While on a trip in Eagle County, near Vail, a quick-moving thunderstorm overcame me. I waited it out and knew that when it started to clear, a rainbow would appear.

It was late evening and the rainbow showed up to the southeast. A rainbow shot in the late evening will look better than one shot at midday because the sky later in the day is darker, thus the colors will stand out more.

Making the picture

• The challenge: Figuring out the best exposure time for photographing a rainbow in the evening.

• The solution: I took a tight reading right off the rainbow. Then I backed my zoom off to about 105mm lens but did not change any settings. I composed my picture the way I wanted and took my shots.

• The gear: I shot this image with my Nikon D2H, with a 70-200 Nikon zoom. I used an ISO of 400, a shutter speed of 125 and an f/stop of 8.

papaleok@RockyMountainNews.com