NoahWetzel

@boardnz: Thank you my man! I really appreciate it!!

@jarrod801: haha ha I love this! haha thanks Jarrod!

@jefe: haha thanks brother, I appreciate it! I did just want to explain the shot a bit more, just for those that were curious! All the best man and thank you for your support!

@webermtb: Thank you brother! Send me an email and we'll work something out! noah@noahdavidwetzel.com

@captyvatemedia: thank you my man, haha thank you...this crowd is tough around these parts!

@brianpark: let me know what questions you have, I'd be happy to answer them. With that said, I had a couple different cameras set up that day shooting different settings. Only one I could use for the in-camera double exposure, however in one of the frames before the first frame used in the sequence, I happened to capture the image in the link above. Also, I left a detailed comment below of how I actually captured the image (I left out the fact that I also used a Singh-Ray GND filter to darken the sky and balance the image to what it looked like during totality), therefore that comment will probably answer most questions! Thank you Brian!

Greetings friendly internetters! I know there are some questions on this image, and I have some answers. With that said, this image was captured on August 21st 2017 during the Total Solar Eclipse in Teton Valley Wyoming. This image was captured using an in camera double exposure, thats two images combined into one image in camera, no photoshop. Capturing this image took a ton of planning, scouting, and trouble shooting. To be honest, I made a few mistakes that almost devastated me (and on the mountainside that day...I already knew what mistakes I made)... 1. Approaching totality I should have given more consideration to the test framing and size of the sun in the frame, I positioned the eclipse in the upper right hand corner of the image...knowing that is where I wanted the Eclipse in the final image...*However, looking through a dark viewfinder the sun looked muuuuch smaller with no frame of reference around it, therefore I thought the size was good). Immediately following totality I knew that I shot it too large in the frame...whoops, guess I wasn't thinking to clearly, I beat myself up on that one, but knew it wouldn't be helpful in the long run! 2. My second mistake was never double-checking to make sure my camera worked perfectly. Three weeks prior I was filming flyfishing for a client and took a spill while crossing the river. I was able to recover my 5DIII using a bag of rice, sending the camera into Canon as well for a cleaning. Upon receiving the repair quote, I decided not to proceed...because the camera still functioned besides sound recording for video. What I didn't know...is that camera's hot shoe had been damaged. Therefore on the day of the Eclipse...when I went to capture the second image in the sequence...I soon realized my wireless transmitter for the flashes wasn't communicating with the flashes due to the water damage. If I would have double checked all procedures beforehand, I would have used my backup camera (since during a double exposure you can't switch camera...removing the card and placing it in another). Therefore I had to trouble-shoot with only minutes of daylight left, eventually realizing I could utilize the "Poor mans wireless strobe technique" (which I used to use years ago when I started shooting off-camera flash photography). With that said, I knew I could manually fire the wireless flash transmitter in my hand, however the shutter speed had to be slow enough to give me enough time to start the exposure when the athlete was on the in-run....proceeding to manually fire the wireless flashes when the athlete was in the perfect spot in the air... (also trying to make sure I timed the exposure correctly to where the exposure on the camera would end a split second after manually firing the flashes...to ensure the athlete's body wouldn't be see-through, due to the camera exposing the image after the athlete had landed). Finally, you may realize the image is a little grainy...and you see that for a few reasons. During a double-exposure...the first image in the on-camera sequence needs to be shot with the same ISO settings as the second. Knowing that my typical wirelessly flashed twilight images are captured around 800ISO - 2000ISO, I knew I had to shoot the first image in the sequence around 1600ISO (not ideal for eclipse photography, but necessary to capture my idea). Given the camera's hot shoe functioning issue, I had to take a 2.5 second exposure for the second image @1600 ISO and manually trigger the wireless flashes...therefore you can imagine that there will be a little lens flare along with a little pixelation at those camera settings...however it was the only way to capture the image I was after. Anyway, there you have it, for the folks with questions. There's much more to this story, and tears were shed for this image, it was an unbelievable experience in and of itself, combined with the physical and mental challenges of expectations and trouble-shooting the problems that arose. Regardless, I've stopped beating myself up for the mistakes I made that day, I'm thankful to have had friends like Chris Brule, Evan Grott, and Blake Sommer helping me throughout the day along with the approaching weeks of the Eclipse, chasing down an image I dreamed up. I'm stoked on the result, and more than anything, I hope you all had the chance to witness the Eclipse as well, because that was bad ass!

@captyvatemedia: It's an in camera double exposure, no cropping and very little editing. Thank you for your support my man, I wish I would have shot the first image not so zoomed in so the eclipse would be smaller (knew that one immediately after I shot totality...), however can't go back and change that and I'm stoked with the result!