Flights: Rainbows & Sunsets

This post is a collection of sunsets and rainbows taken from the airplane in the past 5 weeks or so. For those that don’t know, I have a bit of a sunset fetish, stopping my day to do the sun druid thing, staring at the ball of light going down over the horizon. It’s a painting in the sky on a daily basis where no two are the same.

There are a lot of technicalities around sunsets. If you take the time to watch them for a while, it will become evident that they can be predictable to some degree. Its all about light quantity, tone, and reflection. About half the time I can call in advance if the sunset is going to be explosive or dull.

That leads to a problem when it comes to aviation. By the time I make the call, it has historically taken too long to get the airport. No pictures for me! With the airplane off the doorstep, there have been many, many mad scrambles to go up before the sun goes down and try to capture the light.

A secondary problem is that I cannot fly past sunset due to lack of lights. Hence, the blazing ball of nuclear light has to be above the horizon, making it hard to point the camera right at it without bleaching it out. I then focus on flying up to 10,000 feet and capturing pre-sunset evening light bathing on snow clad peaks. In effect, I am photographing in the opposite direction of the sunset, and before it happens, a new challenge. So far I am pleased with the results. If you’re observant, you can see the snow line receding as summer approaches.

The rainbows speak for themselves. Chasing rainbows is about as annoying as a fickle mistress, glorious displays of color showing up and disappearing by the time I take off. I had to outsmart these things so I could capture them.

Swan Valley, ID & Snake River Range