how to photograph beautiful rainbows

Rainbow and Bride at Snoqualmie Falls.

First, you have to find a rainbow. That's the easy part. Stand with the sun at your back (you have to have sunlight to see a rainbow) and look 42 degrees to left or right, and you'll see a rainbow - if there's any water in the atmosphere.

It doesn't matter where the water comes from - rain, a waterfall, a lawn sprinkler, a fountain - if there's water in the air, and if you're between it and the sun, you should be able to see a rainbow.

Best time to look - sunrise or sunset, when you'll see the largest rainbows. These will be so large, you'll need a wide angle lens to photograph the entire rainbow - a 20mm lens on a 35mm camera.

With a longer lens, you can can focus on the end of the rainbow, and compose other objects with it in your photograph.

No interesting objects near your rainbow? Here's a tip - you can move the entire rainbow! Just move to the right or left and the entire rainbow will move with you!

One of my favorite rainbow photography stories is about how Galen Rowell photographed a rainbow over the Potala (home of the Dalai Lama) in Lhasa, Tibet.

As he was getting off the airplane he realized that rainbows would be visible. He then ran several miles to get to the right place to make his photograph - which shows the end of the rainbow at the Potala!

In the photo above, I moved a bride and myself several miles down a muddy trail, to get to the right place to photograph her with a rainbow at Snoqualmie Falls.

If you have a polarizing filter you can use it to make the rainbow stand out more. Rainbows are found opposite the sun, which is also where a polarizing filter has maximum effect. Try rotating the filter to get the effect that you like.

You may want to use a small aperture to mazimize depth-of-field. As light levels will probably be low, particularly if you use a polarizing filter (which will lower the light level by about two stops), you should use a sturdy tripod or other camera support, to prevent camera movement from ruining your beautiful rainbow photogaph!