Chelle enjoys the rainbow after all the rain the past couple days at Ocean Isle Beach, NC. [Nikon D5, 14-24mm, ISO 8000, ƒ/22, 1/100]

“Luck Is What Happens When Preparation Meets Opportunity”

– Roman philosopher Seneca

There are times for photographers when you happen to be in the right place at the right time. Last night was one of those times for me. It had been raining all day, and we washed our day at the beach.

I will put my rainbow in the clouds to be a sign of my promise to the earth.

Genesis 9:13

Now to get this photo, you cannot use your smartphone. It would help if you had a super wide-angle lens. For this photo, I used my Nikon 14-24mm ƒ/2.8 lens to be able to capture the complete rainbow. The lens captures 114º of view, enough to capture the whole rainbow for my photo.

After shooting some shots up at the house we are renting, I realized that if I go to the beach, I can eliminate all the foreground that wasn’t as pleasing.

By going to the beach, I could clean up the foreground. Now I started to want something else in the photo other than just the rainbow.

So I waited as birds flew into the frame and shot a few of them. But then my daughter wanting to get closer to see what I was seeing, walked into the frame. I asked her to walk to me, and the top photo was one of the best frames.

Because your back will be towards the sun when photographing a rainbow, the light at the end of the day was on my daughter’s face, so there was no need to improve the already wonderful light.

This is an excellent example of taking your camera gear and not just relying on your smartphone.