Cullen Park

Photographing a solar eclipse is a rare opportunity and it needs special equipment so not to burn out the camera - the lens is essentially a big magnifier glass and remember what happens when you focus the sun on a piece a paper. Well the same will happen with the camera sensor if not done right.
A special lens filter is required that blocks essentially all of the light except for the sun. The glass lenses cost a lot. A simpler solution is special astronomy film and to make your own lens cover.
With the eclipse fast approaching, Daniel made up a filter for his lens, finishing with just ten minutes to spare before the moon began its journey across the face of the sun at 10:05am.
We sat adjacent our van in the caravan park - there were other places to go and watch the eclipse, but we had a good view of the path of the sun and the luxury of having our food and wine handy!
Covered from head to toe (literally), Daniel sat in the sun with his camera on a tripod and manually took photos of the eclipse every 2 minutes, getting some amazing photos - in some you can see the solar flares shooting out from the sun and during totality the corona can be seen.
At the moment of totality the light dimmed dramatically - like twilight (not complete darkness), a roar of cheers erupted from across the caravan park and the town.
Special protective glasses and the special filter could be removed for the 50 odd seconds of totality. The birds flew around as if it were dusk.
And in a very short amount of time the sun’s rays started to come back around the top of the moon as it continued its journey across the sun.
By 1:05 pm it was all over.
Heading down to the pool we came across a professional photographer who had even more amazing shots - it was his 15th eclipse and he had a lot more expensive camera gear!Read more