the meaning behind the title of the image, "touched by the divine" is very straight forward...whenever you are left totally breathless because you forgot to breath, feeling so deeply awe-struck and marveled by something so beautiful and rare, you know you have just been touched by the divine...some people call him god, others allah, or lord, or yahweh, or baha, or the beloved, or some like me just feel an omnipotent flowing energy, but whatever the name or feeling, it is definitely the source of something divine...
pictured here is the famous lone tree of wanaka lake (pronounced like the name "monica")...this tree is truly a natural symbol of the determination of life, the ideal that strong willed things can make it, and survive, even when the odds are stacked against them...and add the rare rainbow to the scene, and you truly have something magical, a gift from the heavens and a message, a sign of beauty, that there is something out there so much bigger than all of us...
"rainbow love, stardust
"love's my miracle, a magical segment of a rainbow, so pure, which i hold within these arms of mine, giving me hope, joy, and peace in a better life" ― bodhinku, rainbow segment
"the moment that
the rainbow disappears,
that is the moment you know,
you know exactly
what you will miss" ― bodhinku, missing rainbows
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THE STORY BEHIND THE PICTURE
i had just landed in new zealand at queenstown international airport, which is a couple hours south of wanaka lake, after gathering my belongings and getting my rental car, i made the scenic drive through premier new zealand wine country up to wanaka where i would be staying the evening..it was a very extremely windy day and evening, but i went out to shoot sunset anyway, and chose the tree as my subject...and because the wind never calmed down, i never really got any photos i was overjoyed with...
so the next morning, i got up hours before the sunrise and headed out to the tree again, just a short walk from my room. very pleased as well to notice the winds from the day before had disappeared totally...and i love the mornings, i love predawn and sunrises, because there is almost always nobody out, or even awake yet taking pictures...just pure solitude and peace and quiet...you can really get very much in-tuned better with your subject with the surrounding environment pouring into your soul with no distractions, worries, or noise...
of course, even with this being a monday morning sunrise, it did not stay that way. this is the most photographed thing in new zealand, and easily one of the most photographed trees in the world, the famous wanaka tree, or #thatwanakatree, as it is forever marked on google maps now for all to easily find, access, and photograph, and put that cherished selfie out on facebook or instagram, so that they can check another one off their ludicrous bucket list...
i was positioned in my accustomed way, for better or for worse, i chose a spot and do not move from it. i am affixed stationary to the spot i feet is the single best at a location, best angle, perspective, and point of view for me to frame the scene as i had previsioned it in my head. and the previous evening was not a total waste, as it helped me to know exactly where i would like to set up for the sunrise...first one person showed up, then another, both quiet and polite, appreciating the solitude and beauty of the tree on the lake in the morning...
of course a few more photographers would show up, and then came a small photography workshop of about 8 people...now we had a crowd of about 15 people, with tripods all over the place...but they were all on the lake banks behind me, as i was down at the waters edge in the cobblestones lining the lake, so i could not see them unless i turned around...but i could hear their meaningless chatter, mostly all about getting set up, camera settings, but also about breakfast and their hotel rooms, dinner last night, the movie on the tele, the winds of yesterday, and how they could not sleep, etc...sheesh, and shooosh, please...
as you know if you know me, i am not a big fan of crowds, especially loud noisy ones...and this group, mostly in the workshop was just non-stop chitter chatter, would just not shut up and enjoy the scene, silence their mouths...just quietly listen with all of their senses, listen to the waves roll through the cobblestones on the shore, the birds singing in the surrounding trees (and if you look closely, you can see two birds in this tree in my image), take in the feel of the cool summer breeze on their faces and the stones under their feet, and all the wonderful smells of the alpine lake, take in all they were experiencing and seeing with their eyes, not only their cameras, be humbled and fall in love with the tree...
and i know, i understand that with me taking 5-7 minute long exposures, i have lots of time to absorb the beauty in front of me, more "free time" where i am not occupied with pushing the shutter release over and over...but please, really what does last night's penne pasta with marinara sauce have to do with sunrise at such a beautiful location in a remote part of the world??
sunrise came and went, it was a fizzle, pretty clouds but no fireworks of color...still very beautiful...workshop people stayed, but a couple people left as it looked like rain was coming in from over the mountains...hmmm, could i get lucky and see a rainbow? the conditions were very favorable for a rainbow to happen in the direction i was shooting, with the sunrise behind me, variable clouds, and some light rain in the opposite direction of the sun...but the light just got flatter and the clouds more grey, but still i kept taking longer 5.5 minute exposures, as i was loving the beautiful blue color of the water that was coming out in my exposures, so complimentary to the green summer leaves on the tree...
then you could see a faint rainbow start to form, but flicker and go away...not present long enough for my long exposure to capture it...then a couple minutes later another arc of a rainbow appeared to the left of the tree...only this one was building in intensity...i quickly decided to change my filter set up and shoot less longer exposures, i switched out the 10-stop nd filter i was using for a 6 stop nd filter, and dropped my exposure times down to around 2 minutes instead of 5 mins (what a great decision as it turned out)...and the rainbow continued glowing and glowing...it stayed beautiful and bright for about 10 minutes, allowing me to get about 5 different versions of this scene (allot of pictures for me)...
i shot a video of the rainbow and the tree together as well, this gives the feeling of what is was like over the course of the two minutes my camera was exposing the shot, and to stand where i was and take in the whole scene...
only thing that put a damper on this beautiful and rare event was the noise of the people in the workshop...too much talk, less admiring what was before them...and even with this rainbow lasting so long, i am not entirely sure if any of them even saw the rainbow in person, even though they were standing right there before it. i think they only saw it through their lcd screen and view finder on their cameras, patting themselves on the backs for being lucky and being in the right place at the right time...chit-chit-chit-chat...
relentless chatter, just excessive noise, rather than taking in the magical moment they were witnessing, being in sheer awe of mother nature, her rainbow and her light show of color over a tree being battered by the endless waves and surviving by growing in the waters of a lake, absolutely and totally breathless, unable to say a word as i was...i am still breathless and humbled by the beauty i got to see and photograph that morning...and i hope you love the picture i was able to create here before you today, and that it can transport you to what i got to experience and feel on this magical morning, the 17th of february, 2020 in front of the tree on the shore of lake wanaka, new zealand...