A rainbow over Hatzic Lake and Hatzic Island near Mission, British Columbia, Canada. Photographed from Neilson Regional Park in Mission.
This fall has been really wet. This October we’ve had 28 days with rain (26 was the old record) – the dreariest on record. While it is “only” the 12th wettest by volume, the frequency has made it difficult to photograph what fall foliage colours there are out there right now. This year doesn’t appear to have been an overall great year for color in the Fraser Valley anyway. Just as with photographing wildflowers, however, it just takes one good spot – you don’t need a whole forest. So even when the conditions aren’t great or the fall foliage is more of a rotten brown colour, it is always worth it to get out and look for individual trees/shrubs with a better display.
On Tuesday I drove through the farmland in the northern part of Abbotsford to see if I could find some new farm scenes with fall foliage. I found a few new locations, but one I had been planning to shoot was a movie set on that day. This blocked me from trying to shoot there – the movie set people don’t exactly like people hanging around with a camera and tripod! I eventually crossed over the Abbotsford-Mission Bridge and found my way to Neilson Regional Park in Mission. I haven’t been to this park in probably 25 years, so I was curious if anything would feel familiar about it. I recalled walking down to the shoreline with my parents and seeing schools of carp (or a similar species) near the shore. On Tuesday I found only a brief rainstorm (and no fish), but some direct sunlight gave me the opportunity to photograph this rainbow in rather scenic surroundings. Hatzic Lake is in the foreground here, and some of the fall foliage on Hatzic Island provided some nice colours. The mountain in the background is Mcnab Peak (I believe). I think this is the first rainbow I have photographed while not standing in my backyard. I’ve seen many, but often not in a photogenic location. Happy to have been at Hatzic Lake for the 10 or so minutes this one was in view!
For more of my photographs of this area visit my Fraser Valley Gallery.