Solar eclipse hike with a view of the Schaumberg

A solar eclipse, the Schaumberg on the horizon — and me right in the middle of it with a tripod. A moment like that doesn’t come twice.

There are days when you simply head out. Not because of a meticulously planned route, not because of a particular destination — but because something is happening in the sky that you don’t want to miss. The solar eclipse was one of those days.

The Schaumberg as a backdrop

I had found a vantage point from which the Schaumberg is clearly visible. Wide fields, harvested, flat. Behind them the gentle chain of hills, and on the summit that distinctive tower you can recognise from so many points in the Saarland. The light that day was already strange — that diffuse, slightly muted quality that comes when the sun is no longer quite itself.

The landscape around the Schaumberg has a quiet quality. Long shadows on harvested fields, a strip of trees on the horizon, a brilliantly blue sky — and then suddenly this perceptible shift in the light. Anyone who doesn’t look up misses something.

What a solar eclipse does to you

I’m not an astronomer. I can’t tell you the degree of coverage and I wasn’t standing there with a telescope either. I was simply outside, with my camera, and I watched. And that was enough.

What surprises me every time: how quiet it becomes. The birds react, the air feels different, the light has a colour I don’t otherwise know. Backlight and evening light I know. But this muted midday light with a tinge of orange-yellow — that’s something else.

The silhouettes of the trees and wild plants against that hazy sky — that’s what I tried to capture. Bare branches, grasses, a brick building jutting into the frame on the left. Not a perfect composition, but honest. That’s how it was.

The tripod did its job

For situations like that you need stability. I had my K&F Concept BH-28L Kugelkopf with me, which you can also see in the photo — black and orange, with a quick-release plate, in front of the hill panorama in the evening light. Sounds like a product photo, but it was simply my setup that day. The ball head does exactly what it’s supposed to: align quickly, hold securely, no wobbling during long exposures.

What remains

The evening after the eclipse was truly wonderful again. The sun set behind the chain of hills, wind turbines on the horizon, a hunting stand in the foreground, a field path leading into the warm light. That golden hour has something reconciling about it. You stand there, at some point you put the camera away, and just look.

Days like these — getting out, being outside, waiting for something that happens in the sky — have a real reset quality for me. Not a holiday, not an adventure, simply: being outside and paying attention. If you know that feeling, I’d recommend the book Wandern als Reset (in German) — it’s about exactly that, how simple breaks in nature can help you find your way back to yourself. No grand theory, just what I experience myself when I’ve had a day like this one.

If you’re often travelling by car and occasionally drive an electric vehicle: E-Mobil auf Tour (in German) is about hiking and travelling with an electric car — practical when you want to reach locations in the Saarland that are barely accessible by public transport.

And if you want to take those wide fields and the evening light — which was truly special that day — home with you: the wall art Stille Spuren im Sommerfeld as acrylic glass shows exactly that: fields, evening light, vastness. A hilly landscape that breathes — gentle and familiar. It fits well if you’ve experienced a day like that yourself.

Conclusion: Just go

I didn’t come away with perfect photos of the solar eclipse. But I spent the day outside, saw the Schaumberg in extraordinary light, and come back with a feeling I can’t put into words. That’s enough for me.