A veteran photojournalist, Rick Wilking secured a spot in the path of totality for the August solar eclipse and planned to shoot the event for Reuters. We tagged along on the assignment, and while Wilking's story didn't quite pan out as predicted, an unexpected subject in the sky and a quick reaction made for a once-in-a-lifetime shot. Find out how he captured this remarkable image.
Mr. Wilking, the eclipse photo is beautiful, but all I keep thinking while seeing this video is that as a photographer you have a very interesting job.
Being a great photojournalist means being a great storyteller via still images. That doesn't necessarily translate to being a great astrophotographer.
DIrecting subjects before shooting them is also a very gray area in PJ. He does it constantly in this video. I know PJs who would be fired if they had submitted such images and their editors had seen the video showing the photog directing them to, for example, hold up a shirt for the photographer.
That's the difference between a PJ and purely voyeuristic paparazzi. You can legitimately engage your subject so long as it's within the spirit of the occasion. If a customer had asked the seller to hold a shirt up for a better look before purchase, the seller would have obliged in exactly the same fashion. The subjects are not prey.
Staging shots for hard news stories is still taboo in most legitimate PJ circles. A lot of PJ's careers have been wrecked when they were caught doing it. The photo was of a shopper, not the seller. But it wouldn't have mattered if it were the seller. Subjects are not prey, but they aren't supposed to be actors either. PJ's aren't stalkers, but they are supposed to be observers only and not participants, much less directors.
The Sony A9 has the advantage of being able to shoot faster and better photos (at least higher resolution) than its 20 MP competition (Nikon D5 and Canon 1Dx II). When the diamond ring is about to appear, you'd appreciate having that speed, I'm sure. Same as the second one starts to appear.
@Scottelly, Thanks! It makes some sense. Does the diamond ring really needs 20fps? Or, the 12 years old EOS 5D 3fps could be enough? From video that I watched, it takes several seconds for the diamond ring to show up.
Great guy, but I still think the other people who went deep into the mountains got a true "photo of a lifetime". It was for an ad I believe but that shot truly took plenty of planning.
Wasn't there some d-bag executive from a competing brand that recently claimed that just about no professional users shoots with Sony? On this forum we often throw around "pro photographer" labels without defining what we actually mean... well, I can't see anyone arguing Rick's credentials.
Sony spends a lot of money. There are many many pros who use Sony now, and many who are paid handsomely do so. Sony paid DPreview to post this article which is why it is marked as "sponsored" content.
While that statement was silly, the point behind it is that there are VASTLY more pros shooting with Nikon or Canon than with Sony or Fuji. There is no denying that. Probably even more pros shoot Hasselblad and PhaseOne than Sony (although I'm just guessing here).
Saying that no professional can use Sony is stupid, but I'm also quite amazed at how people get their panties in a bunch when someone makes a statement that, albeit a hyperbole, is simply grounded in fact.
Who cares how many pros shoot your system? If you enjoy Sony, just use Sony.
Who cares? Obviously at least one Nikon executive does, or he wouldn't have made that statement. Other people care too, because the number of pros that use a system is an indication of whether the system is pro material or not. If no pros use a system, maybe it doesn't make sense to get into that system, if you want to become a pro. Wouldn't you agree with that statement?
@Scottelly personally I really do believe people spend too much time worrying about what other people use. I can decide for myself whether a certain camera system offers features, quality, and service that I need... so surely other people can as well. What one pro needs may not be what I need.
Furthermore, a system doesn't make you a pro. The quality of your photos and your ability to sell make you a pro.
What I do notice (and perhaps this is also to your point) is that people somehow get offended by such statements because they feel that "pros using their system" somehow legitimizes their choice. And stating the opposite means they are amateurs. Interestingly, it seems to be mainly amateurs who take offense from that ;-)
There are of course pros using Sony and Fuji. So evidently the system is capable of supporting pro usage. However there aren't many of them. Does that matter to any prospective buyer? No, it shouldn't.
Awesome! One detail unrelated to the point of the story is how the color balance and rendering, and the technology of modern screens improved at 03:06. The colors are very close to real life. Just 10 years ago, a photo of a live view screen would look terrible. Perhaps, even 5 years ago would look already bad enough.
I don't get it ... what is there to plan, except chosing the location? I mean ... the guy was there with obviously two (24-70 and 70-200) zoom lenses and just pointed his cam to the Sun ... what exactly was he planning for all those months ...???
I started planning in mid-2016, and found that my first choice of locations had no accommodations available within 100 miles (160 KM) for under $1,000 a night. And I was looking for a CAMPSITE.
I ordered filters (for the non-total phase of the eclipse) nine months in advance. Those that tried to order them weeks in advance didn't get them.
I thought about how I would shoot the eclipse for months before deciding how to shoot the eclipse.
Then I practiced that method over and over for weeks.
Weather forced a last-minute change of venue (I had planned for this) and I had to drive an extra 150 miles the morning of the eclipse.
On seeing the final venue, I realized my planned approach was not going to work at the alternate location. Fortunately, I had practiced some alternate approaches.
Leave out any one of those and I would not have been successful.
That said, I got several photos of one of NASA's WB-57F aircraft doing high altitude coronal research, during totality, from southern Illinois. Equipment used: Nikon D800E and Astro-Physics 105mm f/6 refractor. Also, probably my best image of the eclipse. Too bad there is no way to post it here.
I was just to the northwest of Jefferson City Ms. & saw what I assumed was the/a NASA jet swoop in from the north less than 30 seconds before totality. From my location it did not pass as close to the sun as this image. There was also a small aircraft, like a Cessna 150 out for the sight.
I liked it very much! Mr. Wilking makes some interesting points, and it's always fascinating to see a seasoned PJ at work, to glean a little of his method and interests.
I'd love to know just how much did he need to crop that shot, though, because the noise is very high - was that a 70-200mm f/2.8 GM on his A9? If so, the eclipse must've been tiny in the frame.
"The normal adverts that you see on DPReview are created and supplied by third-parties with no involvement by DPReview (beyond a final veto on anything which we would consider offensive or inappropriate for our site)."
"In the case of sponsored articles and videos, they are produced by our editorial team with the aim of creating valuable, entertaining content that we would not otherwise be able to create due to resource constraints."
Half of the complaints were that DPReview is taking advertising money this way, and those videos were strictly promotional with no special interest aside from the camera features. The other half were because the 6DII got a mediocre review at best, but high praise in the sponsored video. Doesn’t add up.
This is similar, but somewhat different. A special interest story combined with promotional material relating to a camera that got one of DPReviews highest ratings in recent times.
As others have stated, the eclipse part of the photo was lackluster and only the airplane saved it. Other photos he took were better. But seriously, this pro took so so eclipse photos when many of the amateurs in the Astrophotography forum here took much better photos. The DPReview guys should have looked at their own forum to find much better photos and stories.
The Photographer even said in the video that his goal wasn't to get an amazing shot of the eclipse. I planned on getting shots of people's reactions to it. So he wasn't prepared to take a great solar shot. It was spur of the moment so I doubt he had much time to do anything but shoot it handheld. This shot great because of its timing.
A great story. Clearly elements are promotional. And thanks again formdisclaiming that. (You can tell when they switch back and forth from telling the story to promoting the camera.) At least this promo has value and interest a lot more than simply as an advertisement.
Great story and you can start at 5 minutes in and get the gist.
But it felt very promotional, which took away a lot from it. You can talk about the advantage of a very fast frame rate when a jet flies through the eclipse without mentioning the brand and model of the camera. We certainly would not have forgotten since the previous mention 24 seconds earlier. And how about showing the OOF shots, too, just to give it some authenticity and add to the Wow factor of having gotten The Shot.
Sony A7 and A9 default to shutter-release preference over focus lock in both single focus and continuous focus mode. You can change this preference, at the risk of missing a shot. Focus updates 60/sec in the A9, but it's not always perfect for the first shot.
Anyone who has shot an air show knows the difficulty getting initial focus lock on a moving object in the sky. (Anyone other than the photo cowboys who never fail, and always catch the largest fish to get away.)
I was in Columbia South Carolina and caught a Jet in my frame as well. Difference is he was quick on the draw getting it up to the wire. I just won a local photo contest.
I was not far away, just south of Greenville, South Carolina. I was in Columbia two days before and considered shooting it from there. This is what I got:
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