I took a break from portrait photography this weekend to go camping in Sunrise, WY to witness the solar eclipse.

Words cannot describe how amazing it is to experience a solar eclipse in its totality. Day gives way to night as the moon’s shadow rushes towards you like a massive dust storm at nearly 2,000 miles an hour.   Soon after, the horizon lights up in shades of pink, orange, and purple – a virtual 360 degree sunset.  Gazing upward you witness the sun’s corona emitting the purest, most electric white light you’ve ever seen, glowing in a surreal dance around the outline of the moon. All at once you feel infinitely small, and at the same time connected with everything else in the universe.  Like a tiny little piece of a very large puzzle.

I had wondered before the experience if it would be better to witness the eclipse alone, or with a group of people.  Hands-down I think we made the right choice by joining in with hundreds of others for the event.  The best way to describe the crowd’s reaction to the eclipse was ‘primal’.  Whoooping and hollering, and cheers of excitement – everyone united in one collective gasp of awe.

Powerful stuff.