for all the photography stuff i have learned.
-o0o-
of course this event gave me my post for the 52-week challenge; this week we tell a story about strangers.
and to make it a three-fer, for the current street challenge and the six-word story challenge.
It's really fun to think of how many people were gathering outside to watch this. I was on the front lawn as were the neighbors. I with my pinhole box and they with their eclipse glasses. Of course the neighbor across the street thought her hands shielded her eyes just fine...sigh. Good shot all the way around!
