Something of an eclipse mania gripped many parts of Europe leading up to 12 August 2026. While not a total eclipse, over 90% of the sun was going to be covered in London. I went to Wimbledon Common for a clear view to take a few photographs. I never liked strong light and I have become slightly more sensitive to light in the past few years. I put that increased sensitivity to light down to getting old. Anyway, wearing an old floppy cricket sun hat, I saw the eclipse solely via the LCD screen on the back of the camera, turning away from the sun when doing so. I did not want to burn my eyes by looking at the sun directly or through the viewfinder. As my eyesight is poor and I rely heavily on my glasses, I would have only seen a blurry image with a pair of solar eclipse glasses, so that led me to concentrate on photographing rather than viewing the eclipse. Most of the time, I pointed the camera aimlessly at the general direction and hoped for the best.
There was a much less spectacular partial eclipse on 29 March 2025. I bought a ND filter for that occasion, and played with the camera settings, especially the shutter speed, as I photographed the eclipse in Wimbledon Common. It turned out that this was a good practice, though I am not sure I got the settings right then or this time around, but at least I don’t think I’ve destroyed the camera. It still works.
