In 2017 I had the privilege to witness and photograph a total solar eclipse in Salem, Oregon. Over the years since, I had photographed a recurring gesture where a human subject raises their hand toward or to block a light source–either the sun or a flash unit. The occurrence of another eclipse in summer 2023 triggered a connection in my mind between the hand gesture and the solar event.  On several hot days in August 2023, I made shoots of my own hand blocking or partially blocking the sun. During one of them, vultures appeared in the sky, and I took pictures.  As the montage evolved, I also felt a connection between the white of paper with light and ground in art and black ink with space and the absence of light.