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I got everything right that day. Except the focus. So I know how you feel.😢

Looks absolutely amazing. Only slightly jealous

Awesome vlog Lou, you really captured some beautiful images here. Professional high quality content here, I appreciate the work you put into this, thank you.

Done this drive many times. Love it. If you ever get than chance you should do the Cog Railway. And after either, a nice dinner at The Red Fox Bar & Grille or Moat Mountain Smokehouse and Brewery. Both fantastic. Absolutely love the White Mountains.

Nice. Some of favorite parts of the USA are VT, NH, and ME. I haven't been to Acadia in a long time...I think a trip is in order. And while I agree North Conway can be a bit much, the White Mountains in general, especially in the fall, are some of the most gorgeous places on this planet. Looking forward to the rest of the episodes.

Nice, Where do you park to access the woods road to get to this overlook? I’ve yet to visit this one.

Just for my understanding, were you showing the view from the top of the tower or the base of the tower? I am looking to do a hike from Sunrise Mt overlook to the fire tower at some point soon. By the way I love your idea of doing a series on the best viewpoints in the state, I need to catch up on some back episodes!

Bearfort fire tower has the best view of the NJ towers in my opinion. Just need to. Get the Newark watershed permit at echo lake office to hike there.

America is beautiful but if you visit Garden state New Jersey I know you love because northern new jersey like haven,, nice and friendly people you love it ❤

Back in the early 60's i was home on leave. My girlfriend's family had a cabin near there on a lake and she took me for a walk to a waterfall that was on property that was for sale. I've always regretted not buying it 😞

The Twin Lighthouses in the Highlands, 1st bench

Nice, when you get to a fork in road, take it.

Grew up in Newton - so practically lived in that area of the state. Gorgeous - and remember that area all these years later and 3000 miles away.

Beautiful!

When was this video filmed?

I was just there this past Monday. Had the High Point all to myself. Awesome views!!! The trails in Norvin are also nice with a surprising amount of elevation gain.

Lou, Great piece (and pics) on Raccoon Ridge! My favorite hike in NJ is Mount Tammany (DWG), (hike from Dunfield Creek parking area Blue-Dot or Red up. Sunrise Mountain below High Point, is great as well. Have never hiked AT from Sunfish to Raccoon, nor AMC Mohican south to Raccoon, but will definitely add to my list! Happy Trails!

You did a magnificent job here. I love my beloved home state, and I really appreciate your work. Do you know of a place in Sussex County where the road goes through the middle of a swampy-looking area that has a lot of rocks and HUGE boulders sitting in shallow water on both sides of the road? I found it once, several years ago, and I wish I had stopped to photograph it, but I didn't. I've tried to find it again, but I haven't been successful. Is there any chance you know the spot I'm referring to? Thanks very much.

Very instructive video! You explained an important lesson to your audience. The best and most important way to observe an eclipse is in the moment with your own eyes. No one will want to see your eclipse photos but you, and there will always be better eclipse photos than yours.

Beautiful video, I love Lake Minnewaska, but I never ventured into those hiking trails.... I have also seen huge snakes there. Superb work!

I feel for you Lou. I had a 2nd camera going to take about the same type of photo you were working on. 20mm lens on a D750. I remembered to take off the filter just before totality. My plan was to manually snap 2 series of bracketed shots in totality, then put the filter back on and restart the time-lapse when totality ended. I was so focused on the main camera and taking excellent photos at 600mm that I forgot to take any photos on the 2nd setup. I remembered about it immediately as the sun re-emerged. I continued on, and I did a bit of fakery with my image and simply shrunk one of my other photos from the main camera and pasted into the time-lapse.

a masterpiece thank you

It was so perfect in Sherbrooke, qc...clear sky no cloud. More than 3min of totality

I would have liked to have gotten a good image of the totality I saw, just so that I had something to remember. But I don't think you can get it with any one photo, and I wasn't going to bother. You have to process and layer elements, because you're photographing an effect of light. But at least I know what totality actually looks like now. Mine was behind a very thin layer of high clouds. Despite that, the black disk of the moon was perfectly clear and round, and the red tiny points of light from the prominences pierced right through the clouds. The white corona's shape was distinguishable, but I couldn't make out any of its finer details. I wish I would have had a clear sky for that. The whole thing looked like a very high definition special effect.

I wish to visit USA,, but this is easy to get Visa,, May God help me to visit dream land America,, God bless America and American people 🇺🇲❤️☮️

That's a major bummer. So sorry you didn't get the totallity shots. When I removed the filter for totallity, i started at 1/1000, took a few shots and went down a stop and took more until i got down to 1 second. It was my first time, the cloud cover was a major concern.

I’m sorry that you missed the exposure on the eclipse but big respect for sharing your story. I saw it too with my daughter and it was simply a beautiful experience and although I did get the shots I enjoy the memories of the experience more than I actually look at the pictures I took. Thank you again for sharing and reminding me of a great day 😀

Don't feel bad. I'm an amateur photographer. I just wanted to see and experience the solar eclipse and video record parts of it. I never intended to take pictures of it. I always knew that there would be someone else who would take better pictures. So, I didn't take pictures. No regrets. I wanted to record my reactions. And, that's what I did :) Best memories right there. I did take some pictures, but I didn't think much of it. I only took some pictures before totality. I think next time I chase a solar eclipse I will try HDR bracketing and photograph it. I've seen some pictures done this way. It's the closest thing to seeing it in person.

You’ll never forget it, it was my first time seeing one, when totally arrived, I forgot to remove the filters on the Seestar S50 and my DSLR, I was so overwhelmed, eventually I realized and got some shots and then on the other end I forgot to put them back together on, fortunately I realized before I destroyed my equipment. I actually got emotional watching your video, just amazing. If I’m still alive in 2044, I will make the effort to see this again.

Oh man.... In 2017 I had two cameras running, one through a telescope (which turned out pretty great honestly, no complaints there) and the second shooting at 50mm. Just before totality started I changed the f/ of the 50mm lens and forgot to refocus. Hurt pretty bad afterwards. Still does! Still, its good enough just to have seen it. I had to remind myself back then to not fuss too much with the cameras and to just enjoy it.

The best thing is the experience with friends/family/your own eyes. I too tried to photograph this total eclipse with a new camera of mine and it went sub-par. But I was with my two children who can remember it for the rest of their lives.

You sir, are a life saver!!!!!! Thank you for this

It's a tricky situation because there's really no other conditions that you can accurately practice for totality photography. So your only opportunity is during the precious few moments of totality.

I think the Important thing is that you were able to see it. I also had worries with my phone camera, since it's basically a semi - proffessional camera itself. But even if i didn't get great photos, i still enjoyed the first time i seen a eclispe

I feel ya Lou, similar experience here. My big mistake was not practicing with my still camera beforehand. If I would have practiced I would have discovered how hard it is to dial in a good focus on a camera that does not have a swing out viewfinder. Because I could not see the viewfinder even with umbrella shade, I messed up both the focus and the exposure settings so that I ended up with nothing but slightly out of focus, overexposed still pictures. Fortunately, my backup plan was a newly purchased Dwarflab smart telescope set up and shooting video, which did come out pretty good. No regrets, though. I swore I would enjoy the eclipse with my eyes and not be messing around with cameras during totality and that's what I did! What a fantastic experience! Thanks for sharing your failure story. As we can see, there were others, too!

Made 2 critical errors for the 2017 eclipse. Feel your pain. Still an incredible experience!

I photographed most of the eclipse but like you couldn't get the setting right for totality, so you're not alone on that one! When I realized I couldn't photograph it I grabbed my video camera and documented the darkness and frogs peeping. I think your go pro did a good job in capturing the change in light.

I think your problem was you had auto ISO on, I noticed the same issue with people trying to take videos and they didn't get dark for them. From the photos I've seen you share here it definitely looks that way to me

The shot you were trying to take is called a composite photo. A time lapse is a movie made from multiple photos to show the progression of time. I can see where you would get the two confused as they do have similar characteristics

Congratulations on seeing Totality! Your overexposed pictures may reveal more than you think, by using your PC's photo editor and adjusting the exposure. Other apps such Adobe Photoshop has trial options for use and CZcams sites will show you how to adjust the exposure through the app. However the shots turn out (even if its not how you envisioned it you) you have a picture of the event you witnessed.

Please be aware Old Mine Road is expected to be closed for the 2024 season for road work. The route described in the video will not be possible. Please check the park website for the latest information - www.nps.gov/dewa/index.htm

Awesome vid. My wife and I did scenic drives back in the 80's. Good years. Thanks for the cruise.

I think post totality regrets are a common problem - I certainly have mine, for not looking enough at the eclipse with my own eyes instead of through my camera. I think that leads to the eclipse addiction and eclipse chasing for some. You don't have to wait until the 2040's though, 2026 and 2027 totality in Spain (and Iceland/Greenland).

I too messed up totality. My mistake was using autofocus because was working on partial. So focus went out of whack and couldnt the ring using manual until I focusing a light for infinity. Turned camera back to get diamond ring part alright. I only glanced with eye for a moment. Was dissapointed I wasted those fast minutes messing around panicking.

The most important thing is that you took the time to enjoy it and didn’t spend all of totality worrying about the pictures. There are thousands and thousands of great pictures to see afterwards, but there’s nothing like seeing it for yourself.

So cool

I’m sorry this happened to you man. I totally understand the feeling of a botched photo opportunity. I’ve been a pro for years and mistakes happen. I was actually very close to you in Tupper Lake with my girlfriend and was shooting as well. She knew how important seeing and shooting my first totality was to me and told me “you better get good shots of this.” Which, I managed to do… but I feel a similar heartbreak to you in that I spent about 1 minute 45 seconds of our 3 minute 25 second totality behind the camera making sure I got a 9 stop bracket and not standing up staring at totality with my arm around her. Not all hope is lost for either of us, though. We have another chance. If you can, you should go to Spain or Iceland for the August 12, 2026 total solar eclipse with your camera and get redemption. I’m already hinting to her that I want to go to Iceland with her and maybe my drone, no DSLR. No tripod. Just her so we can watch from start to finish just the two of us.

I know this feeling well happened to me as well. The experience was nice but disappointment in the fact I was unable to get a phot after all the planning due to cloud cover which according to the weather I was checking wasn't supposed to happen for a couple hours after the end of the eclipse

Right there with you, Lou. Thanks for posting your story, as mine was very similar, and there is truth to "misery loves company". I was going for the 500mm zoom shot and I got some decent partial shots, but I completely botched totality. Unfortunately (I guess), I realized my mistake immediately after totality, which really made the post-totality partial depressing for me. I'm getting over it slowly, and starting to plan a trip (at least in my mind as self-help therapy, perhaps) to Iceland for the next one. Still very glad to have made the four hour trip (Michigan to Indianapolis) to see it. Those were the fastest 4 minutes of my life.

Kate sent me over to watch. You certainly did your homework and were prepared I can see why you might drop the odd f bomb You still were there and have a story to tell