SnapshotPhotographer injured chasing double rainbow

Mike Grandmaison's new book of photographs, Prairie and Beyond, is packed with full-colour images of the Canadian landscape. So SCENE asked the photographer to pick one image and tell us how he got it. 

Rainbows are fleeting, elusive and short-lived. As a result, many images of rainbows lack interesting foreground. By the time you find an appropriate foreground, the rainbow has often waned.

 

On this particular occasion, I was traveling with a colleague in southern Manitoba. We had enjoyed a very pleasant day photographing agriculture but now rain had finally settled in an hour before sunset and it was doubtful whether the skies would clear before sunset. 

My colleague insisted that we would see a rainbow before day's end so I followed him in my vehicle. For much of the next hour, we zigzagged down gravel roads towards the storm in search of an opening in the sky. We finally came upon a break in the sky and noticed a double rainbow shining brightly on the bales in a farmer's field.

 

As the adrenaline began to flow, I jumped out of my vehicle, grabbed my tripod-mounted camera and began running towards the bales. The rain had not yet stopped and the light was rather dim. I attempted to cross the ditch but, in my haste, I had not realized that the ditch was rather deep. 

I landed head first on the far side and heard a disturbing, crunchy sound. I remained motionless for a few seconds, trying to figure out whether I had possibly broken my neck or some other bone. I slowly began to move my head, then my arms and so on until it became clear that I was probably unharmed, except for minor cuts and bruises on my face, hands and arms. It also became clear that my glasses had broken in the process.

 

Realizing that there were but a few minutes of light left before the sun would dip below the horizon, I quickly ran back to my vehicle to fetch a spare set of eye glasses that I always carry in my glove compartment. I returned and quickly captured about a half dozen compositions before the sun disappeared. A polarizing filter intensified the scene by gathering all the stray light and focusing it in one direction only.

I was fortunate not to have hurt myself seriously, suffering only wounded pride in the process.