Chasing Light: Reflections

Just a few seconds before the sun pops over the Continental Divide, Dillon Reservoir is aglow with reflected color from the warming sky.

At the other end of the day, evening light silhouettes Peak 1, a familiar outline for anyone passing near Frisco.

A September rainbow graces the sky over Dillon Reservoir.

If photography is about chasing light, then taking pictures of rainbows distills that pursuit down to its essence. The arcs of pure light that grace Colorado skies during the spring, summer and fall are very much in-your-face and elusive at the same time. But sometimes you can anticipate them, especially if you’re tuned into how and why they appear. For example, here in Frisco, I know that, if a thunderstorm with heavy rain passes from west to east during the mid- or late-afternoon, a rainbow will form over Dillon Reservoir once the sun emerges from beneath the clouds in the west. That gives me time to grab my camera and race down to the edge of the wetlands to set up for a good shot.

Similarly, I can often glance out the window before sunrise or as dusk approaches and get a pretty good idea if the sky is going to give a good show. Sometimes it means dropping everything (even my fork in the middle of dinner) to get to the right spot in time!