Picture-a-week 51: Sunday morning rainbow
It was raining when we left the house this morning for the daily walk to the beach to watch the sun rise. Umbrellas were the order of the day. On wet mornings I carry the tiny Panasonic LX1 rather than the larger Canon XTi. The Panasonic has the virtue of being much easier to shield from the rain. If necessary, I just pop the whole thing into a plastic bag and head into the deluge.
We moved from the beach to the back roads on our return walk after a pretty good rain squall moved in. We were on Kekio Road in the back of Kaaawa when a dramatic double rainbow formed.
I first tried to capture an image of the whole rainbow and it’s double, but even with its 28mm equivalent wide angle, the LX1 couldn’t quite fit the whole view. And even as it got close, I had trouble with the intruding utility wires and the lens distortion that made houses in the foreground look strange.
In the end, my favorite shot was taken after I abandoned the broad perspective and accepted the wires as part of the scene. Here the rainbow retains its brilliant colors, but the viewer is left to imagine it’s overall dimensions. Somehow this sparce approach worked better than the frantic attempt to jam everything possible into the single frame.
Panasonic LX1 • 25.2mm (35mm equiv of 112mm) • f/4.9 • 1/125 sec • ISO 80
