I shot this image in Colorado during the annual elk rut. It involved a lot of standing in a meadow in chilly temperatures and a light misty rain just waiting for something cool to happen. When the sun started to leak through the clouds, and created a full arching rainbow in the valley, the scene was set for some magical views.

The shot is on a Canon R5 with a 100-500mm lens, which I was very thankful to have with me as the variable zoom let me grab a slightly more wide angle shot that included more of the rainbow. Some of my companions who only had large wildlife lenses with them had a harder time getting much more in frame besides the elk itself. Sometimes it pays to have a wider lens even for wildlife photography!

In order to line up the bull elk with the base of the rainbow, I had to make some quick moves, but thankfully I had a few seconds where he lined up perfectly with the colorful rays. A great day to be in the outdoors.