Chasing the Eclipse in the Cairngorms with Ben Marshall
Some trips earn their place in the memory before you have even packed the car away, and this one did that within the first hour. A few days in the Cairngorms with fellow photographer Ben Marshall (@benjamin.j.Marshall), built around one very specific date in the diary, the partial solar eclipse on the twelfth of August, plus whatever landscapes and wildlife Scotland wanted to throw at us in between.
We based ourselves on the Kinrara Estate, on the edge of the Cairngorms National Park near Aviemore. Heather moorland running out in every direction, birch woodland thick with ferns, and a network of dirt tracks that gave us access to viewpoints most people never get near. It is one of my favourite corners of Scotland to shoot in, and the weather did not disappoint either, moody skies one hour and golden light breaking through the next. You never quite know what you are going to get, and that is exactly what makes it so rewarding to shoot.
Lining Up the Eclipse
Scotland has not seen an eclipse close to this deep in a long time. The moon was set to cover somewhere around ninety percent of the sun across the Highlands, low in the western sky in the early evening, which is about as close to totality as anyone here will see it for decades. The actual totality was happening a long way from us, tracking over Greenland, Iceland and northern Spain. What we had was the deep partial version, and with the sun sitting that low in the sky, the light alone was going to be worth chasing regardless of what happened above us.
The planning mattered as much as the camera settings. The evening before, Ben and I sat down with PhotoPills and worked out exactly where the sun would be at maximum eclipse, the compass bearing and the angle above the horizon, then spent the following afternoon driving the tracks on the estate until we found a spot with a clear run all the way to the western hills. No trees, no ridgelines, nothing to rob us of those last few minutes.
Cloud was the one thing we could not plan for. Scotland in August is never a guarantee, and we watched the sky nervously as banks of cloud rolled through all afternoon. It broke, just enough, right when we needed it to.
The Kit
Between the two of us we had enough reach to cover pretty much anything the evening could throw at us. I had the A1 II paired with the 200 to 600mm and a 1.4x teleconverter on top, stretching out to around 840mm for anything distant, whether that was the sun itself or a deer on the far side of the glen. My second body, the A7V, carried the 300mm f2.8 with a 2.0x teleconverter, giving me 600mm at f5.6 as a faster, sharper option when I needed it. NiSi solar filters went on the front of both setups for the safe part of the afternoon, coming off only for the couple of minutes either side of maximum eclipse when it was safe to shoot without them.
Two rigs meant two chances at getting it right, and having Ben alongside with his own kit meant we were covering slightly different angles of the same sky at the same time, comparing frames the second we both lowered our cameras.
The kit for the day, two bodies, plenty of glass and a well earned Monster.
The Eclipse Itself
Watching a crescent form across the face of the sun is a strange feeling, even when you understand exactly what is causing it. In the UK the moon crosses right to left, so what you get is not the tidy shape most people picture but a lopsided sliver of light with the points curving downward. Through the long glass it was extraordinary, sharp edged and slowly shrinking, the light around us dimming just enough to notice without ever quite going dark.
We had close to two hours from first contact to last, with the deepest point arriving in the early evening while the sun still had some height left above the hills. Neither of us said much in the last few minutes before maximum. There is not a lot to say. You just shoot and hope the focus holds.
Deer, Buzzards and the Days In Between
The eclipse was the reason for the trip, but the days around it gave us just as much to remember. We had buzzards overhead most mornings, riding the thermals along the same ridgeline like they knew we were watching. Deer showed up more than once at first light too, moving through the birch woodland at the edge of the estate, gone before either of us could get a lens up more often than not, but a couple of encounters stayed long enough to shoot properly.
Two very happy photographers, having just wrapped another morning on the estate.
The woodland itself deserves its own mention. Ferns thick enough to disappear into, mist sitting low between the birch trunks some mornings, and a completely different mood to the open moorland five minutes up the track. We spent a good part of one afternoon just wandering through it with cameras, not shooting much, just enjoying being somewhere that quiet.
The birch woodland on the estate, thick with ferns and often full of deer at first light.
A different morning, same woodland, completely different mood.
Getting around the estate, we had a Volvo XC90 for the trip, and it turned out to be exactly the right tool for the job. The tracks up on Kinrara are rough, steep in places and go on for miles, and being able to get right up onto the tops without worrying about the drive meant more time behind the camera and less time walking.
Final Thoughts
This is the kind of trip that reminds you why you picked up a camera in the first place. An event you cannot plan around the weather, a friend who is just as obsessed with getting the shot as you are, and a landscape that keeps giving you reasons to stop the car. Huge thanks to Ben Marshall for the company, the second pair of eyes on the sky, and for putting up with me talking about sun angles for two days straight.
Go and follow his work at @benjamin.j.Marshall on Instagram, it is well worth your time.
👉 More from this trip, and everything else I am working on, at www.benkapur.com
