Etowah, Tennessee. August, 2017.
This is the closest I got to taking a photo of the actual eclipse, a few minutes after the end of totality. I’m glad I didn’t waste any of those precious two-and-a-half minutes trying to take one; photos really do not do it justice. A total solar eclipse is truly a full sensory experience that can’t be captured in a photo: the sudden darkness, the drop in temperature, the sunset in every direction, the sound of the cicadas going haywire… I probably would have missed all of that if I had been fumbling with the camera at the time. Seriously, if you ever get to witness a solar eclipse—just enjoy it.