Wesley's Tool-Box

While I've personally witnessed several solar eclipses before, none of them were total. So when I found out that one such occurrence would take place near a direct flight destination - Madrid, Spain - I seized the opportunity. Because Madrid was just outside the path of totality, I went to Segovia, a city about 70 km to the north, a day after my arrival. I scouted for a good location to observe the eclipse and eventually settled on a spot near Alcázar of Segovia. As you can see above, it was an excellent vantage point.

Since Segovia was a bit off from the "optimal" location, the totality would last just short of a minute, compared to nearly 2 minutes in some places. So that left less margin for error and thus I came prepared. Fortunately, my efforts paid off, and ended up shooting 35 photos of the totality, as well as several hundred of the partial eclipse. And I was able to do continuous shoots for the most part, except for a brief break where I had some issues with the tracker I brought. The entire sequence has been uploaded to YouTube.

2025 was an interesting year with lots of chaos and progress, much of which resulted from the events that took place in 2024. Now we're entering 2026, the year of the Fire Horse. Like the Sun in the picture, I hope everyone outshine the murkiness that is the clouds and rise up.

Device: iPhone 17 Pro Max
Settings: 200 mm equiv. - ISO 25 - 1/940s - f/2.8
Time: 2026-01-01 07:56 KST
Location: Naju, Korea

2024 has been a complicated year, especially towards the end. I hope the year 2025 will be able to resolve a lot of loose ends and make fresh starts. Here's a photo of the sunrise that I took from my home in Naju to calm you over. Happy new year, everyone!

If you want to see the sunrise as it happened in real-time, here's a video I uploaded.

Device: iPhone 16 Pro
Settings: 120 mm equiv. - ISO 40 - 1/3195s - f/2.8
Time: 2025-01-01 07:56 KST
Location: Naju, Korea