Rainbow - July 4, 2013

The clouds were directly overhead of the house and I was on the driveway out front when I spotted a rainbow in the sky.  Hopped in the car and started driving east on McKnight blvd towards Conrich. The rainbow wasn't fully formed but the left leg was pretty strong. I stopped at the side of the road and made a couple shots with a longer lens to compress the landscape and zoom in on the horizon. I drove east some more, getting closer to the storm front. As I got closer the rainbow started to get stronger and soon I could see the whole thing. Next was to find a vantage point from which to shoot from. The fields are just starting to turn yellow so I turned off the main highway and onto a gravel road heading north to try and find a composition that would include the fields.

Rainbows are positional in that if you move or change the angle between you, the sun and the rain that's falling, the rainbow will move. If the angle changes too much the rainbow can disappear. As I drove north I was hoping that the rainbow wouldn't up and vanish. I came across this side road, stopped driving, hopped out and started making photos.

I like this one because of the access road in it. I had a few where I was further to the left and it was just field but this one has some nice leading lines and the access road helps break up the foreground. There are also some power lines coming in from the upper right. I thought about cloning them out but decided to leave them in as they also help to direct the eye towards the center of the frame.



Chasing the rainbow further east, I ended up close to Lyalta. The leg of the rainbow was very strong and I stopped and tried to frame it against the telegraph pole.

Since I was in the area, I kept on going to an area where I`d shot snowy owls in the winter. I wanted to see if the rainbow would line up against the train tracks as they converged into the eastern horizon. As it turned out it didn`t line up the way I`d hoped, but looking west there was some interesting light as the sun moved in and out of the clouds.

I love all the textures in this shot.

I made a few other photos today and you can find them here if/when I upload them.

Thanks for looking
Brad.