The day before yesterday I posted a rainbow photo that I made in Naves, France in 1999 and mentioned that another that I’d made at the time wasn’t clear enough to add to the post. Well, as those who know me well will attest, I pride myself on remembering where I put things and being able to find them again. I can usually locate any given digital image that I’ve made in less than half a minute. I’ve also taken considerable care to store my archives of monochrome and color negatives and my slides in a system that I know well and can use quite efficiently, though it often takes somewhat longer to locate an original than it does for a digital image. It took me about a quarter of an hour to find what I was looking for (it usually doesn’t take me that long, though!), and I fired up my old Konika/ Minolta Dual IV scanner (which won’t work with Windows 7, so I have to use my old Dell laptop, which still works!) and re-scanned both slides at a much higher resolution than I’d used for the scan I used for my previous post. I actually prefer the lower-res version of the single rainbow that I posted, but the new scan of the double one is now of presentable quality, so here it is, to provide—with a nod to Paul Harvey—the rest of the story.
I made this photo a minute or so before the other; as soon as I’d shot it, I scampered along an old footpath on the hill, came over the crest, and was rewarded with the view across the valley. The film was indeed Fuji Provia (ISO 400). Just click on the photo for more detail.
krikitarts 
Double rainbows are so beautiful and so rare (at least in my experience). Your image is gorgeous, especially at higher resolution–it has a kind of haunting beauty, with a fascinating interplay of light and shadows.
The singles are rare enough, and I love them, but the doubles are always really special for me. Part of that “haunting beauty” (thanks for that!) is the result of the Provia 400, with its relatively large grain, which I’ve (almost) always liked. In fact, I used to push my Tri-X to 800 or 1600, which made it even grainier. BTW, speaking of grain, did you ever use Scotchchrome 1000? Really must do a post on that now-extinct film!
My film photography was pretty limited and generally I stuck with the popular films like Tri-X and Plus-X for B&W, Kodachrome for slides, and ordinary Kodak and Fuji for color prints.
Absolutely gorgeous!! But what the heck were you doing posting photos in the middle of the night? LOL!! Don’t you sleep?
Excuuuuuse me, Cindy, but weren’t you up until two not all that long ago? I seem to remember you mentioning that in a recent post…whatever, it was only a few minutes after midnight. I don’t see that as the middle of the night at all. The middle of the night, to my way of thinking, is not halfway between sunset and sunrise, but rather halfway between my turning in and my arising the next (or later in the) morning. Besides, I had promised that I would post this follow-up shot today, and I couldn’t wait to do so. Oh, and thanks for the compliment!
You are too funny Gary!! I was just worried about your well being, that’s all, and jealous of your ability to stay up later than me because I always fall asleep reading on the couch at night when I would love to be able to stay up half the night reading.
How lovely, especially the pink sky with the double rainbow.
My rainbow photos (even the 3 rainbow kind) look so damn boring in the inner city.
Your silhouette and sky colour makes yours look so creative and beautiful. Well done, Gary.
One thing that really fascinates me about a double is how the colors in the sky behave between and on both sides of the two. It’s as if they were spray-painted in tones of graduating saturation. I know why there are so many songs about rainbows!
Another fabulous shot! Magical.
It is just so much fun to be able to go back and find the kernel of a gem and wash it and polish it and give it new life after so much time. What a wonderful age we live in, and what amazing tools we have to work with! I used to spend an hour developing and drying negative film and an average of another hour and a half in the darkroom to make a print that I was satisfied with from a B&W negative (I never had a color darkroom), or wait 2-3 days for color prints. Now I can scan that negative and have my final fine print within 5 or 10 minutes. With a digital raw image, I’ll have it (usually) in under 5. If that’s not magical, I don’t know what is. And I’m delighted that you like the new offer!
Very beautiful, Gary – and also wonderfully magical!
There is absolutely a large helping of magic in a rainbow, and what a gift it is to be able to rekindle the childlike sense of awe and wonder that they generate, and also to be able to share the magic with others through our abilities. I am so grateful!