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Looking Behind The Rainbow

Looking Behind The Rainbow
Looking Behind The Rainbow

Looking Behind The Rainbow

This is a matter of perspective being CRUSHED by a long telephoto lens. What I’ve done here is zoom up on the left leg of a particularly well lit rainbow. It was a ways out anyway as this is a 1200mm lens about about a mile distant from the lens. Rainbows WAY out there are a requirement for this kind of image. Rainbows are infinitely movable as you change your position to the sun. All rainbows are on the other side of the sky from the sun since they are a refracted light phenomena. Zooming up on just the leg is the game. All rainbows are really big circles but you only see half most of the time due to your vantage point.

This “sheet” rainbow caused by liquid water drops was thin enough for me to shoot the landscape behind it. Those drops were refracting colors out of the bright sunlight at the end of this winter day. I climbed the nearest ridge and dropped my jaw. Good thing I remembered to pick it up and captures those reflected/refracted photons in my photon capture box. (camera).Remember Rainbows are alway away from the sunny side of the sky. Those rain drops each refract light back around internally to your eyes. You can look into just part of that rainbow you want a photo of. I chose those hay bales to try to resolve through the rainstorm.

Location: Bliss DInosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands (Wyotana).

Looking Through The Rainbow

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Crescent Moon Rising in Alpenglow

Crescent Moon Rising in Alpenglow
Crescent Moon Rising in Alpenglow

Crescent Moon Rising in Alpenglow is a very delicate capture taken in Nautical Twilight over 40 minutes before Sunrise. The 3 percent crescent was barely discernible to the naked eye. This 3 second time exposure brought it right out though (sly smile). 😊

The single star showing through is about the last star I could see even straight up. It wasn’t a planet as it was twinkling away and planets don’t twinkle normally. You can see stars in Nautical Twilight but by the time Civil twilight rolls around (28 minutes before sunrise), the stars are long gone.

This is a classic rainbow Alpenglow gradient red orange yellow green blue indigo (ROYGBIV). I see these fairly regularly in the winter. It is not often I see them with clouds about. Typically they form in a clear sky gradient. Either way there has to be a LOT of atmospheric Ice for this gradient to form . A photographer has to be on his game not to wash this delicate color balance one way or the other.

Getting the entire outline of the moon even as a crescent is more common low in the mists I find out. I’m not sure of the physics of this but I think the reduced light from the moon minimized the dynamic range difference and allows the camera to see into the shadow a bit. Our modern cameras have amazing abilities but our eyes see differences in light dynamic range WAY better than the cameras do.

Location: Bliss Dinosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands.

Title: Crescent Moon Rising in Alpenglow

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Looking Through the Rainbow

Looking Through the Rainbow
Looking Through the Rainbow

Looking through the rainbow is a difficult thing to do. At several miles out, this left leg of this rainbow was an effective filter for the landscape beyond. It gave me a whole new appreciation of this process .

I’ll be hit or miss on posting the next few days but I’m starting to figure out the software side of this gallery thing… . We are still having some bugs.

Have a great Sunday Night and I’m just happy to be able to post after my first weekend miss in several years.. :).

Location: Bliss Dinosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana..