Moonbow at Rainbow Falls. (060C-160938)

In “Rainbow Falls’ Illusive Moonbow” I talked about finally capturing a photo of the moonbow at Rainbow Falls. That was in 2010. Ten years later, I’d get another, even better chance. I’d blow it again.

Rule number one in photography is learn your gear. If operating your camera isn’t second nature for you, you’re going to miss a lot of shots. And that rule means that you should never go on a serious photo shoot with a new camera that you haven’t fully learned. I know this stuff. I teach this stuff. Yet, there I was, at Rainbow Falls on a frigid winter night looking at a gorgeous moonbow, with a brand-new camera that I hadn’t fully vetted.

In my defense, I had spent a lot of time playing with it and getting the menus set up properly. But I missed a crucial setting that almost caused me to miss the shot that I had been trying to capture for some 35 years.

It was cold. And I have Raynaud's syndrome, which causes my hands to become rather useless in very cold weather. To see and photograph the moonbow, I had to stand in the brunt of the extremely heavy spray. So, I was very cold and very wet—absolutely miserable!

I could get off only one 20-second exposure before running for cover out of the spray. I checked the shot, made adjustments, wiped off the lens, and went back for more. I left the tripod set up so I could quickly remount the camera and get off a shot before repeating the process.

The big problem—bigger than the wet and cold—was that I could never get a properly exposed shot. I’d adjust the exposure after each one, but it never seemed to make a difference.

As happened ten years earlier, after about forty-five minutes my fingers could no longer move and I had to call it quits. I left, not knowing what the heck was going on or if I had a decent shot.

Next day, I got my answer. I had a single frame that worked okay. The exposure wasn’t perfect, but I could make it work. I also learned what had happened. While I had been learning the camera, I tried out the Auto Exposure Bracketing feature but neglected to reset it to zero. So, every photo I shot except for the first one had a certain value of exposure compensation applied to it, independent of any exposure adjustments I made after each shot. Trying to get the proper exposure in situation like this is like playing basketball with the basket moving after each shot you attempt.

As Terminator says, I’ll be back. But next time, I think I’ll go in summer!