I'm not going to photograph the solar eclipse.  I'm not.

There are a couple of different reasons for this, the first being that I'm making deliberate efforts to not do what everyone else is doing, to not photograph what everyone else is photographing.  I want to zag while everyone else is zigging.  A lot of this has to do with being a wildlife photographer - if a lot of people are trying to photograph an owl nest, for instance, it stresses the owls.  I'm motivated to do as little as possible to stress my wildlife subjects.

Second, I don't like being part of a crowd.  Making the same images everyone else is making isn't appealing.  The exception I allowed myself was photographing a badger den, and that was only because folks were supposed to shoot from their cars in order to minimize their impact on the den.  And apparently it went fairly well until someone got out of their car and approached the den.  It looks like the traffic has already started for the eclipse.  Please be careful on the road.

Third, I don't want a lot of images that look like everyone else's images.  The internet is going to be flooded with eclipse images - some are going to be really exceptional, but most are going to be mediocre.  And that's OK; without a lot of opportunities to practice taking solar eclipse images, very few folks are going to be experts.

I'm not saying any of this to discourage anyone from photographing the eclipse, or doing what everyone else is doing - follow your Muse, do what feeds your soul, find what makes you happy.