Great American Solar Eclipse from central Oregon

The solar eclipse during totality, with a couple of small stars shining below and to the left of the sun. Outside the frame of this picture, Venus and Saturn were also visible. Rick viewed the eclipse from central Oregon from Beech Creek Summit, near John Day, Oregon. The summit is actually north of the small town of Mount Vernon, Oregon, along Highway 395, but John Day was the biggest town in the area and it's where he camped. His fellow eclipse viewers at the summit were from parts of America, like California and Washington state, plus Germany, and Ireland. The diamond ring effect that you see just before totality starts and just as it is ending can't be compared in a photograph to the actual experience of seeing it. The best I can say is that when you see it in person, the little diamond sparkle is still bright enough to blind you. The corona itself is very bright and seems to display threads of light that don't show in typical photographs that well, but it also makes witnessing the eclipse in person a more dramatic experience than viewing a photo of it.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

It was totality worth it! A vertical photo of the solar eclipse over the Tetons.

Here's another shot of the eclipsed sun over the Teton peaks as seen from Table Mountain.  Bob backpacked to the top of Table Mountain in the Jedediah Smith Wilderness Area in order to see the solar eclipse from the classic view of Le Trois Tetons made famous by William Henry Jackson.  He was a photographer on the earliest survey expeditions of the Yellowstone and Teton areas and took some of the first photographs of the Tetons from Table Mountain.

The black dot in the sky is the moon eclipsing the sun.  The horizon in all directions looked like the sun was setting, even though the sun was high in the sky.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story.

Sheep Rock at the John Day Fossil Beds in Oregon

While visiting Oregon to get in position for the Great American Eclipse, we visited the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, which consists of three units. One of those units is named after this feature, Sheep Rock. The line of totality included this area, with the center line not far north from here. We went through the visitor center looking at many paleontological displays that prove the scientific value of this area and why the National Monument designation was well-deserved. The other two units are the Painted Hills and Clarno. The river is named for John Day, but he didn't discover the fossils, nor did he even explore this far upriver. The person considered responsible for establishing the scientific value of this area was Thomas Condon. The visitor center in the Sheep Rock unit is named after him.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

It was totality worth it! The total solar eclipse over the Tetons August 21, 2017

This is a still from the video I, Bob shot of the total solar eclipse on August 21, 2017 with my GoPro Hero 4 Black.  I've posted that video on our YouTube Channel.

I backpacked in to the Jedediah Smith Wilderness Area on the west slope of the Tetons to the top of Table Mountain to observe and record the total solar eclipse with the classic Le Trois Tetons view for the landscape.  The small black dot surrounded by white in the upper middle of the frame is the moon eclipsing the sun.  The three main peaks on the horizon are the Grand, Middle, and South Tetons.

This was a totality awesome experience.  I could see the moon's shadow completely blacken Teton Valley and Driggs, Idaho to the west as it raced toward me and then the sun became totally eclipsed.  The partial eclipse didn't seem to be that much different from a regular sunny day, but totality was an eerily freakish experience.  The sun's corona lit the earth around me with a kind of light I had never seen before.  Also, the horizon in all directions looked like sunset even though most horizons never get a setting sun, plus the sun was still high in the sky.

It was totality worth it!

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

Yosemite's Bridalveil Falls and the Leaning Tower

In Yosemite Valley, Bridalveil Falls is one of several waterfalls cascading over the granite cliffs that wall in the valley. Usually, people see Bridalveil from the west looking into the valley, such as from the Tunnel View. This perspective is showing the falls from the west and includes the Leaning Tower, to the right of the falls. This year, 2017, was a very wet year in California, so all of Yosemite's waterfalls had much more water in them than the last 5 years of drought. There is a trail that leads to the base of the falls, allowing the hiker to get thoroughly drenched early in the summer.

Taken at 1/60 sec, f4, ISO unavailable.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!