It was remarkably non-crowded for a once-in-a-lifetime event. There was still parking available at the regular $7 rate, and lots of space on the beach still open.
There was a generally festive atmosphere as all the people wandered around in their eclipse glasses and enjoyed my favorite beach on Lake Tahoe.
It was everything you could've hoped for in a natural setting, wide open views of the entire Tahoe basin and not a cloud in the sky to the northwest; it was so beautiful I couldn't resist taking this picture and posting it to my Google+ profile with a GPS attached in case anybody wanted to track me down and do a Hangout in Real Life #HIRL.
After filming my intro I looked up and saw that people were already starting to look at the sun through their eclipse glasses. I hastily trucked my camera and tripod over to my filming location and duct taped a piece of #13 welder's glass loaned to me by Alpine Welding over my camera and shot what became this video:
While my HD video camera filmed the eclipse, I took some shots of the crowd and changing light with my cell phone camera
Though it wasn't exactly darkness in broad daylight, the sunlight did dim noticable (to about 25% of normal daylight.
Right at the totality of the eclipse a flock of birds went out circling over the lake, giving everyone an amazing acrobatic show.
Though I explicitly warned my audience in the announcement video that they probably couldn't get a good eclipse picture with their cell phone camera, I couldn't resist trying ot for myself... Not too bad for a cell phone camera, but then again I did make an instructional video on camera phone photography so maybe I'm a little more skilled than most.
By this point the totality of the eclipse was passing and the sunlight starting to return, so I checked my cell phone and noticed that my google+ buddy +Krishna Vinod had left me a message saying he was on the beach, too... So I arranged to interview him and his daughter for the video. He actually found me using the GPS on the picture I posted, marking the first time in years of posting locations anybody ever found me in real life from an internet GPS.
Once I got home, I rushed to photoshop the best still I could out of my video footage... I was amazed by the level of detail my HD camera captured; though I didn't capture a very tight border on the moon, I did get a lot of the sun's corona, including several solar flares... Awesome.
How to Take Better pictures with your camera phone
How to take better pictures with your camera phone:
Taking better pictures with your camera phone is easy, I can teach you everything you need to know about using an Android smartphone to do photography in less than 15 minutes on a walk through Khale Park to Nevada beach in Lake Tahoe.
These photography tips include advice on: Chosing a vantage point, photographic composition, the rule of 3rds, touch to focus, pinch to zoom, instant upload, sharing to Facebook, Twitter, and google+, how to set your location accurately with GPS Status app, how to avoid oversharing, and more...
A walk through my favorite beach and park in the break between winter storms here in Tahoe, you can see the storm rolling in over the mountains of the west shore.
Probably the starkest picture I ever took w/ the ominous clouds and dead trees...
The Lake Tahoe Dog Show
12-3PM Sunday September 25th
Nevada Beach dog area
Open to all dogs big and small, free to enter, win prizes, see your dog on TV and YouTube
This will be a made for TV event, each dog will get the chance to show why he or she is TOP DOG
10 seconds of introduction, 20 secnds of action, beach play, agility course, or "special talent"
It's like "American Idol" for dogs!
Limit 75 dogs at once, Each dog must have a human handler: 5 dogs = 5 people.
All posted rules for dogs must be obeyed.
Sponsored by: Tahoe Network Television, Fabulous Lake Tahoe, True Value hardware, and Dog Dog Cat.
