Rare Solar Eclipse

My quote for the day is on preparation.

I'm going to go with the Boy Scout Motto here,

"Always Be Prepared!"

I was not! 

Weeping and gnashing of teeth and of course, utter sadness.

I grabbed my camera,

I grabbed the wrong lens for such an event.

This is always how it goes with me. 

I learn after the fact.

And as for viewing the eclipse,

I took what I had, cheap sunglasses. Des and I jumped in the jeep.

If I was going to see a Solar Eclipse there was only one place to go.

We drove to Antelope Island.

Across the causeway, the earth was majestically preparing herself.

There were clouds in the sky and everything started to go dark.

I drove faster.

The colors were amazing. Everything had a soft sense about it.

Almost like all of nature had been hushed.
The sky was so beautiful, mirrored in the water.

We hiked to a lone peak.

Mice hid in their holes as we climbed. 

Des kept glancing with her nifty polarized sun shades.

"I'm going to go blind she screamed."
I was laughing at her. 

"I can't stop looking at it. It's beautiful," she clammered 

She and I took turns taking quick glances with her cheap glasses.
She was not happy I referred to them as cheap!

After that, a couple spotted us and loaned us their real live solar glasses.

They had gotten them at the Hansen Planetarium.

Why didn't I think of that? 

Viewing the eclipse through them was nothing short of spectacular!

I couldn't point my camera right at it.

I didn't want to blow out my sensor and of course I was not equipped with a filter. Urrrgh

So I captured the earth, the best I could, in all it's splendor as it happened.

It didn't take long

and suddenly the light started to come back to everything.

I told Des I was going to wait for the sun to set.

She perched herself on the top of a rock with her book.
She's that dot at the top. "You're boring Deserey!"
I yelled to her as I hiked down through the cobwebby rocks. Eeew

No adventure for her.

The water along the beach lay perfectly still.

I sat my rear end down on a rock and commenced to soak in all the beauty!

The seagulls put on quite a show in the light!

   

It was breath taking to say the least.

This was the last shot of the night. 

Henry David Thoreau said,

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately,

To front only the essential facts of life,

And see if I could not learn what it had to teach,

And not,

When I came to die, discover that I had not lived."

Today..... was a camera journal entry day!
Today..... I truly enjoyed taking part in what Thoreau called living !