{"id":601329,"date":"2026-08-22T15:48:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T15:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/601329\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T15:48:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T15:48:11","slug":"lights-out-in-scoresby-sund-capturing-a-total-eclipse-in-the-high-arctic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/601329\/","title":{"rendered":"Lights Out in Scoresby Sund: Capturing a Total Eclipse in the High Arctic"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just breathtaking,\u201d Wayne says, the awe unmistakable in his voice. \u201cIt was the most epic thing I\u2019ve ever photographed in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite leading photography workshops across the globe for years, this was the first total solar eclipse for both Marc and Wayne. Marc admits it had never really been on his bucket list\u2014largely because those familiar telephoto shots of the corona, however technically impressive, tend to look the same no matter who\u2019s holding the camera.<\/p>\n

\u201cPhotographically, those types of compositions were never my goal,\u201d Marc explains. \u201cI knew I could just go to NASA and find a beautiful close-up shot of an eclipse. For me, it was more about the light around the eclipse, and how that affects the wilderness or the landscape wherever you\u2019re standing. If I were to shoot an eclipse, the goal was always to go somewhere unusual.\u201d<\/p>\n

This particular eclipse was passing through multiple countries, but Greenland was Marc\u2019s first choice of location. Having led multiple workshops to the island, he knew the landscape would be incredible, but plotting the path of totality over Scoresby Sund was a new challenge. \u201cMarc knew of this fjord,\u201d Wayne recalls. \u201cWe looked at the map, and it lined up perfectly, full totality right in the center for over two minutes. We knew we had the perfect spot.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Journey to Scoresby Sund <\/p>\n

Running a workshop to Greenland is one thing, but getting a group out to Scoresby Sund takes extra planning. Commercial flights into the remote fjord only run once or twice a week, and those days didn\u2019t line up with the timing needed to meet the ship. To make the dates work, Marc had to charter a private aircraft, adding a whole new layer of logistical complexity.<\/p>\n

His initial plan to charter a larger plane fell through, forcing him to secure two smaller aircraft instead. But with smaller planes came a stricter weight limit.<\/p>\n

To stay under the plane\u2019s total weight ceiling, every single pound counted, including the photographers themselves. \u201cWayne weighs over 200 pounds\u2014he\u2019s all muscle, built like a wrestler,\u201d Marc laughs. \u201cSo here we are flying over, and we\u2019re only allowed 55 pounds between camera gear and clothes. It was tight.\u201d<\/p>\n

To help, Marc brought his own laptop for everyone to share, letting people offload their files onto portable hard drives instead. Between that, the ship\u2019s onboard Starlink, and a laundry service run by the crew, nobody had to leave anything crucial behind.<\/p>\n

An Eclipse in the Landscape <\/p>\n

What set this month\u2019s eclipse apart was its low position in the sky, measuring just 25\u00b0 above the horizon. For photographers, this meant that it wouldn\u2019t just be an event happening overhead but would sit low enough to become part of a larger composition, worked into the landscape rather than shot in isolation. It was exactly the departure from the standard eclipse shot Marc had been looking for.<\/p>\n

\u201cWayne and I were in Utah during last year\u2019s annular eclipse trying to figure out what 25 degrees in the sky would actually look like, just to get a mental picture of it,\u201d Marc says. \u201cWe knew that in Greenland, 25 degrees meant the sun would be right above the mountain peaks, and the only way to compose that properly was from a ship.\u201d To make the most of this unique celestial alignment, they chartered the Polar Front.<\/p>\n

For Marc, having the ship meant placing the eclipse into an Arctic landscape that is breathtaking even under normal conditions. \u201cWhen you\u2019re floating around on a boat, you\u2019re right up next to building-size icebergs with arches in them, and mountains shooting 6,000 feet straight out of the water,\u201d Marc says. \u201cIt\u2019s indescribable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Lead-Up <\/p>\n

With a few days on board before the eclipse, the group had plenty of time to photograph the towering icebergs and tidewater glaciers that Scoresby Sund is known for. Sailing to the far end of the stretch still open to visitors \u2014 Greenland recently closed off roughly half of Scoresby Sund\u2019s traditional loop to protect its resident narwhal population \u2014 they even spotted muskox along the shore. Between outings on the ship\u2019s zodiacs, Marc and Wayne used the time to get everyone ready for the main event, including demystifying the one piece of gear many first-time eclipse shooters get wrong.<\/p>\n

When to Lose the Filter <\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone thinks you need a solar filter,\u201d Marc explains. While essential during the eclipse\u2019s partial phases, solar filters must be removed the instant totality begins. Left on, a near-opaque filter blocks virtually all light from the dimmed sky, resulting in complete underexposure. <\/p>\n

As Wayne puts it: \u201cYou\u2019re shooting through a 16 or 18-stop filter and going, \u2018It\u2019s black!\u2019 And I\u2019m like, yeah\u2014you\u2019re getting a cookie with a bite out of it. That\u2019s all you\u2019ll see.\u201d To ensure no one panicked when the light dropped, Marc and Wayne ran the group through practice drills on deck so nobody was fumbling during those crucial two minutes.<\/p>\n

While larger cruise ships sailed past toward the end of the fjord, Marc and Wayne arrived at their chosen spot a full 24 hours early. \u201cWe found our place and Wayne\u2019s like, \u2018We got to park on this just in case another ship decides that this is the spot,\u2019\u201d Marc recalls. \u201cSo we parked on it and started watching the weather.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lights Out <\/p>\n

On the day of the eclipse, low clouds had drifted in and threatened to obscure the 6,000-foot spires of the mountain they had planned to use as a frame. \u201cThose three spires were meant to be on the right side of our composition, and cloud came in and covered them,\u201d Marc says. \u201cBut that\u2019s the beauty of being on a ship. We just repositioned a little further out in the fjord where there was no cloud, giving us an open sky with nothing obscured.\u201d<\/p>\n

While totality lasts just over two minutes, the entire eclipse is a two-hour event. As the moon slowly took its first bites out of the sun, a quiet intensity took over the deck. For over an hour during the partial phases, the group tracked the changing light, adjusting their solar filters and checking test exposures right up until the shadow finally swept over the ship.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\u201cDarkness just\u2014boom!\u201d Wayne remembers. \u201cIt took about four seconds and everything went from light to dark. It went into twilight, and suddenly you could see Venus to the left, and Jupiter and Mercury to the right of the eclipse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marc\u2019s own memory of it is just as visceral. The two minutes allotted by the astronomical charts felt like they passed in a blink: \u201cWhat I won\u2019t forget was how fast the lights went out, and the beauty of the light around me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

That rapid plunge into darkness caught even the most meticulous planners off guard\u2014the deep Arctic fjord proved to be several stops darker than their calculations had suggested. Realising mid-totality that the shadow was devouring the scene faster and darker than expected, Marc and Wayne immediately bumped their ISOs and began calling out setting adjustments across the ship so the group could adapt in real time.<\/p>\n

For two minutes, the deck of the Polar Front became an arena of hyper-focused energy: photographers managing dual-camera setups, swapping between telephoto brackets of the corona and wider handheld panoramas, and even sending drones up into the sky.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

As the sun began to reappear, the relief and excitement on deck spilled over. \u201cAs soon as the diamond ring came out on the other side, the captain blew the foghorn on the ship, and everybody just erupted,\u201d Marc says. \u201cEveryone was cheering, hugging, high-fiving\u2014it was total euphoria.\u201d Their timing could not have been closer: \u201cThe crazy thing is, 30 minutes after totality ended, the entire sky clouded over completely. If we had been 30 minutes later we would have seen nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Photographs <\/p>\n

Pulling off those two minutes in open Arctic water came down to the captain\u2019s seamanship as much as anything the photographers did. The fjord was over 500 feet deep\u2014far too deep to anchor\u2014so the captain held position purely by working the ship sideways against a 16-knot crosswind. Timing it on Marc\u2019s radio instructions, he kept the entire vessel lined up exactly right the moment totality hit. \u201cIt was phenomenal,\u201d Wayne says. \u201cHe timed it perfectly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even while managing the entire deck, both pros managed to pull off defining shots of their own, though Marc\u2019s centerpiece image was nearly lost to distraction.<\/p>\n

Marc\u2019s View From Above <\/p>\n

Ten minutes before totality, Marc sent his drone up to hover at around 300 feet and then got swept up in his own on-deck shooting\u2014swapping lenses on his medium-format camera, firing off close-ups\u2014and nearly forgot the drone was still in the sky. \u201cI looked over at Mike, one of our participants, and he had his controller in hand, and it suddenly reminded me\u2014I\u2019ve still got the drone up,\u201d Marc says.<\/p>\n

He got the shot almost by instinct; one bracketed frame of the ship, the icebergs, and the eclipse together, captured with a single tap of the controller. It wasn\u2019t until he was home reviewing files that he realised what he\u2019d managed to catch: a visible line between light and shadow across the frame, the edge of the moon\u2019s shadow itself falling across the water. \u201cI looked at it and went, oh, wow\u2014I didn\u2019t expect this,\u201d he says. \u201cIt might even be my favorite shot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>Shot at f\/2.5, 1\/15 second, ISO 200 <\/p>\n

\u201cIn hindsight, of course, I wished I could have just put the drone on video and watched it go into eclipse and then emerge,\u201d he says. \u201cBecause it would have shared a little more of the experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wayne\u2019s Handheld Panorama <\/p>\n

Wayne\u2019s own hero shot was pure improvisation. Partway through totality he realised the eclipse sat higher in the frame than he\u2019d wished for, and that the light on the water was too good to ignore. \u201cI thought, I\u2019m going to try this,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd I got lucky\u2014it was right as the diamond ring effect was happening when I swept across.\u201d<\/p>\n

Working handheld at a high ISO, fielding client questions the entire time, Wayne pieced together a 12-image, multi-row panorama\u2014sky, mountains, and water each shot separately and stitched together\u2014without any idea it would actually come out. \u201cWhen I got home, I had no idea it would go together. I didn\u2019t think it was possible, to be honest. But it did.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>A 12-image stitched panorama, shot at 1\/50 second, f\/5.6, ISO 1250 <\/p>\n

When it came to editing, he turned to the same processing techniques he uses for astro-photography. \u201cIt\u2019s very similar to night processing, honestly\u2014we were shooting at bumped-up ISOs, so there was noise reduction to deal with. Once the panorama was together, I used three masks in Photoshop: one for the water, one for the mountains, one for the sky. That was it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crucially, he resisted the temptation to enlarge the sun in post. \u201cA lot of people overdo the size of the eclipse because they want it to stand out. But for Marc and me, the landscape always takes precedence over what\u2019s happening in the sky\u2014no matter how epic it is. We preach that constantly. Everybody on that boat wanted the landscape shot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Golden Rules for Your Next Eclipse <\/p>\n

Most people won\u2019t get to charter a ship into an Arctic fjord for an eclipse\u2014but Marc and Wayne\u2019s advice travels well regardless of where you\u2019re standing:<\/p>\n

Choose the right focal length: \u201cHave a 35mm lens on hand, assuming the eclipse falls within that frame,\u201d Marc says. \u201cGo wider than 28mm and the eclipse becomes very small. A slightly longer wide-angle\u201435mm, even 50mm\u2014is a lot more forgiving.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bracket during totality: \u201cShoot a bracketed set, two stops apart, both under and over,\u201d Marc says. \u201cThat alone will get you close to the overall feeling of the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stop down for the diamond ring: \u201cRight as the sun emerges or disappears, that\u2019s the golden, diamond light,\u201d Marc notes. \u201cYou want to be down around f\/13 to f\/16 to pull out all the rays.\u201d<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t underestimate the corona: \u201cPeople don\u2019t realise the eclipse is actually much bigger than it looks,\u201d Wayne adds. \u201cWhen the corona appears, it can be twice the size of the moon or sun itself, sometimes more. You need to leave room for it in the frame.\u201d<\/p>\n

Commit to your vision: Not everyone on the trip chased the wide landscape shot\u2014one participant stayed locked on telephoto the whole time, working at 150mm and 300mm, and came away with stunning corona detail. Marc\u2019s takeaway: pick one approach and commit to it, rather than trying to do everything in two minutes.<\/p>\n

The Afterglow <\/p>\n

The day ended in the ship\u2019s lounge with the entire boat coming together. \u201cWe threw a big party with the captain,\u201d Marc recalls. \u201cAnd we showed a six-minute slideshow to the crew of everyone\u2019s photos from the whole trip and the eclipse.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sense of awe is still evident as Marc and Wayne reminisce about it, days later. \u201cWe couldn\u2019t believe what we just experienced. We captured it. We were celebrating. It was so memorable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m the luckiest guy in the world,\u201d Wayne says. \u201cIt was just\u2026 it was mind-blowing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wayne Suggs and Marc Muench are nature photographers and instructors with Muench Workshops<\/a>. Marc is a third-generation photographer and son of legendary landscape photographer David Muench, while Wayne has spent more than 40 years photographing landscapes and wildlife. Founded in 2007, Muench Workshops leads small-group photography workshops and expeditions around the world. This article was also published here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Affiliate Disclosure PetaPixel articles may include affiliate links; we may earn a commission if you buy through one. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIt was just breathtaking,\u201d Wayne says, the awe unmistakable in his voice. \u201cIt was the most epic thing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":601330,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[61,60,82,247],"class_list":["post-601329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}