Right Time, Right Place, Wrong Lens

It was one of those rare occasions that I had some free time and the weather looked interesting. By interesting I mean changeable. Changeable is one of my favourite weather phrases when I’m considering going out to take landscape photographs. I was pottering around the south west corner of the Yorkshire Dales when I came to Ribblehead Viaduct, one of the seven wonders of Britain. The sky was clear and blue with a few fluffy clouds, so rather than lug all my gear from the car park near the Station Inn, I shoved a couple of cards and a battery into my pocket and fitted my general purpose lens of choice, the 24 to 105mm, to the front of my camera and off I went.

I spent pleasant quarter of an hour making photographs of the shadows cast by the bridge and wacky architectural views. I looked behind me and noticed that the clouds had blown up from Dentdale and there was the beginning of a rainbow. As I made my way under the viaduct I could see that the full rainbow had formed, but I need to be further away so that I could get the full span of both the bridge and the rainbow in the same image. But no matter how fast I tried to run over the tussocks of moorland grass and stagger over walls, I couldn’t get back far enough to get the complete rainbow. After I ran out of breath and considered the matter, I realised that I was, in effect, chasing the rainbow, a thing only fools do. With my 24mm lens, I’d never get it all in the frame. The appropriate lens was in the car. The rainbow faded 20 seconds later. I was cursing my lack of preparation, I know that the secret to rainbow photography is to be in the right place at the right time with the right lens. The right place and right time are just luck, not having the right lens is stupidity. I should have been able to predict that a rainbow might have occurred

However, it turns out that even these black clouds have a silver lining. Months later I entered the image into a photo competition run by a company that makes water pumps. The theme unsurprisingly was ‘water’. I was delighted to win second prize, receive £500 and see my photo printed on a calendar.