About the Image(s)

Canon R5 - Canon 24-70 @24mm - ISO 800 - f7.1 - 1/2000th Tv

I was shooting in Saguaro National Park (East) hoping to capture some monsoon storms in the desert and happened to capture what I thought was a not frequently seen meteorological event, i.e., the tail end of a storm, with light rain, residual clouds, a rainbow AND anti-crepuscular rays. I had seen & shot crepuscular rays numerous times aka ‘God Rays’ which emanate from the sun, but hadn’t even heard of anti-crepuscular rays. At the same time, we all know, rainbows always appear 180* opposite the sun (provided the sun is within 40* of the horizon) so I was blown away to see ‘God Rays’ in the same sky as the rainbow. When I got home after downloading but before doing anything in post I decided to search the Internet to identify the phenomenon and learned about anti-crepuscular rays, which are similar to crepuscular rays, but appear on the opposite side of the sky and are caused by low-angled sunlight that is blocked by cloud cover. The rays appear to converge at a point called the antisolar point, but this is an illusion. The rays are actually parallel, and the convergence is due to linear perspective - but that’s just the scientific definition, which I don’t pretend to understand, but as a photographer I don’t need to understand, I just felt most fortunate to have experienced it and captured it.

In terms of capturing the shot, I knew neither the bow nor the rays would last so I really had to scramble looking for a clean yet interesting foreground and luckily found these Paddle Cactus (aka Prickly Pear Cactus) with the red tuna bulbs for color about 30 yards away - I didn’t have time to run over there carrying my tripod so I detached my R5 raced over to the cactus, recomposed and shot handheld.

Canon R5 - Canon 24-70 @24mm - ISO 800 - f7.1 - 1/2000th Tv