Venus Transit June 2004One of my most coveted astronomical and landscape moments was in June 2004 when I photographed the unique transit of the Sun by Venus. A transit is where a planet moves in front of the solar disk creating a black dot shadow. These events certainly help put the size of the Sun into perspective. Venus can be seen in this image to the lower right quadrant.
A lot of preparation and planning went into the composition. My first objective was to capture the event in the landscape. This meant I had to utilize the natural filters available on Earth. One of these is the marine layer of the oceans. The Atlantic is closest to me and the transit was going to be timed perfectly to occur during sunrise in the eastern U.S. (For even more information on the event, please see my archived webpage detailing the event with site photos.)
The location selected was Myrtle Beach, mainly because I was familiar with the location and I knew the Sun would rise directly over the waters of the Atlantic. The only thing needed was a clear sky and boy did we get one. This is one of my favorite images and I hope you enjoy it, too. More details at the link below.
You may also purchase this print by simply navigating to the "Purchase Fine Art Prints" page and selecting print/mat size and inputing "Venus Transit" in the print title.