Photographer from Dumaguete City captures space station transiting the sun during June 21 eclipse

Photo courtesy of Charlie Sindiong

MOALBOAL, CEBU —  Understand your subject.

This was his key for capturing a good photo of the partial solar eclipse on Sunday, June 21, 2020, plus the International Space Station that was transitting the sun.

Charlie Sindiong took his photo from a vacant lot in Dauin in Negros Oriental at around 3:21 p.m. and using his canon 6D2 with a 300mm lens and teleconverter attached to it.

The photo which he immediately uploaded on his Facebook account has generated 1,816 post reactions and 2,225 shares as of 9 a.m. on Tuesday, June 24.

“Years of waiting; months in the making; all for a single photograph,” his post reads.

Sindiong said it took him over a month to prepare for his solar eclipse photo shoot.

“Planned everything for over a month, it started [with] gathering data online. I determined all possible problems I would encounter. That includes [the] limitations of my gear on hand,” he said.

Sindiong said that he had long been dreaming of capturing a space station while transiting to the sun but he never had the opportunity to do so.

This was the reason why he felt very excited after he learned of the partial solar eclipse on June 21 and started to prepare for it.

“When when I learned that there is a chance that a transit could occur near my location in time of an eclipse, that raises up the preparations up the roof,” Sindiong said.

Photo courtesy of Charlie Sindiong

Challenges

He said that documenting a rare event using his camera was not that easy.

“The weather condition on that specific area where I needed to be was so challenging,” he said.

“I needed to change my glass filter in front of my lens because clouds changed the lighting condition in like heaven and earth difference,” he added.

According to Sindiong, he even started to tremble when he started to think of the uncertain outcome of his photo shoot.

But he used his fear as a challenge to do his best.

“The feeling after pinning the shot is beyond words. Lying on the ground, I was shaking, wanted to shout, wanted to cry,” he said.

For other enthusiasts who wanted to also capture astronomical events, Sindiong has this piece of advice for you: understand your subject.

“These little things worked for me, understanding of the basics of our gears, planning, understanding of subject, patience, mental rehearsal and be focussed,” he said. / dcb