Nickyitis – An Epidemic of Humorous Proportions

Oh no! Just as I’m about to exit the highway this morning a guy pulls in front of me, someone who was CLEARLY going to be slow as could be. And the road is pure single-lane for sooo long. I COULD have zipped around and in front but decided – heck – let’s be laid back.

And I was rewarded for my decision. Because he WAS slow and therefore I was positioned at a break in the trees when a rainbow appeared – one which seemed to be a double. Interesting, but of no use to me seeing as there was no place to stop. However, it primed me to be rainbow aware. Because of my dawdling friend (and my subsequent enforced vehicular sauntering) I pulled up to an intersection just fractionally after a new rainbow appeared and it was BRIGHT. If I’d arrived mere seconds earlier I’d have turned and not have been positioned to see it. As it was, I was able to make a split second change in plans and zip across the intersection and onto the shoulder.

Leaping out of the car, I pulled my point-and-shoot out and pointed and shot. I knew that rainbows can come and go in an instant and I had to be fast. And here it is:

Okay, be honest. That pretty much stinks, doesn’t it? It would have been great if I’d been in the habit of carrying my serious gear along with me as well, wouldn’t it? Wait a second – I AM in the habit of carrying my serious gear around with me. That’s why after snapping the PAS shot I dove into my trunk and therein saw my camera with a long telephoto lens attached. AIEEE, I’d been shooting a hawk last time. Quick, quick – change lenses. And shoot. And shoot again. And change the settings and shoot some more.

The result of this frantic activity? This:

Cooool!. There’s definitely more than one rainbow there. In fact, I see two, no three, no, wait – four?

Time for Photoshop. Let’s just amp up the saturation and contrast:

Not three – not four – but five rainbows (although the fifth is pretty darn faint. If you scroll up and down it’s easier to see. I’m even able to halfway convince myself there’s a sixth.)

Isn’t that nifty? Might have been even better if I’d gone for the serious gear initially since when I first pulled off the road the rainbow(s) were really intense and they’d started to die when I really got started. And, as predicted, within a few seconds the whole show disappeared, leaving a featureless gray sky.

But the memory lives on.

- And that’s today’s word from the bird