My Denver Eclipse Experience

Earlier this year, I planned on making the journey north to catch the August 21st total solar eclipse, but as time progressed I realized that I would be joined by a hundred thousand other eclipse watchers. This didn’t quite fit into my vision of a solitary photography trip to capture the wonder and awe of the total eclipse.
I also didn’t want to purchase or rent all of the gear necessary to get a really good eclipse photo that would likely just get lost in the thousands of others that would flood social media.
So I decided to stay in Colorado, and went into downtown Denver to photograph some of the other Denverites who stayed in the area to catch the 93% eclipse.

As I wandered through the crowds, I noticed all of the different ways people were viewing the eclipse. The glasses were abundant, but I also saw plenty of cereal box viewers and pinholes punched through paper plates. Tied for “Most Creative” was a pinhole Pringles chip container viewer and a pizza boxed turned into a safe way to watch the shadow of the eclipse.

I was very glad to see the sense of community the eclipse brought to Denver. People were sharing glasses and were packed around the different pinhole viewers. Maybe some were groups of coworkers, but many seemed to have just met.

With all of the hatred and craziness in the U.S. recently, this was very comforting to experience. Though it may be unfortunate that it took an astronomical anomaly to bring people together without rioting, it restored a little bit of my faith in humanity. Thank you, sun and moon, for coming together to make that happen when we needed it.
Below are a few images I captured while wandering around the Millennium Bridge and Commons Park area.








