'You get goosebumps': Windsor-Essex photographers capture eclipse totality

Essex County was blessed Monday afternoon with a sight to behold, a total solar eclipse and thousands of people watched the remarkable event.

A day later, photos of the celestial phase are being published by photographers, and the results did not disappoint.

“For somebody who's not traveling around and seeing the eclipse all over the world, to have it right in your back door, in our home, was truly out of this world,” said Kati Panasiuk, a professional photographer who didn’t miss the opportunity.

She made the trip out to Kingsville with a group of photographers and captured the moment.

Where they were situated, she had one minute and five seconds of totality.

“You really have a small, small window to make it happen or you lose your opportunity,” Panasiuk recalled. “When the pressure is on you like that. That's something, as a photographer, that you live for. That's the adrenaline rush of trying to capture the shot.”

With Panasiuk was Ted Kloske, also a professional photographer.

“For us photography people, that was a blast,” said Kloske. “It was fun to put all that stuff together and go out and actually take those photos and have that that experience.”

He captured the entire phase, from crescent to totality.

A picture of the solar eclipse taken in Kingsville, Ont. on April 8, 2024. (Source: Kati Panasiuk)

And while Kloske has a great camera, all the high-grade filters were sold out, so he innovated.

“If you didn't have the right gear, it was a little tougher,” he said. “So we make-shifted a filter out of those paper glasses and were able to fit that over a lens and made it work and it was kind of a cool thing.”

Steve Biro brought all the right gear with him on his trip to rural Ohio to capture beautiful solar flares from the sun and of course the total eclipse of the sun.

“There's still nothing like it, when you can just experience totality. It's really wonderful. You just feel like you get goosebumps,” Biro said.

He also snapped pics of the diamond ring effect, when the moon is leaving the totality phase, as well as what’s known as Bailey’s Beads, the pins of light that shine through the mountains and craters of the moon.

“It was really exciting. And I'm really happy with the images I got. They’re really as good as I could have hoped for,” he said.

Most importantly, these photogs also experienced and lived in the moment.

“Yeah, I got a great shot, but at the same time, having that moment to just be in the present,” Panasiuk said. “That's the memory that I'm going to hold with me forever.”