For most astrophotographers, capturing a total solar eclipse means setting up a heavy telephoto lens on a stationary tripod, aiming skyward, and isolating the glowing corona against a void of black space. While these technical triumphs yield striking, scientific portraits of the sun’s outer atmosphere, they ultimately share a generic uniformity. Anyone with a massive glass element and a clear forecast can capture the celestial phenomenon in a vacuum.
For acclaimed landscape photographers Marc Muench and Wayne Suggs, standard isolation was never the objective. When they began planning an expedition to capture an upcoming total solar eclipse, their sights were set far beyond the standard telescopic framing. They wanted to marry the cosmic rarity of totality with the raw, untamed majesty of the Earth’s most dramatic landscapes.
Their quest led them deep into the remote, ice-choked fjords of eastern Greenland—specifically Scoresby Sund—aboard the expedition vessel Polar Front. What followed was a masterclass in high-stakes expedition logistics, split-second improvisation, and a breathtaking visual triumph that redefined what an eclipse photograph can be.
Main Facts: An Unprecedented Arctic Alignment
The August total solar eclipse offered a rare geographical and compositional advantage: it tracked low across the horizon, sitting at a mere 25 degrees. For Muench and Suggs, this low-slung celestial event presented an unmissable opportunity. Rather than happening directly overhead, the eclipse would intersect the jagged, 6,000-foot granite mountain peaks of Greenland’s coastline, integrating the sun and moon directly into a grand terrestrial panorama.
- The Location: Scoresby Sund, Greenland—the world’s largest fjord system, characterized by towering tidewater glaciers, building-sized icebergs, and sheer rock walls.
- The Duration of Totality: Just over two minutes of total darkness.
- The Fleet: The expedition vessel Polar Front, chartered specifically to navigate the deep, unanchorable waters of the fjord and provide a stable, mobile platform for photographers.
- The Creative Vision: To prioritize the landscape over the celestial subject, treating the eclipse as a dramatic lighting condition that fundamentally transformed the Arctic wilderness rather than serving as the sole subject of the frame.
Despite decades of combined experience leading global photography expeditions through Muench Workshops, this marked the first total solar eclipse for both Muench and Suggs.
"Photographically, those types of close-up compositions were never my goal," Muench explains. "I knew I could just go to NASA and find a beautiful close-up shot of an eclipse. For me, it was more about the light around the eclipse, and how that affects the wilderness or the landscape wherever you’re standing. If I were to shoot an eclipse, the goal was always to go somewhere unusual."
Chronology: From Logistics Nightmares to the Fjord of Dreams
Phase 1: Overcoming the Logistics Barrier
Executing a workshop in Greenland is inherently complex, but coordinating a group inside Scoresby Sund during a high-demand celestial event introduced exponential challenges. Commercial flights into the remote fjord operate only once or twice a week—timings that completely misaligned with the schedule required to board the expedition ship.
To bridge the gap, Muench had to charter a private aircraft. When his initial plans for a larger charter fell through, he was forced to secure two smaller aircraft, which immediately triggered severe weight restrictions. Every single pound had to be accounted for, right down to the physical weight of the photographers themselves.
"Wayne weighs over 200 pounds—he’s all muscle, built like a wrestler," Muench laughs. "So here we are flying over, and we’re only allowed 55 pounds between camera gear and clothes. It was tight."
To offset the gear deficit, Muench brought a centralized laptop system allowing participants to offload large RAW files onto portable hard drives. Combined with the ship’s onboard Starlink connectivity and a dedicated crew laundry service, the workshop participants managed to bring everything they needed without violating strict payload thresholds.
Phase 2: Settling into Scoresby Sund
Arriving days ahead of the main event, the team immersed themselves in the high-Arctic environment. They photographed monumental icebergs, navigated Zodiac boats past neon-blue glacial ice, and observed muskox grazing along the shorelines.
During these exploratory days, Muench and Suggs conducted intensive gear drills, zeroing in on the single most common pitfall for first-time eclipse shooters: managing the solar filter.
While a high-density solar filter is mandatory during the partial phases to protect camera sensors and human eyes, it must be stripped away the exact second totality begins. Leaving it attached plunges the frame into near-total blackness.
"You’re shooting through a 16- or 18-stop filter and going, It’s black!" Suggs notes. "And I’m like, yeah—you’re getting a cookie with a bite out of it. That’s all you’ll see."
To eliminate panic, the leaders ran mock drills on deck, ensuring no one fumbled with equipment when the ambient light abruptly vanished. Crucially, the team arrived at their target coordinates in Scoresby Sund a full 24 hours ahead of any competing commercial cruise ships, staking their claim on the optimal viewing corridor.
Phase 3: Lights Out in the Arctic
On eclipse day, low-altitude maritime clouds threatened to obscure the towering mountain spires designated as key compositional anchors. True to the advantages of being shipborne, the captain smoothly repositioned the Polar Front further out into the fjord, clearing the cloud cover and opening up a pristine viewing corridor.
As the moon steadily took its first bites out of the sun, a hushed focus settled over the deck. For over an hour, the group tracked the diminishing light. Then, without warning, the environment transformed.
"Darkness just—boom!" Suggs recalls. "It took about four seconds and everything went from light to dark. It went into twilight, and suddenly you could see Venus to the left, and Jupiter and Mercury to the right of the eclipse."
The rapid plunge into darkness caught the planners by surprise; the deep Arctic fjord proved to be several stops darker than preliminary astronomical calculations suggested. Mid-totality, Muench and Suggs scrambled to bump up their ISOs, shouting exposure adjustments across the deck so participants could adapt in real time.
For two breathless minutes, the Polar Front‘s deck became a flurry of hyper-focused energy. Photographers managed dual-camera setups, alternated between telephoto bracketed bracket sets of the corona and wide handheld panoramas, and launched drones into the thin air.
As the Diamond Ring effect blazed across the eastern horizon, signaling the end of totality, the tension broke. The ship’s captain sounded the foghorn, and the deck erupted into cheers, high-fives, and hugs. Their timing was razor-thin: exactly 30 minutes after totality concluded, the sky completely socked in with thick, opaque cloud cover.
Supporting Data & Technical Execution
Pulling off complex exposures in open Arctic water required exceptional seamanship. With the fjord floor plunging over 500 feet—making anchoring impossible—the ship’s captain held position by actively working the vessel sideways against a fierce 16-knot crosswind, aligning the ship perfectly with Muench’s radio countdown.
Both instructors pushed their gear to the absolute limit to secure their career-defining frames:
Marc Muench’s Aerial Perspective
Ten minutes before totality, Muench launched a drone to hover at roughly 300 feet. Caught up in managing his medium-format ground setup, he momentarily forgot the drone was airborne until a workshop participant flagged him down.
With a single tap, Muench captured a bracketed composition featuring the ship, the surrounding icebergs, and the eclipse overhead. Upon returning home and reviewing the files, he discovered an unexpected masterpiece: a crisp, visible line of shadow tracking across the water’s surface—the literal edge of the moon’s umbral shadow sweeping across the fjord. Shot at f/2.5, 1/15 second, and ISO 200, the image stands as one of his all-time favorites.
Wayne Suggs’ Handheld Panorama
Realizing mid-totality that the composition demanded a wider view of the glowing waters, Suggs improvised a high-risk multi-row panorama. Working entirely handheld at elevated ISOs while answering client questions, he stitched together 12 separate images—capturing the sky, mountains, and sea independently.
- Camera Settings: 1/50 second, f/5.6, ISO 1250.
- Post-Processing Strategy: Treating the file similarly to astrophotography, Suggs applied targeted noise reduction and used three distinct Photoshop masks (water, mountains, and sky) to balance the exposure.
- Compositional Discipline: Suggs intentionally avoided the common trap of artificially enlarging the sun in post-production, firmly maintaining that the grand scale of the Earth must always command authority over the sky.
Official Responses and Reflections
The emotional aftermath of the expedition resonated deeply through the crew and participants alike, culminating in a celebration in the ship’s lounge featuring a six-minute slideshow of the day’s triumphs.
"We couldn’t believe what we just experienced. We captured it. We were celebrating. It was so memorable," Muench reflected.
"I’m the luckiest guy in the world," echoed Suggs. "It was just… it was mind-blowing."
Implications for Future Eclipse Chasers
For photographers looking ahead to future solar events, Muench and Suggs offer a definitive set of guiding principles distilled from their Greenland expedition:
- Select the Right Focal Length: Avoid going excessively wide; a 35mm or 50mm lens keeps the eclipse appropriately scaled within the landscape without reducing it to an invisible speck.
- Embrace Bracketing: During totality, shoot bracketed sets spaced two stops apart to capture the true dynamic range and emotional resonance of the lighting.
- Master the Diamond Ring: Stop down to f/13 to f/16 during the fleeting moments when the diamond ring appears to pull out maximum detail in the sun’s rays.
- Respect the Corona: Remember that the visible corona expands far beyond the physical disk of the sun; frame your shots with ample breathing room.
- Commit Fully to a Vision: Do not attempt to shoot everything. Whether you commit to telephoto close-ups or sweeping landscape panoramas, lock in your approach and execute it with absolute dedication.
As commercial space tourism and high-end adventure travel continue to evolve, expeditions like the Polar Front‘s journey into Scoresby Sund establish a new benchmark for nature photography—proving that the most profound images are born not just from witnessing natural wonders, but from contextualizing them within the magnificent, fragile theater of our planet.
