Rainbows are rare phenomena; I don't remember ever catching one when I had the right (or any!) camera, location and ability to capture it.
So, it will come as no surprise that I wasn't going out to shoot a rainbow tonight. We had an afternoon rainstorm, and sometimes this makes for a brilliant sunset. The sun sending beams through the cloud layers, bright colors, nice contrast. That's what I was hoping for as I drove to my favorite 'cityscape skyline' spot at City Park.
Nearly there, rain letting up a bit, look to my right (East). Whoa, Nellie!!!
A near-perfect single rainbow with a second one forming to the North. Whip a quick turn into the park, pull over in the turnoff near the Denver Zoo, put on my flashers, grab the camera and jump out. 'Click'. Got one shot, at least!
Pull up further, park in a loading zone, dash out to the baseball fields, the single rainbow is clear, but no double. Click off several frames, bracketing each shot.
One of these is shot # 1, K10D, Miranda 24mm f/4.5, 1/125s, ISO 100.
2) Four minutes later, the double had reappeared and I got this photo. Same camera, lens and ISO. F/6.7, 1/90s.
3) After about ten minutes a strange thing happened. The double faded and the original rainbow became split vertically, the 'top' was covered by a cloud so only a short section near the ground was visible. I ran back to the car and put the smc A 135mm on for this photo; f/5.6, 1/180, EV -1.0. This shot is full frame.
4) More unusual happenings 5 minutes later. The sky to the North (left in photo) became darker and the division of dark/light lined up exactly behind the remaining fragment of rainbow. K10D, smc A 135mm, f/8.0, 1/90s, ISO 100, -1.0 EV, no crop.
Within minutes, it was gone, but I had dozens of exposures, mostly bracketed in 1/3 stop increments. Whew! What a lucky find!
But Ron, (you might ask) did you ever get the sunset?
5) Yes, and it was pretty cool, too. K10D, Miranda 24mm @ f/8.0, 0.7s, ISO 100, tripod, cable release.
Sorry about the lengthy description, but I'm still excited about the strange and lucky turn of events and have 167 photos to prove it!
Ron

[daacon]

Well worth the effort ! Nice series.

[rbefly]

Hi Dave, I appreciate your comments. I feel pretty fortunate to capture the rainbow as well as I could, but wish it had been brighter out, it stayed cloudy and gray the whole time. I've seen rainbows in full sunshine or a clear break in the clouds, but (again) didn't have a camera with me.
Oh, well, maybe next time!
Ron