Ted Hesser’s Smith Rock Solar Eclipse Photo
Every photo has a story!
"As a photographer, one of the first thoughts was how do I capture something unique? Immediately my mind went to having a person in the frame in some environmental context, mixing the landscape with the event."
"It was just exhilarating. I'd thought a fair amount ahead of time of the concept of the eclipse, how crazy it is for anyone along its path to be looking at the same thing and doing the same thing for how scattered the direction of our lives is. To be singularly focused on a natural phenomenon is kind of wild."
Ted Hesser, a 31-year-old freelance photographer from the Bay Area, scouted locations at Smith Rock State Park in Central Oregon with his girlfriend, Martina Tibell, for a week. The two rock climbing enthusiasts spent days trying different climbing routes alongside other adventure photographers who all descended on the park looking for the perfect angle during totality.
Tibell and another friend, Tommy Smith, spent the rest of eclipse eve climbing and positioning Smith - the photograph's subject - in a way that Hesser thought would accentuate what he called the moment's mysticism.
But after the trio awoke at 3:30 a.m. on eclipse day and drove from their nearby campground to get a jump on their climbing preparations, they found the park's gate locked and guarded. Every minute was precious. Tibell and Smith were anxious to climb. They were finally let in at 5:30 a.m. and began ascending at 7.
The iconic photo began going viral shortly after Hesser posted it on his Instagram account (55,762 likes) and his Facebook page(77,000 shares and 62,000 likes). Hesser said he has gained 13,000 Instagram followers in the last day