In my fairly long life, I've seen rainbows, halos, sun dogs, sunsets, moonsets, star trails and Milky Ways. But until recently, I had never seen this phenomenon—a sunbow. I was at Bandon Beach, famous for its numerous sea stacks on the spectacular coast of southern Oregon.

The late spring weather forecast called for clear skies, so I was anticipating soft, warm color to backlight a sea stack composition. I had worked my way along the beach, evaluating a variety of sea stack formations and shooting practice shots to gauge wave action.

On this night, I was wearing high waterproof boots that allowed me to comfortably stand on the edge of the surf line to better capture the wave action and the reflection created by the wave-wetted sand. The entire scene was bathed in beautiful golden hour light as the sun began setting behind a band of low clouds on the horizon.

It was one of those scenes and settings that we long for as photographers. And then this happened: a full sunbow, the result of ice crystals in the atmosphere, creating both the colored arc of a bow and a heavenly vertical glow. It was breathtaking.

Thankful for the muscle memory I've accumulated after taking thousands of photographs, I was able to check off settings, composition, and focus quickly, as well as the time the waves and took several shots as the sun descended behind the cloud layer. I was particularly intent on including the reflected arc of the sunbow in the wet sand at my feet and had to wait until I had just the right effect to capture this unique occurrence. My patience was rewarded by this photograph, which I am pleased to submit and share.