It was a long drive from my home in Tacoma to Palouse Falls. My friend, having agreed to come with me, had recently lost his mother to cancer and was struggling. We had a few delays and stopped for photos on the side of the road on the four and a half hour drive. After driving in and setting up camp in non-stop torrential storms, it decided to stop raining. We grabbed our cameras and headed to the falls overlook. As we arrived, the golden hour started. Nothing big at first but, were we in for a surprise. The clouds opened up, and created a beautiful rainbow. I was caught off guard and not ready for this event. I quickly set to the task of getting my bag open and retrieving my 18mm lens for a wide shot, in a complete state of both awe from the beauty and panic that I would miss this chance. I got the lens on, quickly adjusted some settings, and took a shot, sprinted up a hill to another viewpoint and took this image. And just like that, the rainbow was gone. I was elated. My friend, solemn, emotional. "Peter", he says, "That was Mom telling me: Everything is alright. Everything is how it should be. Everything that had occurred had put us into this exact spot, at this exact moment. We were fated to be here." -- It gave me chills and made this capture even more special to me.
My friend and I went on to be rained upon relentlessly for the remainder of our weekend in the wilderness. But the rain, though fierce and unrelenting, wasn't enough to dampen our spirits.