Praa Sands Beach Photo

Rainbow viewed from the Beachcomber Cafe, Praa Sands

As a rain shower faded and the sunlight emerged through a gap in the clouds this very vivid rainbow appeared across the bay. This view is from the terrace of the Beachcomber Cafe. In physics parlance the rainbow is a virtual image, existing only in the sense that your optical system perceives a coloured arc "out there" (or in this case my camera's optical system). There was a good reflected bow off the sea, and the secondary bow (with the spectrum reversed) is visible to the right. We had just ordered some food as we sheltered from the rain, but as the rainbow appeared everyone (staff included) headed out of the cafe to watch and photograph this picturesque scene.

© Jim Champion and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence