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Home → Essays and Inspiration

2017 Total Solar Eclipse Images

By Nasim Mansurov 27 Comments
Last Updated On April 30, 2023

I am currently traveling in Wyoming with a couple of friends and we are on our way home, after an unsuccessful attempt to stay in Yellowstone National Park – it turned out to be a complete zoo, even a couple of days after the total eclipse. I don’t know what we were thinking! Considering how many people have come from all over the world to see the eclipse, it was only natural that many of them would want to go and see the Teton / Yellowstone area. My backup plan was to go north to Montana, but pretty much the whole state is burning at the moment and the smoke is all over Wyoming as well. In the meantime, I wanted to share a few images of the total solar eclipse that my friends and I captured on August 21st. I am planning to write a more detailed article with more information, but meanwhile, I hope you enjoy these images!

The total solar eclipse took a bit of planning, but I am happy with the way the images turned out. Between the three of us, we had a total of 6 cameras that were capturing the event – two were set up to do timelapses, while the other 4 were capturing the total solar eclipse with telephoto lenses. Not all cameras ended up working out, but the ones that did captured beautiful shots of the eclipse that we are happy to share with the PL readers today.

The first shot was captured by the Nikon 1 J5 camera that had the Nikkor 300mm f/4E PF lens + 1.4x TC attached via the Nikon FT1 adapter. With a focal length of almost 1200mm, this was the setup that produced the largest view of the solar eclipse. We used this setup to capture the phases of the eclipse, along with capturing a 4K video of the actual total solar eclipse (I will share the videos once I get home, since they needed to be cut first). Here is an image of the partial eclipse:

Partial Solar Eclipse
NIKON 1 J5 + VR 300mm f/4E @ 420mm, ISO 160, 1/500, f/5.6

We used this setup to capture images every minute and based on what we captured so far, it looks like we missed the passing of the International Space Station (ISS). We were able to capture the ISS with a different camera though, although it went by so quickly that it ended up looking blurry. Overall, the Nikon 1 J5 setup worked out exceptionally well and we were very happy with the results.

Since I am currently testing the Fuji 23mm f/4 WR lens for the Fuji GFX 50S, I decided to use the setup for a timelapse of the solar eclipse. This one took quite a bit of scouting and planning, since it was tough to incorporate an attractive foreground together with the total solar eclipse – it was very high up in the sky! Gladly, the lens was wide enough for me to get very close to an interesting foreground and have enough space in the sky to capture the eclipse. I was able to rely on an app on my phone to pinpoint the path of the sun, along with the location of the total solar eclipse, so that it aligns with the peak of the structure in front of me. After the eclipse was over, I was psyched to see that it actually worked out well:

Solar Eclipse Totality Wide Angle
GFX 50S + GF23mmF4 R LM WR @ 23mm, ISO 100, 10/1, f/11.0

I will be putting the timelapse together later on and sharing the footage with our readers, but so far I am very happy with the result. The total solar eclipse was an absolutely amazing experience that is impossible to describe in words…when the landscape darkened and it got as cold as at night, with total silence around us, it was both cool and eerie – unforgettable for sure!

Here is the total solar eclipse, captured by the Sony A9 + 100-400mm GM + 2x teleconverter – a shockingly good combination that allowed me to capture a lot of details at 800mm. If you look at the sides of the moon, you will see solar flares. I have not properly processed any of these images, but I cannot wait to put together our bracketed shots and see how they will turn out!

2017 Total Solar Eclipse
ILCE-9 + FE 100-400mm F4.5-5.6 GM OSS + 2X Teleconverter @ 794mm, ISO 100, 1/60, f/13.0

Lastly, here is a shot of the diamond ring, as soon as the totality was over:

Solar Eclipse Diamond Ring
NIKON D810 + 150-600mm f/5-6.3 @ 850mm, ISO 100, 1/50, f/11.0

This was captured with the Nikon D810 + Tamron 150-600mm + 1.4x TC to get a total of 850mm of focal length, the setup that my friend Tunc was using during the event, while I was busy recording 4K video of the totality with the Sony A9 setup.

If you are wondering about our location at the time of the eclipse, we were at the Hell’s Half Acre near Casper, Wyoming. It wasn’t easy to get all of our equipment down to the valley, but it was well worth it!

Hope you enjoy these images. If you were able to capture the total solar eclipse, please share your images in the comments section below!

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Filed Under: Essays and Inspiration Tagged With: Solar Eclipse, Wyoming

About Nasim Mansurov

Nasim Mansurov is the author and founder of Photography Life, based out of Denver, Colorado. He is recognized as one of the leading educators in the photography industry, conducting workshops, producing educational videos and frequently writing content for Photography Life. You can follow him on Instagram and Facebook. Read more about Nasim here.

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John Gruver
John Gruver
October 27, 2017 10:33 pm

Hi Nasim… thanks for the great article, and beautiful pictures.
We were at Jackson Lake Lodge for the eclipse (reserved the day they began taking reservations… September 2016 I believe). Viewed it right outside our cabin. It was fantastic! Unfortunately, I didn’t get any keepers of the eclipse, but a new friend did and he sent us some good ones, and we did enjoy the fabulous eclipse experience (our fourth total eclipse). I did get some fine pics of moose and antelope, though. We moved to Yellowstone on the 22nd (again, reservations made in 2016) and had a great time… no smoke until the very end… Sep 1 I believe. We were smoked out of Glacier, though.
I am currently trying to decide which wide angle(s) and which telephoto(s) lens(es) to get… photographylife.com is playing a big part in my research. All your tips articles and lens reviews are making great reading. I hope to be much more knowledgeable and experienced (and comfortable) with my camera when the 2024 eclipse flies across Texas!
Thanks again!

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Kim
Kim
August 27, 2017 11:01 pm

Mr. Mansurov ~ just WOW…..the color of that diamond is so exquisite ~ THAT is a true work of art.

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John Harmon
John Harmon
August 25, 2017 2:35 pm

Great photos, and great location! We made it to a boat launch site on the North Platte at Bessemer Bend, south of Casper, not nearly as scenic as Hell’s Half Acre. Due to technical glitches (and a big dose of ‘eclipse fever’) this was my best shot: jcharmon.smugmug.com/Trave…/i-jhJ2JQW, which also missed the ISS. (Nikon V3, 70-300 CX, 1/2000 @ f5.6, with Baader Planetarium Astro-Solar filter – white image instead of yellow/orange.) Despite the lack of photos, the eclipse was an amazing experience. Total eclipse in a black sky with the horizon all around looking like dusk is something I won’t forget. (I will try to forget the traffic afterwards, though…)

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Ian
Ian
August 24, 2017 8:55 pm

Nice shots Nasim. Here’s a couple of mine. Still looking for better ways to process individual frames and bracketed sets of these images ….. {hint} {hint}

www.flickr.com/photo…ed-public/

www.flickr.com/photo…ed-public/

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Phoenix
Phoenix
August 24, 2017 8:35 pm

Thanks Nasim and all who shared your experience and photos. Enjoyed reliving experience through yours. Here in south Florida we only received 82 percent totality. Not having the longer telephoto lens, I enjoyed at local observatory with some 1000+ very happy people and local astonomers. It was amazing to see what a cellphone could capture lined up with a super telescope. Nasim, looking forward to seeing the rest.

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Gary
Gary
August 24, 2017 4:52 pm

Hi Nasim,
I enjoyed your comments and images of the eclipse. Terri and I went to Madras Oregon where she took images before and after the eclipse but during totality we just watched with binoculars. I hope you don’t mind if I offer some comments on solar terminology. Your first image shows the surface of the Sun; the photosphere. The image shows two major groups of Sunspots, one near the center and another near the bottom left. Sunspots are local concentrations of magnetic field lines that are emitted from the surface in one place and return to the surface in another place nearby. When Sunspots rotate around to the edge of the solar disk and are seen along the edge of the Sun, the visible manifestation is seen as a solar prominence. In your image taken with the Sony A9 camera the extended bright area around the Sun is the corona, the atmosphere of the Sun. The very small pink spots in this image at the 1 o’clock and 3 o’clock positions are solar prominences which are visible in narrowband filtered images (hydrogen alpha, with filters specifically made for solar imaging) and during a total solar eclipse when the Moon blocks out all the light of the solar photosphere. A prominence is hot high density gas following the magnetic lines, usually above sunspots. A prominence can be seen above the surface of the Sun as a loop, an arc or as an irregular shape. Sunspots and prominences can last for a day or sometimes a month or so. A solar flare is a much more energetic event where high-energy particles and radiation are ejected from the Sun and escapes into space. If the direction of ejected material from a flare travels away from the Sun and happens to line up with the position of the Earth we can get interference with communications and orbiting satellites and an increase in aurora activity at the north and south poles of Earth.
I’ll be looking forward to seeing more of your images.
Gary

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Davis Chen
Davis Chen
August 24, 2017 2:17 pm

Nasim, long time no see ;) My wife and I drove out to Alliance, NE to view the eclipse. The road was very foggy all the way there, which had the fortunate side effect of driving out many of the eclipse chasers (traffic on the way home was still really bad though). Fortunately, the fog lifted about 30 minutes before the start of the partial phase and we had mostly clear skies for the event.

www.flickr.com/photo…331150830/

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Mark Fagan
Mark Fagan
August 24, 2017 8:56 am

Hi Nasim- Emily and I both did a time lapse as well. We figured that there would be enough photos of the eclipse. These were taken on the edge of the Badlands in South Dakota where we had 96% totality. It definitely got dark and we even had 2 Big Horn Sheep lay down in front of our trailer for a nap when it started getting dark. Here is a link to our page with the time lapse:
roadslesstraveled.us/solar…-badlands/

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David Roma
David Roma
August 24, 2017 12:23 am

Stunning Images. Thanks for sharing. Wish we could have seen it downunder!

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Ken Oslund
Ken Oslund
August 23, 2017 10:40 pm

Great pictures! I was in Madras, Oregon, which had a great view, but nothing interesting in the foreground.

I took some bracketed shots, but lightroom can’t figure out how to align them- it just says “Unable to merge photos. Not enough matching photos for merging.” The camera was on a tripod, so the only need to be shifted by a few pixels to compensate for the earth’s rotation, but I don’t know how to do this manually. Any suggestions? Thanks!

PS- these are Nikon raw images.

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