T-minus 48 Hours Until the Solar Eclipse!
It's been hard not making this celestial event my entire personality for the last month...
Hey friends,
Greetings from Sugarloaf Mountain, Maine! I wanted to take a moment to send out a quick email update amidst the chaos of planning for the total solar eclipse that will sweep across a swath of the Continental USA and into Maritime Canada on Monday, April 8th, 2024. With only 48 hours until the moon completely blocks the sun over Sugarloaf and the rest of the state of Maine (totality begins here at precisely 3:29:59pm EST), I felt it would be helpful to take a moment and reflect on my journey to get here - which began nearly a decade ago.
A total solar eclipse is, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful and rare cosmic events you can experience on this planet. It is truly unlike anything else: to be standing in the shadow of the moon, staring at a black hole in the sky surrounded by stars & planets during the middle of the day; to listen to the silence as the wildlife around you goes quiet; to hear the hoots and hollers as a primitive instinct takes over the folks nearby, overcome by the moment… it’s all so incredibly moving and powerful.
While I wish solar eclipses happened all the time, the magic of them is that they don’t. Only if you’re in exactly the right place at the right time, and only when conditions are just right, will you be able to understand the feeling. I truly hope you all get that chance some day - and hopefully Monday will be it!
I first realized the path of this eclipse was going to pass over Sugarloaf about 10 years ago, during my first winter working for the mountain in their marketing department (for those of you who don’t know - my professional photography career took off thanks in large part to my time spent photographing for the Loaf, a place I grew up skiing at and consider home more than anywhere else). Back then, April 8th 2024 seemed a LONG ways away, but I knew I had to be here to capture and share the experience at a mountain that means so much to me.
During my initial research, I also marked my calendar for August 21st, 2017, when another path of totality would sweep across the country. As fate would have it, I was able to experience that eclipse rather spontaneously with a friend. We rented a car in Boston a few days before the big date, drove to Illinois with no real plan, and got incredibly lucky when we found a cornfield with campsites mowed into it still available. It was worth every second of the drive, and every ounce of sweat that poured out of my body thanks to the blistering August heat. I quietly told myself that this first experience, and the knowledge gained during it, would help me prepare for the next eclipse… one that is is now just 48 hours from happening.
About a month ago is when my planning got serious. Scouring maps of the mountain and surrounding areas, double checking the sun and moon’s precise positions throughout the eclipse, noting exactly how long I’ll have during totality to shoot… Yet, for the longest time I struggled to really buckle down, knowing that Maine would be the least likely state along the path to catch a glimpse given the 70% likelihood of cloud coverage on any given day in early April here. I debated booking a plane ticket to Texas just in case the weather would be better there, but ultimately decided that my commitment would be to Maine. Regardless of the weather that day, I wanted to try and experience it surrounded by all the people I’m closest to.
Imagine my shock about a week ago when the first weather models started to run their forecasts for the 8th. Low and behold, they have been calling for a beautifully clear day in New England from the get go. I didn’t want to get ahead of myself then, but with every day that has passed, the forecast has remained rock solid - and my excitement has been growing at an exponential rate.
While I don’t want to dive too deep into what exactly I’m after for my photograph of totality - out of fear I will jinx myself, or set expectations that are too high - I can tell you that after years of anticipation, months of planning, and a whole lot of stress: I feel as ready as I can be to make the most of the two minutes and eighteen seconds Sugarloaf will be enveloped in totality. And regardless of the outcome of this mission, I’m just so happy to be here with my friends and family. Sharing this truly once-in-a-lifetime experience, right here at home, means the world to me. And I hope you all have a chance to see it too!
Well, that’s all for now - back to preparations. I really can’t wait to share what I capture with you all soon. In the meantime, keep those fingers crossed for clear skies on Monday!
Cheers,
Jamie
PS: I’d like to give a huge shoutout to Sugarloaf Mountain and Stio for supporting this project (and my career in general) for as long as they both have ❤️
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