Behind Every Rainbow Is A Story
It had been a busy day. Construction at Middlefield Bank’s new building next to Smash Park. Fires at Ohio Health and a tortured house on Huber Village Blvd. Rally for schools on South State Street. Taste of Westerville in the evening.
I felt exhausted as I left the Taste of Westerville event at the Renaissance Hotel. I knew I had more than enough great photos for the day. What I didn’t anticipate was encountering a double rainbow and understanding its significance to the Yarnell family.
As I exited the hotel and headed west, I noticed the sun setting on the horizon. It had rained on and off throughout the day, following a clear morning. The cloudy skies hinted at the possibility of a rainbow, which I knew often appears after a rainstorm when the sun sets like this.
I have a rule for capturing photos of rainbows: choose a good foreground. Adding a foreground enhances dimension and depth in the photo. Otherwise, it appears two-dimensional.
The most logical choice was Yarnell Farm, where I had taken numerous rainbow photos. The second choice was Hoover Reservoir, where foreground objects would be trees or another photographer. I chose Yarnell.
I took my last photo at the Taste of Westerville at 7:02 p.m. After waiting in my car, which was parked in the Westar Urgent Care parking lot, I finally captured my first rainbow photo over an hour later at 8:09 p.m. I used my iPhone with a 15mm lens, although I knew the quality wouldn’t be as high as I desired for this beautiful double rainbow. I then switched to my Nikon Z50, using the 18-140mm zoom lens set to 18mm.
The photo above was created by merging eight overlapping frames in Adobe Camera Raw into one image, which was then edited in Photoshop. The file is quite large and contains a level of detail that cannot be fully appreciated on a computer monitor or phone screen.
Most rainbows disappear quickly as the sun sets, while the clouds that create the rainbow on the opposite horizon continue to move and change shape. However, this particular rainbow lasted longer than most, allowing me to take another series of photos as I moved closer to the Yarnell barn, which provided a more familiar foreground.
A few days later, I met with Duane Yarnell to discuss plans for the upcoming spring season on the largest piece of farmland in the city. However, Duane was only interested in talking about My Final Photo for May 1st—the double rainbow photo, which is the one at the top. He asked me why I took that photo and if I understood the significance of that day. I admitted that I did not.
He showed me a photo on his phone of the rainbow he made while searching for arrowheads in the field across from his house. It appeared magically after he found several arrowheads, one of which was nearly perfect.
The rainbow appeared on the first anniversary of Aubrey Yarnell's motorcycle death, coinciding with the discovery of an arrowhead. Among his niece’s favorite things were arrowheads and rainbows.
We are all connected.
