Planning for the 2024 Total Solar Eclipse — Dallas, Texas
This year's total solar eclipse will occur on April 8 2024. We've settled on Dallas for our imaging location. Current long range forecasts are reasonably optimistic for nearly clear skies, though spring in Texas is also storm season. We'll see. Dallas also affords excellent architectural imaging opportunities, so we'll also take advantage of some of those. Specifically, we will image Reunion Tower [from a prospect in the middle of the freeway] and the JFK Memorial, a site both inspiring and somber.
Solar Eclipse Photography — Planning and Equipment
There's a lot to take into account on one of these ventures: from how you get there—air is fastest, but car lets you take as much equipment as you want without worrying about bag checks, lost luggage, etc.,—to the camera bodies, lenses, and possibly even film to choose. Believe it or not, this is fun!
My buddy CJ will bring his full Nikon kit, while I plan to bring a mix of both medium format and full frame. The medium forma rig will consist of:
- Phase One XT "body"
- IQ4.150 digital back
- Rodenstock 23/32/70mm lenses
- Mamiya 300mm lens
The full frame kit will consist of:
- Sony A7Riv
- Sony FE24-105mm
- Sony FE 100-400mm
Naturally, we'll have full solar eclipse filters for each lens plus the standard filter kits we carry. In my case, that's a full set of Kase revolution magnetic filters with adapters for each lens. Additionally on this trip I am bringing a matched set of the Leofoto carbon fiber Poseidon and Athena tripods. This is just a trial run to see how they do. Normally, I would bring my Really Right Stuff tripods, but the Leofoto fit into carry-on luggage better than my RRS. Tripod heads are an Arca-Swiss C1 Cube, and an Acratech SS.
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One of those Dallas architectural opportunities, realized: the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge at golden hour.
The payoff from all that planning: the eclipse images themselves — solar corona, Diamond Ring, and a bridge lit by night.
