I’m hopping on the solar eclipse bandwagon with this post, but like so many others, I believe it was amazing!

Let me preface this post by saying that this August 21, 2017 eclipse has been on our calendar since the day Matt decided to go to Southern. Literally, as soon as Matt got in to Southern back in 2015 and we decided to move to Louisville, he looked up the eclipse path and because totality was only 2-3 hours away, we’ve planned to travel. Those plans changed drastically after “eclipse-mania” ensued and hotel room costs rose to $800/night. But this was something we had been looking forward to for literal years.

Matt does work for an aerospace company, is the son of the owner of an aerospace company, and loves all things science and space. I am the daughter of a man who loves astronomy, took an astronomy class in college, and was proposed to after star gazing (thanks, Matt). So if this event was for anyone, it would be us. It just fits.So to make a long story short, we drove down to southwestern KY to camp Sunday night, woke up and staked out a spot at the top of the bleachers at a high school stadium.
As a photographer, watching the light change was amazing. I am used to seeing light a certain way, but this light was just crazy. And as the eclipse neared totality, the light blew my mind. It was like golden hour, but yet I could still see my super short mid-day sun shadow. And then as the final little peak of light disappeared behind the sun, what followed was simply stunning.

Being at the top of the stadium was an amazing idea (thanks again, Matt!). The views all the way around were amazing. It was like a 360 degree sunset. But then you had the corona shining around the darkness of the moon. The sky around the sun and moon was a brilliant blue and the light around the moon was full of so many colors, but yet we could still see the light shining from Mars. I was completely taken back by how colorful the whole thing was. The 360 degree sunset, the blue sky, and the colors in the light behind the moon. I still kinda don’t believe that was something I’ve seen.

As a side note, animals did act weird! Crickets chirped, birds sang as during dawn, and dogs were howling. It was a crazy 2 minutes.

The photos just don’t do it justice. I tried to concentrate on enjoying the eclipse and not pictures, so I only took a few. I also didn’t take the time to hone in my settings so they aren’t great and were taken at ISO 4000 (yikes!), but they are what we experienced and are priceless to me.We are already making plans for the 2024 eclipse that hits Indianapolis just 1.5 hours away! Yessss.

And for many of you, the eclipse wasn’t something of interest and that’s ok. But this event just adds an additional layer of amazement for how intricate our God is and how He designed creation. I don’t know why He saw it fit to incorporate total solar eclipses into His design, but it certainly displays his glory and majesty. What an amazing God we serve!