After just being in St Louis the week before, we decided to drive up to Carbondale IL to be in the middle of the path for totality. Originally my plan was just to kick back and enjoy the 4 minutes of the event, but I ended up bringing a ton of camera gear.

I knew it was going to be crazy, so we left the night before and stayed North of Nashville so we wouldn’t get stuck in any traffic. That turned out to be the best idea ever as my buddy Shane who lives in Franklin, left right after we did and got seriously delayed because of Nashville traffic.

Enjoy this series of photos from the event!

The drive went great and we made good time even with heavy traffic. As we got closer to the site, anticipation grew like crazy!

Time to unload and get set up! For this I use a Nikon Z8 and a 500 F5.6. You can see all my gear here.

As the moon photobombed the sun, casting a dramatic twilight, it felt like the universe was playing the ultimate game of hide-and-seek. The sky turned into a cosmic disco, with stars popping out for an unexpected daytime rave!

Snapping those solar eclipse photos felt like capturing celestial magic, and I couldn't wait to show off my cosmic souvenirs. My camera roll turned into a portal to another dimension, making me feel like a galactic paparazzo!

Packing up my gear after the eclipse felt like bidding farewell to a superstar after an exclusive photoshoot. As I headed home, I was ready to bask in the afterglow of my celestial photography triumph—eat your heart out, Hubble!

Now… traffic… we actually took a back way home that I’ve never been on before and it was neat!