Rainbows I've captured with my cameras over the years.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

A rainbow in the mist over Niagara Falls seen from the Canadian side. (February 25, 2009)
[While looking through the leafless trees at the water's edge, a half arc rainbow starting from the middle of the waterline (the point where it goes over the edge) continuies to the left until a tree trunk stops visibility. The red is on top and the purple on the underside of the arc with yellow and a bit of green between them. The water is a deep blue and there are ice chunks near the water dropoff point.]

A rainbow in the distance in Hurrican Valley in Utah (August 25, 2010)
[A strip of yellow-brown sagebrush lines the bottom of the image with a greyed mountain range in the distance. There is a splash of light-blue in the middle with a few white clouds in the distance, but the near sky has a dark cloud over it. The rainbow starts at the sagebrush and extends nearly verticle to the sky. The red is on the left and the purple on the right with orange, yellow and green between them.]

A rainbow in the distance while driving eastward on Interstate 40 in Arizona (October 4, 2010)
[In between the shrub grass in the foreground and the mountains in the distant are two high powerline towers. To the left of the towers is a vibrant splash of rainbow extending from the mountain tops to white clouds in the sky above on a leftward slant. From left to right one can easily see green, yellow and red. The violet at the far left blends with the dark sky color.]

Another rainbow in the distance while driving eastward on Interstate 40 in Arizona (I saw four rainbows on that stretch of highway the morning of October 4, 2010.)
[Seeming to start behind the mountains in the distance, a colorful stripe extends skyward at a leftward slant. The lower part of the rainbow is brighter and all the colors more visible with violet on the left and red on the right with green, yellow, and orange in between. The upper part of the rainbow seems to run up through some dark clouds which mute the color in the upper part of the stripe. There is a roadsign with an exit for Silver Springs behind some large green shrubbery.]

An afternoon rainbow seen over the housing plan in Midland, Texas. (July 23, 2014)
[The bow's arc extends from behing a shingled rooftop in the lower right to a section of sky in the upper left. The sky is somewhat dark which mutes the colors of the rainbow, but violet, green, yellow, and orange-red are visible from left to right.]

A early morning rainbow seen over the housing plan in Midland, Texas. (September 18, 2014)
[Two photos were stitched together making the entire arc visible from the rooftop on the left to the fence posts on the right. The dark sky mutes the colors, but the yellow section is visible the entire arc and there are obvious color differences above and below the yellow.]

The rising sun must have hit some water particles to create this flash of color in the Jacksonville, Florida sky. (July 17, 2016)
[An opening in the white clouds provides a view of medium blue sky. In the middle of the blue is a rectangular swath of color. The sun was rising behind the clouds and there must have been a thin layer of cloud at just this point that acted as a prism and produced this rainbow effect of color. There is no arc and there is blue sky above, below, and on both sides of the color rectangle. The color from left to right is blue-green, yellow, and red.]

A rainbow in a bright, sunny sky in the Jacksonville, Florida sky, although it is possible rain is falling from the upper cloud and evaporating before reaching lower levels. (July 3, 2018)
[Two images are spliced together. The left image is the street view with the store and road signs visible in the lower foreground and the rainbow swath amid the puffy white clouds in the blue sky. The image on the right is a closer view of the clouds and the horizontal rainbow stripe amid them. There are wisps of white coming from the upper cloud area and going through the rainbow, so it's possible the sun reflecting off the rain is causing the color. The rainbow is red at the top and progresses through the color spectrum to the violet at the bottom.]

This morning rainbow straddled a six-lane boulevard in Jacksonville, Florida. (August 27, 2017)
[More than four photos spliced together to show the entire rainbow. There is a white space in the middle of the image where none of the photos captured that part of the scene and overlaps of the separate photos are obvious in several places. On the left, there is a shadow of a second rainbow to the left of the clearly visible one. While the road is not visible, the traffic lights at the intersection are visible as are power lines along the right side of the road. The yellow section of the rainbow is prominently visible throughout the arc. The other colors are there, but are somewhat muted since the sun was shining brightly.]

Sunrise rainbow in Jacksonville, Florida (October 11, 2020)
[An image of tall post carrying electric wires. Behind the post is a partial rainbow extending from the trees on the ground on the right to the upper left corner of the image and passing behind the post. The blue green yellow and red from inner to outer are distinctly visible in the upper left of the arc. The blue green is visible to the tree tops, but the lighter sky closer to the ground makes the colors less visible. That lighter sky is the clearer section of sky in the distance while the near section still has quite a few clouds and is darker.]

Daytime rainbow taken through a second-story dirty window in Jacksonville, Florida (August 31, 2024)
[Behind the four palm trees against a backdrop of near complete cloud cover is a partial rainbow extending from the tree tops on the lower right to midway on the left into the window frame. The bands of color are relatively wide and purle, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red are visible from inner to outer stripe across the sky.]

Return to top of page.

Return to sky photos index.

All photos © S. M. Garver