Anticipation and excitement was palatable. The winds were in our favor, clearing the smoke of a raging forest fire out of the air. Atop Steamboat Rock – a ridge in the midst of BLM land just southwest of Madras – we could see in all directions. Eclipse glasses on, we were ready. And, so was the GoPro.

The light got very strange, beautiful, and unique. It was as if watching a quick sunset, yet all the colors were a hue I’d never seen before. The temperature continued to drop, until I could hardly recall it had been a hot summer morning just minutes before. When it finally happened, when the moon fully blocked out the light of the sun, it was like nothing I’ve ever experienced. At first it was complete darkness, then the corona emerged and the people across the ridge began to let out whoops of excitement, awe, amazement. The horizon was a beautiful glowing orange, and the world around me was shrouded in darkness. The brilliance of the sun radiating out from behind the moon. Then, all too soon, the “diamond ring” appeared. And before we knew it, the minute and a half of totality was past.

The Solar Eclipse in under a Minute

The footage starts at 9:30am and goes until 10:50am, showing the scene change as the sun is gradually covered by the moon.

It was truly amazing, indescribable, and worth the trek out to Central Oregon 100 times over. If you ever have the chance to see an Eclipse, I recommend doing everything you can to get into the line of totality, because it makes all the difference. Based on my research, I decided to simply enjoy the experience, setting up my GoPro to capture some footage while I had the opportunity to soak it all in.

~ZieBee

Camera Notes

Camera: GoPro Hero4, plus extended battery pack

Settings: Using the GoPro App on my phone, I set the camera to Timelapse Photos, taken every 15 seconds. I limited the ISO to 200 max, so that the camera wouldn’t adjust for the darkness.  

Timelapse Processing: During the several hour period, the GoPro took over 10,000 photos. To ease the import process, I broke them into folders of about 1000 photos and imported them in batches (using the “Image Sequence” option) into Adobe Premiere Pro. This automatically created mini videos of each sequence, which I added to the video timelime. For the beginning and end, I upped the speed to 500% and left the actual time of totality at 100% speed.

Location: The ledge of Steamboat Rock, near Terrebonne Oregon

About ZieBee Media 

ZieBee Media is a family owned and operated creative agency based out of Portland, OR, USA, led by PNW author and artist ZieBee. ZieBee's work is inspired by exploring the world, camera and sketchbook in hand, capturing the animals seen and adventures had.

“I love creating things that will bring joy into other people’s lives.”

At ZieBee Media, our motto is "Make Art, Bee Happy" and we ensure that all our creations are made with good vibrations, from coloring designs to clients' books and websites.

Our flagship Coloring Collection was made as a tool for you to enjoy the many benefits of coloring and to practice making art in your everyday life. We hope it inspires you to set aside time each day to create something new.