The rainbow is a bridge between the real and imaginary. It is looked at as a magic bridge on one hand, but on the other hand, people say a project doomed to fail is one built on a rainbow.
A person who chases rainbows is someone who never accomplishes anything.
The traditional rainbow is sunlight spread out into its spectrum of colors and diverted to the eye of the observer by water droplets. The "bow" part of the word describes the fact that the rainbow is a group of nearly circular arcs of color all having a common center. Most people have never noticed that the sun is always behind you when you face a rainbow, and that the center of the circular arc of the rainbow is in the direction opposite to that of the sun. The rain, of course, is in the direction of the rainbow.
The traditional description of the rainbow is that it is made up of seven colors. Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet. Actually, the rainbow is alot of colors from red to violet and even beyond the colors that the eye can see. ( Many of us remember them as ROY G BIV. ) The order of colors in a rainbow never changes. The reason they appear in that order is because the seven light frequencies are bent and separated at different angles. The brightness of a rainbow depends on the size of the raindrop that the sunlight was bent through. The larger the raindrop is, the more brilliant the rainbow will appear.
The color order of the rainbow, starts with red at the outer edge and moves through the colors to violet. The brightness and the width of the bands and colors may vary greatly in an instant of time while you watch a rainbow and are related to the size of the drops that form the bow. The colors at the base of a rainbow are different from those at the top. Most rainbows only contain red near the ground. It is very rare that red is seen at the top of the rainbow.
Are there only seven colors? Isaac Newton believed in numerology and thought special numbers governed all natural phenomena. Seven is a very special number. There are seven days in the week, seven openings in our head, seven seas, seven continents and many other important sevens. So, of course he found exactly seven colors. In reality, the rainbow colors merge gradually into one another. Our eyes sort them into groupings. How many colors are in the rainbow? Anywhere from three to, as many as, several thousand. It depends on who is counting and what they believe is there.
Sometimes we see two rainbows at once. The larger rainbow we normally see is called the primary rainbow and is produced by one internal reflection; the secondary rainbow arises from two internal reflections. The color sequence is reversed; red is on the inside edge. And because there is a loss of light with each reflection, it is not as bright as the primary rainbow. When sunlight enters a drop of water, a part of it does not pass directly through but is reflected from the inner surface and emerges from the side from which it entered. It is refracted both on entering and leaving the water drop. This process, repeated in the same manner for an immense number of drops, produces the primary rainbow, which appears in front of the observer, who has his back to the sun. It has the red band on the outer edge which are long light waves and the blue-to-violet on the inner edge which are short light waves.
People all over the world have different beliefs and different ways of looking at and understanding the same thing. We can be sure when a rainbow appears everyone is struck by its magic and its beauty. There is no doubt of that. What is the real meaning of the rainbow? Go look at one and you will know. Without words, without pictures, with a feeling inside you. Yes, there are things we just know and those are the important things in our life. The things that do not need words.
The rainbow's colors are like people, I have never known two to be exactly alike. To really understand the colors of the rainbow study them closely when they appear and come to your own conclusions.
Can you go under a rainbow's arch and come out the other side? Not according to the laws of physics. A rainbow is all light and water. It is always in front of you while your back is to the sun. However, there is an old European belief that anyone passing beneath the rainbow would be transformed, man into woman, woman into man! Hmmm...
The idea that a pot of gold can be found at the rainbow's end originated somewhere in old Europe. In Silesia, an obscure area of eastern Europe, it was said that the angels put the gold there and that only a nude man could obtain the prize. Hmmm...
Do two people ever see the same rainbow? No. As the eyes of two people cannot occupy the same place in space at the same time, each observer sees a different rainbow. Why? Because the raindrops are constantly in motion so its appearance is always changing. Each time you see a rainbow, it is unique in its own spectacular way!
Many people consider rainbows to be an omen of some kind. The legends of many cultures see the rainbow as a kind of bridge between heaven and earth. One of the most beautiful sights in nature, the rainbow has become in western culture a symbol of renewed hope; something lucky to look upon.
To Iranian Moslems, even the brilliance of the colors in a rainbow have significance. A prominent green means abundance, red means war, and yellow brings death.
The Arawak Indians of South America recognize the rainbow as a fortunate sign if it is seen over the ocean, while tribes in northeastern Siberia see it as the tongue of the sun.
The North American Catawba Indians of the Southeast and the Tlingit of the Northwest both regard it as the bridge between the living and the dead.
Other Native Americans believe the rainbow is made from the souls of wild flowers that lived in the forest and lilies from the prairies.
In a German creation myth the rainbow is the bowl God used to hold his paints while coloring the birds.
In Greenland the rainbow is the hem of God's garments.
In Africa the rainbow encircles the earth and is a guardian to heaven.
Some Buddhists believe the seven colors of the rainbow relate to the seven planets and the seven regions of the earth.
In Christianity the rainbow is the pardon, the reconciliation between God and humanity. It is the throne of the last judgment. The bible compares the rainbow to the brightness of God's throne. The Old Testament tells of God showing Noah a rainbow after the flood had stopped. It was a sign that God was putting his "Bow" down and would never destroy the Earth by flooding again.
In ancient Christian symbolism the rainbows principal colors are red, blue and green for fire, flood and earth.
Bright sun to your back and rain clouds off in the distance in the direction of your shadow.
If it is later than 4:00 to 4:30 in the afternoon or earlier than 8:30 to 9:00 in the morning and the above conditions are present, there is a very good chance that you'll find a rainbow.
If one time you don't see one keep on looking.
Knowing when and where to look means you will find a lot more rainbows than most people.
After two decades of severe weather photography,
Jim Reed, professional photographer and storm chaser,
has had ample opportunity to master the art of shooting
weather in general, and rainbows in particular.
Reed recounts, "For seven years, I worked to get a really terrific rainbow shot,
and I finally got one: a double rainbow so vivid that the primary rainbow looks artificial."
Predicting when a rainbow will appear is fairly simple.
"When you're near bright sun and heavy rain at the same time,
a full or partial rainbow is likely to occur within a few minutes," Reed says.
And for a photographer, it's important to be ready to shoot quickly
when the rainbow intensifies,
and to know how to capture the brilliance and colors.
Reed offers the following tips for getting great photos of rainbows.
When you anticipate a rainbow, have your camera within arm's reach,
loaded with film and ready to shoot. Use slide film, such as Fujichrome Provia 100F.
"It's the finest grain 35 mm slide film out there, to the best of my knowledge," Reed says.
"Slide film typically records the colors of a rainbow better than negative film."
Always use a neutral-tone polarizing filter to help bring out the colors of a rainbow.
Act swiftly. The rainbow may last several minutes or as little as a few seconds.
Underexpose rainbow shots slightly.
Reed typically stops down 1 to 1.5 stops, and brackets when time allows.
According to Reed, both rain and high humidity
can cause a natural "soft" appearance and affect the overall look of the image.
Reed cautions photographers to mind their safety when shooting rainbows:
"Pay close attention to your surroundings and potential hazards,
such as traffic, hail, lightning, and muddy roads.
Shoot only when you can do so safely."
