Tag Archives: rainbow

Airliner Vapor In To SEA

If you were to ask people what characteristic Seattle would be known for, I suspect a fair few people would tell you it is rain.  It is true that we have damp winters here but summers (while a little late in starting) are actually rather dry.  However, we can still have some humid conditions which can be good for forming vapor and, if you watch the jets heading in to SEA, you will often see vortices streaming off the flaps and the occasional puffs of moisture above the wings.

Occasionally, the conditions are just right and you get a lot more vapor.  Better still, if this happens in sunny conditions and the planes are slightly backlit, you can get some lovely rainbow effects showing up.  I got lucky with one such day.  Asiana had an A350 coming in at this time so I was treated to some interesting effects.  A Lufthansa 747 and CargoLogic 777F also arrived but I decided to go with video on those to show off the fleeting nature of the vapor is it formed and dissipated.

Rainbows Over Paine Field

A cloudy/rainy day in the Northwest can also coincide with a nicer evening.  This can bring some nice dark and stormy backgrounds for shots of planes with good light.  It does also mean that the background can have rain falling when the sun is out and that means rainbows.  The rain at Everett was a bit localized so we didn’t get a full rainbow.  Instead, I could see the two ends at the ground but no rainbow in between.  However, the one end was sitting right over Boeing’s ramp and it looked rather appealing.  Not sure whether the KC-46 at the end of the rainbow is a pot of gold, though.

Low Rainbow for Winter

The weather may have been highly variable for my visit to Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge, this did have a side benefit.  Lots of rain followed by sudden sun means a good chance of a rainbow.  That is exactly what we got.  The rainbow was very wide and flat which I assume is a function of the sun angle at this time of year.  It looked pretty unusual and very cool so I figured I would share it here!

Rainbow Over Culver Cliff

Mum and I drove along the shore of Sandown Bay while I was visiting.  The rain was blowing through and the result was a rainbow that was hanging over the cliffs up on Culver.  I had a long lens on at the time so my only option was to try and shoot a bunch of images and create a panorama.  I didn’t do a good job of it because I missed some areas and the software struggled to align the images because there was so much sky so I ended up sorting it out by hand.  This shot was the result.

Rainbow Fireboat

AU0E4281.jpgDuring the Parade of Ships for San Francisco Fleet Week, the first warship was led by a fireboat from the City. It sprayed water from its hoses to provide a focal point to the parade. As it got closer to us, the angle of the light and the mist from the fire hoses resulted in a clear rainbow forming in front of the fireboat. It looked pretty cool and I am not sure the photos really do it justice. However, here is a shot to show you pretty much what we saw.

DC-7 Tanker

C59F8125-HDR.jpgI previously posted an item about the DC-7 tanker that was parked up on the Erickson ramp. Over the course of the few days we were there, this aircraft had a few visits from me. It’s positioning was not always ideal for what I wanted. The evening light was often great for photos but, sadly, the aircraft was almost exactly tail on to the setting sun. However, that did provide some silhouette options as well as playing with HDR to see if I could come up with something I liked.

C59F8084.jpgOne morning the sun came up as there was still some rain in the area. There was some good light on the nose for a while but the best option was the rainbow that formed in the background and was well aligned with the aircraft. I tried a variety of things over the days and some of those results are here. Of course, it would have been far more fun to see it in action!

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Rainbow

AU0E8863.jpg Rainbows are very pretty. Having a rainbow in a beautiful setting is excellent. Next to an interstate – not so much. You take what you get, though. This rainbow came out when the storm had passed through near O’Hare. We all started shooting it. Here you get a view of the back of Koz while he was shooting the rainbow. His vest is a little brighter than it was!

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Rainbow Phantom

wpid9832-C59F9200.jpgIn going through my archive recently for a piece for Global Aviation Resource, I was searching through old shots of F-4 Phantoms.  I noticed one that I hadn’t recalled taking but that seemed pretty cool.  Occasionally jets pull ‘g’ when above you and the angle of the sun makes the vapor project a rainbow.  This was one of those moments.