Le grimpeur et l'Eclipse
What should you do if your rock climbing picture is photobombed by a total eclipse of the Sun?
Rejoice -- because your
planning paid off.
After months of considering different venues, and a week of scouting different locations in
Oregon's
Smith Rock State Park, a group of
photographers and rock climbers led by
Andrew
Struder,
Ted
Hesser,
Martina Tibell, and Michael Shainblum settled on picturesque 100-meter tall
Monkey Face tower
as the dramatic foreground for their images of the pending
total solar eclipse.
Tension mounted as the
eclipse time
approached, planned juxtapositions were scrutinized, and the placement of rock climber
Tommy Smith was adjusted.
Right on schedule, though, the
Moon moved in front of the Sun,
and Smith moved in front of the Moon, just as planned.
The solar eclipse
image displayed here
actually shows a diamond ring,
an eclipse phase when a bit of the distant
Sun is still visible beyond the
Moon's surface.