Fisheye Double Rainbow

Fisheye Double RainbowSunset in Mount Crested Butte brings and intense, complete, double rainbow after a clearing thunderstorm.

We have reached that awkward time between summer and fall in the high country. It's cooler in the day and downright chilly at night but the foliage is still green. There may even be a little frost in the mornings in the lower valleys. But it gets warm enough in the afternoons to spawn a few thunderstorms. They usually clear by sunset leaving us with cool air and even cooler skies.

A few weeks ago we experienced one of the coolest skies I've ever seen. The most intense double rainbow formed across the street from my home and lasted for what seemed like an hour. Seriously, it lasted about 20 minutes. It happened right at sunset which created a complete, intense, double rainbow over Crested Butte Mountain.

The sight lasted long enough for me to get to my car and swap my standard 24-120mm Nikkor lens for the 10.5 mm fisheye which I knew would show both ends of the rainbows. It also tends to distort items at the edges but it was worth the trade-off. All my neighbors were on their decks enjoying the show. I started on my deck but my hummingbird feeders and the railings were interrupting the view so I went to the parking lot. As the sun got lower the colors became more and more intense. The show was quite a blessing!

Most of the photographs I show here are images I created with the hope of them ending up on someone's wall. This one doesn't really have that appeal. I doubt I will ever sell or even make a print of this double rainbow. But, it was a great experience anyway.

So, about photographing rainbows. A very wide angle lens is a must if you're hoping to capture both ends. The panorama mode on your phone works well too. A 16mm just barely does it at sunset on a full-frame digital or film camera. And that only works at sunset since the higher the sun is, the wider the rainbow is. This photo was taken with a lens of approximately 15mm. My preference for rainbow photography involves using a polarizing filter which helps separate the rainbow from the clouds and brightens the colors a little bit. I did not use a filter for this photo since they don't fit either of my widest-angle lenses. I had to settle for what nature provided. This time, nature did just fine. I used the fisheye lens knowing it would distort the corners of the photo but hoping nobody would be looking into the corners. There's nothing to see there! The building and the rainbow look normal in the scene.

And, that's the story behind "Fisheye Double Rainbow".