Seeing all the great shots of this week’s annular eclipse, I can’t help but get a little nostalgic for the 2017 total solar eclipse. At the time I had owned a camera for less than 6 months, had never shot with a lens longer than 85mm, had no idea how to shoot an eclipse or even predict the exact location of the sun at a given time. The odds of failure were sky high. I almost didn’t even try to shoot it. But after getting comfortable with one simple idea—accept failure, do the work anyway—I decided to rent a 600mm lens, learn what I could online, make my own ND filter out of cheap ND film, and get to the path of totality with a few days to scout and practice. This time lapse documents the exact moment I became obsessed with telephoto sun and moon lineups, and it makes sense that the mother of all lineups would have that effect on me. And while this time I beat the odds and got the shot, the ability to accept failure has kept me going years later. I come home with nothing special more often than not. Over time the rate of success increases, and I do chase the thrill of growing as a photographer, but I also love just getting to spend time in nature regardless of the images I get. It’s not even a failure, it’s just winning small (getting out) or winning big (getting the shot). . . . #acceptfailure #dothework #totalsolareclipse #annulareclipse #fieldnotes #photographerthoughts #eclipse #winsmall #sigma150600sports #canon80D #timelapse