Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
A 1,725-mile round trip to Mountain Home, Arkansas resulted in photos to last a lifetime. Kimberly Lowry, owner of Creative Design Photography in Sidney, made the solo bucket-list trip to capture the memory on film with Arkansas family by her side.
"To see this is like an experience out of this world, as cliché as it may sound," Lowry who planned the entire trip months in advance by weather reports had to say. An avid explorer of eclipses, this is the second time she's traveled out of her way to view the otherworldly show in totality. The professional photographer, who has a great passion for shots of the moon, first traveled to Alliance in 2017 to experience the event close to home. "I've now witnessed two eclipses from the serenity of a field, just me, the plains, and my camera," Lowry comments, "it's beautiful and emotional to be able to witness something that happens only a few times in my lifetime."
This year's event held a special place in Lowry's heart as Arkansas served as a family destination as well; the photographer's family, who reside in Mountain Home were welcoming to the prospect of Lowry staying with them during the eclipse cycle. The trip, which takes approximately 15 hours one way, was made more fun by the spontaneous inclusion of Lowry's friend who decided to travel with her the last few hundred miles. Lowry mentions she noticed a considerable influx of traffic closer to their destination, "when we stopped for breakfast I noticed quite a few eclipse shirts being worn."
The circumstance is a bit uncommon for photographers who require a special lens just to capture the brief event, Lowry purchased a special filter just for the eclipse, she also improvised handmade filters made out of cardboard frames for her family's phone cameras. According to NASA, a phone sensor is at higher risk of damage, like any other image sensor, when exposed directly to the sun.
As the eclipse began the clouds dissipated, "you could feel it in the air – the light changed, and suddenly there was a different tone to things," Lowry says. The eclipse, which lasted a surprising 3 hours had 2.5 minutes of totality, the maximum phase of an eclipse.
A bit of a challenge, during the spectacle Lowry had to shoot from the shadow of her camera to spot the shot and properly protect her eyes. "I was surprised to see the bead ring, coronal eruption, and the diamond solar flare, I had been hoping to witness them and was fortunate to capture them as well," she says.
As the eclipse and its festivities ended, bumper-to-bumper traffic kept traveling at a snail's pace at 10 minutes a mile. After the lengthy trip home, Lowry realized she had left all of her photography equipment back in Arkansas, but thankfully with family. After a grueling few weeks of waiting for that special package to arrive, Lowry was finally able to enjoy the fruits of her labor, her highly anticipated totality photos.
The next North American total solar eclipse will not happen until 2045, and Lowry has much to plan for. "Oh, I'll be there, even if they have to wheel me out into the field," she says with a smile.
If interested in purchasing prints of her totality photos, you may contact Kimberly Lowry with Creative Design Photography at: 308-254-9282.
Cheyenne County native, local business owner.
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