I was informed there was to be a partial eclipse of the sun at sunset one December and being an avid sunset photographer I went about figuring the best location for the shoot. I live on the West coast of Florida so there are many places for an unobstructed view of our wonderful sunsets. I went to the best locations and none of them really showed the new essence of this vacation and retirement area. Being an employee of a large hospital close to the beach gave me opportunity to view the beaches from the 10th story roof. Upon examination of my other roof top sunset images I saw the condominiums along the beach and realized that is what most people only dream of; a nice sized condo, close to or on the beach, close to a major exit road (hurricanes) and wonderful Winter sunsets to admire. Even a rainy day in Florida beats shoveling snow in December.

I then acquired permission to be on the roof on that date and prepared my equipment. I arrived after work and selected the best position to show the beach with its condos. I was hoping this being a partial eclipse the colors would be dramatic and if the clouds held, the afterglow would be wonderful.

No matter how much you plan for any project, it seems old Mr. Murphy will have his way with whatever you are trying to achieve and must be overcome. The sunset proceeded as normal but I saw the clouds were moving in from the West too fast and would cover the actual sunset when the eclipse would be maximum coverage. Murphy must have been working with the wind because the clouds just kept coming but I kept shooting. Because no two sunsets are the same, I always shoot every step as the atmosphere starts to change color. The sun dropped behind the first line of clouds and was colorful but you couldn’t see the eclipse so I shot that but waited. Just as the sun reached the bottom cloudbank and the eclipse was fuller I saw this vapor trail of a jet coming from the South.

“Just what I need, a trail somewhere off center but in the sun to ruin this event.” Were the second set of words from my brain. From all the years of trying to learn how to play consistent pool I saw the angle and direction would bring it above the sun so I decided I could remove it later with PhotoShop®. I continued to capture images through the afterglow and decided this image with the trail showed a lot of the ideas I wanted to convey. It even showed the happy tourists on their way home.

I will miss these wonderful sunsets when I break tradition and move up North to retire. North Carolina that is! I’m not totally crazy and remember those ice and snow covered winters of upstate New York.

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