Catching the Ephemeral

Nothing is more changeable than the sky, and and nothing more fleeting than rainbows. When they appear, you shoot, and sometimes the result is excellent. I grabbed this one from the Westfield mall at Marion, South Australia, on May 24^th, 2012. I was probably on my way home from the university, as I was at the bus stops serving the route, and living close by at the time. I often carried the camera for opportunistic shooting in those days, and got many interesting studies of the sky and buildings. This storm went through in the afternoon, leaving a strong rainbow to the east, and I was able to shoot a whole sequence. Here, the rush of traffic on Sturt Road creates the business of human occupation, while the rainbow is the hand of nature, oblivious of human doing—a dichotomy I always enjoy. This is perhaps the most careful framing of the effect in the shoot, with telephoto employed to compress the perspective between the foreground and the rainbow. Minor adjustments to colour, contrast and sharpness in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.