In order to shoot a montage like this, you need to capture enough changes as the shadow of the earth moves across the moon to show the full progression of the eclipse. Many more photographs were taken than were used, but it is better to have too many and thus give you the choice of the better photographs than too few and finding your progression stilted. Ideally, you would shoot all the way through from full moon to full moon, however sometimes the weather conditions or even the time of day that the eclipse occurs, will prevent this.

This meant that there was excessive amounts of smoke hanging around when they flew through, marring what might have been a very clear shot.

It still turned out quite well, all things considered.

This shot is the culmination of a day starting at 9am on site to stake out my preferred shooting location, fending off of would be thieves, baking in the sun and careful planning.  A total of 10 hours in the making.

My 2008 Riverfire photo is also available.