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One thing Liz and I noticed on our arrival in Estes Park, just on the edge of the Rocky Mountains, was just how dry the air was.
Our lips dried out and every time we touched a metal fixing we got a small shock from the static electricity that that built up in our clothing.
All that is leading up to the fact that, with over 300 sunny days per year, the high plains of Colorado don't see much rain, unlike back home in North Wales.
So I was quite suprised at the reaction of my fellow guests in the Historic Crags Lodge when, during a brief and rare rain shower, this rainbow appeared.
It was greeted with almost as much enthusiasm as we saw in a group of Australian teenagers at their first ever sight of snow up at the Alpine Visitor Centre a few days later!
Everyone was oohing and aahing and taking photos like crazy, so I thought I'd better join in, especially as I was carrying my Canon 6D fitted with a 100-400mm zoom at the time, having just finished photographing the Rocky Mountains in the early morning light.
The view towards the rainbow was cluttered with pine trees, so I scouted around a bit till I found this hole through the branches, making a nice dark frame around the bright colours of the rainbow as it touched the peaks of The Needles range just to the north of Estes Park.
A few frames was all I as able to take before the rain shower faded away, along with the rainbow, and everyone returned to their breakfasts.
In the end, although it was very much of an impromptu photograph, I'm rather pleased with how the final image has turned out.
It won't win any prizes for technical excellence, but that's not the point is it.
Filename - rainbow rocky mountains 01.jpg
Camera - Canon EOS 6D
Lens - 100-400mm zoom @ 100mm
Exposure - 1/100 sec @ f11, ISO400
Location - Estes Park, Colorado, U.S.A.
This image - 800x533px JPEG
Conversion - Adobe Lightroom
Comments - Tripod, mirror lock-up and cable release used to prevent camera movement during exposure
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