Your first shot above shows the ~10x difference in light between eclipsed and non-eclipsed and why you went from proper exposure to underexposed. Thanks to the experts for mentioning meter weighting and bracketing! I had missed setting my weighting correctly, for sure, but wasn't depending upon it as I was doing everything manually via the Fv mode (more or less manual mode) and could see the results on my screen shooting mirrorless. I still have a lot to learn and get used to all of the multifunction button features. And especially using more of my brain! Shooting film was SO much simpler with fewer options and decisions to make, and having only 36 shots on a roll made me think a lot more before releasing the shutter. I got lazy and used auto or P for nearly everything and with digital figured I could take an infinite amount of pics and just didn't focus (pun) on framing/composition/subject/color/lighting/DOF, etc. etc. I can see why folks still shoot film!
To practice for next year it seems to me like we should probably get the inexpensive ND filters to dial down the light from a full moon. We could also practice on a first/last days crescent moon and work to get as much details at the boundary of dark and light as possible in those conditions. Working on that might give us ideas to get pretty close to settings for our lens setups for the 2026 event (weather permitting, of course!).
