Last Saturday (the 13th of Jan 2024) The ocean broke through a seawall in the Salem Willow/Juniper Point Neighborhoods flooding almost a dozen homes. I had been watching the weather all day and thought the sunset might be pretty. Then a rain squall line came through. I took a chance hoping the sun might poke through after it passes which could mean red clouds and if I was lucky maybe a rainbow.
I arrived on the other side of town and the front had cleared I could see that the buildings were all lit in a golden glow and I could see a rainbow start to form. I got as far as I could and pulled into a spot and did a quick pre-flight and while the 3-Pro was getting Sats, I requested my LANNC. I was approved and had the minimum number of Sats to take off.
I got above the trees and turned the drone towards Beverly and the ocean and my jaw hit the ground (ouch!)
I was presented with almost a full double rainbow. Actually, it was for a moment, a full double but rainbows are by their very nature fleeting objects of beauty. I did a wide-angle pano and then took many single shots to manually merge together later. I did a 360 pano but it quit at 13 images so I moved to a different location and did another that gave me the full 25 image pano.
But all the while the rainbow was fading until it was nothing more than a memory...
All the while I was ignorant of the damage my drone was seeing below in the neighborhoods at the end of the Salem Peninsula. I posted my wide pano image and got lots of interest. A local group said they were having a fundraiser and asked if they could have a couple of prints. I had a couple printed and they had them framed. Today in Salem they auctioned them off. The large one went for $1400 and the smaller one went for $1000.
I will say this is the best Rainbow image that I have ever caught (and I have many) and it may perhaps be the best image I have ever created! (In the top 5 at least).
After these were auctioned off, other people asked me how they could get one... I was prepared by having the QR code in my photos that linked to my POD Gallery.
I asked if they had their phones and told them to open their camera and point it at mine. Boom, they opened the link to my gallery and the image.
So this is also a lesson to have a QR code ready so sell your work... My QR code is below if you don't know what I mean. This old photographer is still working it.

I arrived on the other side of town and the front had cleared I could see that the buildings were all lit in a golden glow and I could see a rainbow start to form. I got as far as I could and pulled into a spot and did a quick pre-flight and while the 3-Pro was getting Sats, I requested my LANNC. I was approved and had the minimum number of Sats to take off.
I got above the trees and turned the drone towards Beverly and the ocean and my jaw hit the ground (ouch!)
I was presented with almost a full double rainbow. Actually, it was for a moment, a full double but rainbows are by their very nature fleeting objects of beauty. I did a wide-angle pano and then took many single shots to manually merge together later. I did a 360 pano but it quit at 13 images so I moved to a different location and did another that gave me the full 25 image pano.
But all the while the rainbow was fading until it was nothing more than a memory...
All the while I was ignorant of the damage my drone was seeing below in the neighborhoods at the end of the Salem Peninsula. I posted my wide pano image and got lots of interest. A local group said they were having a fundraiser and asked if they could have a couple of prints. I had a couple printed and they had them framed. Today in Salem they auctioned them off. The large one went for $1400 and the smaller one went for $1000.
I will say this is the best Rainbow image that I have ever caught (and I have many) and it may perhaps be the best image I have ever created! (In the top 5 at least).
After these were auctioned off, other people asked me how they could get one... I was prepared by having the QR code in my photos that linked to my POD Gallery.
I asked if they had their phones and told them to open their camera and point it at mine. Boom, they opened the link to my gallery and the image.
So this is also a lesson to have a QR code ready so sell your work... My QR code is below if you don't know what I mean. This old photographer is still working it.
