Eclipses
Shot another eclipse today. I think I've shot four? The first two were in 
Minneapolis on June 4, 2012 and October 23, 2014. Here's the latter.
https://500px.com/photo/87464259/eclipse-processed-by-bob-alberti

I mean, that one turned out okay given the very limited resources with which
I was working. I liked aligning the sun with the globe lights along the 
Washington Avenue bridge by the U of Mn where I was at the time working.

Then two years ago I arranged to connect through Dallas for a flight to
Italy in order to catch this image with which I was quite pleased.
https://albatross.org/favorites/RMA09873.jpg 

I haven't processed yesterday's images, but I don't expect to like them.
My original goal had been to get to the northernmost part of Portugal
to get the full 100% eclipse (okay, my ORIGINAL-original goal had been to
go the Icelandic Westfjords but that was before the Big Left Turn that brought
us here).

Unfortunately the Portuguese federal government and the Braganca municipal
government were, well, I consider them overly concerned and fretting about
"excessive" public interest in the eclipse... but I didn't have to deal with
the wildfires that consumed thousands of acres of territory in northern 
Portugal last year, so possibly I am shortsighted.

Anyway, Braganca closed EVERYTHING. The road to Rio de Onor... closed. 
The road to Guadramil... closed. The scenic overlook in Braganca... closed.
Wherever we considered going to shoot, it was closed. After spending
much of Tuesday scouting the area we went back to our place in Azibo
(a full hour's drive south of the 100% eclipse line) and just decided
we'd shoot THERE the next day, because as far as we knew the road near
our hotel wasn't closed by the Portuguese National Guard. 

So we scouted out a spot and got there half an hour early and I set 
up my camera. Very very scenic location. And by the time the eclipse
began, half a dozen people wearing swimwear had draped themselves all
over the jagged rocks in front of my camera. I was astonished. They
were all different ages, but none of them were dressed to sit on 
jagged rocks for an hour... yet they did. 

I mean, I wasn't going to make a big fuss. I didn't have huge expectations
for these photos, so I just shot what I shot and then I'll see what I get.
But, honestly, people are just the WORST. 

Not helping ANY of these logistics was an unsurprising mid-August
heat wave, so that much of our scouting and shooting was accomplished
in 100 F temperatures. 

On the upside, driving around scouting shooting locations led us to find
all sorts of fun random tourist locations, from the popular Castle 
Braganca to the less well-known Bracaganca Overlook (closed for eclipses),
to a monstery tucked away in a valley, to a street decorated with hundreds
of colorful umbrellas overhead.

It was a good trip and we had a lot of fun because I wasn't taking any of
the shooting or anything too terribly seriously. And of course Joy is 
always wonderful to travel with, very organized and intelligent.

Tonight we're in Coimbra after a grueling sauna-hot five-hour bus ride.
Tomorrow it's back to Setubal. And no, we won't see a bit of Coimbra,
we were just too hot and tired when we got here to go back out.