I'm a professional photographer and I have zero regrets that I simply enjoyed the solar eclipse with my family, and a colander

The 2026 solar eclipse has been and gone, and viewers across parts of Europe, where totality was visible for approximately two minutes before sunset, were treated to quite the show.

It was a different story for me, however. I was on a family break in the hours before the eclipse reached its 91% peak where I was in the UK, and was entirely unprepared.

As a photographer in this kind of situation, normally I would be frantically fiddling with camera gear and searching for the best nearby location, but the stars didn't quite align to capture the experience on this occasion.

And despite a flood of spectacular eclipse images being shared online, and the fact that there won't be another eclipse this good in the UK in my lifetime, do you know what? I'm OK with how this eclipse played out for me.

Rather than getting bogged down with gear and camera settings and composition, I simply relaxed and enjoyed the spectacle with family. It was an otherworldly yet unencumbered experience, and I'll always remember that soft golden light over those few minutes, and the eclectic methods that people around us were using to watch the eclipse — from DIY pinhole cameras to colanders. It was a moment shared, that brought communities together.

Sure, it might have been a different story if I was in northern Spain on an organized trip for eclipse totality but, to echo my former colleague Phil Berne's sentiments after the 2024 eclipse , I don't think any image I would have taken could do an ounce of justice to the real thing. Watching it, in community, was enough.

(Image credit: Tim Coleman)

It still pains the photographer in me a little that the lead image in this article is of the marina where I watched the eclipse take place, along with the shadow of a colander projecting the sun's mostly eclipsed image onto a wall, both shot with my Pixel, rather than a perfectly composed, awe-inspiring eclipse photo.

However, I have gained more as a human being from making the eclipse a shared experience, and I'm still enjoying the best 2026 eclipse shots by the photographers and creatives who really went for it. You can vote for your favorite from a selection below that have stood out to us.

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