So yeah, last August 12th, a big chunk of Spain got to see the total solar eclipse. But months earlier I figured, “everyone's gonna shoot this thing, and the feeds and photo forums will be packed with carefully planned pro shots that'll make mine look like garbage”… so I decided not to stress, not even bother photographing a scene that — historic as it was — would already have more than enough coverage. Then a few days before the eclipse, every news outlet started going on and on about it, and I got curious whether I could even see it from my city. I checked PhotoPills® and saw there was a “viewpoint” just a 5-minute walk from my place.
So I told myself, “you've got nothing to lose — head over, and if you get a good view, snap a few; if not, at least you'll see some of the eclipse and call it a day.” I grabbed my gear and went at the scheduled time. Honestly I saw it pretty well, at least during the first phase of coverage — by the uncovering phase I didn't have the “angle” anymore. Since all I had was an ND32 and the CPL, which together give you roughly an ND64 to protect my precious sensor, I played it really careful and conservative with exposure — around f/18–f/20 for a bit of sharpness, minimum ISO, medium shutter speed. Plus manual focus, because I didn't want to trash the gear, and of course my tripod. In the end I went with a sequence-style photomontage, and for the last shot — already in the crescent phase (from my spot there was no total coverage) — I also caught one of the streetlights, kind of a nod to the return of light and a nearby object to give it some scale.