For nearly all of my biggest shots—the photographs that feature the most undeniable moments of light and atmosphere in the natural world—there’s a clusterfuck of poor and questionable decisions by me behind the lens!  Mistakes that nearly derail the capture.  That YouTube video that we all watch of the some person who shows up over an hour early, picks the composition, readies their gear, and then peacefully captures a beautiful set of images throughout the event…yeah, that’s not me.  That’s not how it goes down in my world.  I’m a kinetic photographer.  The more excitement in the environment/atmosphere, the more I want to move around.  Things can get chaotic! 

It rained all afternoon in Nags Head on this day.  We were cocooned in our warm rental.  The rest was much needed.  Not everyone knows this, but I love rain days.  For many reasons, but in this case, because it gave me an excuse to slow down and stop.  The forecast called for rain all the way up to sunset, at which point it showed a rapid clearing.  I had about 10% faith that anything remotely similar would play out in real time.  But, it was an interesting forecast.  There was potential.

It wasn’t with great enthusiasm, but I got myself out of the house and into the truck and motored over to downtown Manteo.  I figured, even if the clearing didn’t happen right at sunset, the calming winds would still provide opportunity to catch the Roanoke Marshes Lighthouse reflecting at dusk.  The rain was light but consistent when I parked in front of the Roanoke Island Inn.  I had about forty-five minutes until sunset; I shut things down, reclined the seat and might have even dosed a bit.  Right at sunset—just as the forecast called—I noticed in my left-hand mirror that a strip of clear blue sky was coming right at me from the west.  Things were looking spicy.  Like the reactionary idiot I am, my body filled with excitement and my mind started thinking about motion:  where should I move to best use this to my advantage.  Instead of being patient and staying on the shot I had planned, I fired up the truck and drove over to Roanoke Island Festival Park.

Right as I parked, the left arm of a beautiful rainbow formed over the channel between the Roanoke Sound and downtown.  I’d like to say that I immediately took action, any action.  I didn’t.  I just stared.  And froze a bit.  It took my mind a few beats to put things together.  In that span of inaction, the full rainbow realized, and a second—the double rainbow—even began to form.  And it hit me, this rainbow is over the lighthouse.  Right now.  What are you doing?  You have to go back!

Back into the truck, speed back to the parking space I just left, grab my bag and tripod.  I clumsily run out to the waterfront boardwalk, ram my camera into the tripod bracket, and turn the power on.  Nothing.  No life.  Shit.  I left the battery in the charger.  On the wall.  Back at the rental house.  Down into the camera bag, fish out a new battery, pop it into the camera and fire it up.  Pop a test frame.  No rainbow.  What?  Circular polarizer on the lens.  Shit, again.  To rotate or just take off?  Let’s try rotate.  Fire off six to eight more photos.  Did I get them?  Chimp in a bit to check.  Blurry.  Blurry.  Shit.  What the hell is going on?  Realize my two-second delay setting isn’t activated (I had turned it off that morning to shoot waves).  The clip and bracket connection aren’t tight between my camera and tripod:  something needs adjustment.  I’ve known this for over a week now.  Okay, get the setting on and fire off a series of half a dozen more frames.  They look sharp.  The rainbow is present.  Wow, this thing is really staying around for awhile!  Okay, now, move left and right, up and down.  Compose this thing the best you can.  Finally.  Got a shot.

I can’t help but wonder what I could have captured if I had just stayed where I was and had the gear more readily available; if I had more time to address mistakes before the critical moment.  Then again, I did do one thing right.  I was out—of the house, outside, in a beautiful location.  I gave myself a chance.  I’ll take that as a win. 

Camera:  Nikon D850
Lens:  Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8 @56mm
Tripod:  Really Right Stuff TVC-33

Date taken:  January 18, 2025
Settings:  f11, 1.3 second, iso 64