Here’s some Leprechaun lore to celebrate the second Friday the 13th of the year: Should you ever get to the end of the rainbow, the pot of gold will be at the other end. So much for the luck of the Irish—or anyone else. We commemorate the day with self-titled “Rainbow“, which Alexander Kozik captured on Feb. 21, 2017, using handy compact Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX7. Vitals: f/2.8, ISO 80, 1/640 sec, 4.7mm. Composition and perspective make the moment a keeper.
He says about the shot: “Rainbow break at the lab meeting. We were lucky to be at the 5th floor, probably, with the best available viewing point. My excitement was doubled when I discovered that the rainbow ends fitted into the camera frame. Windows were washed and cleaned by recent rains and showers. Right place and the right time. It would be different from the ground level”.
Alexander was a “bioinformatician at UC Davis Genome Center, California,” when he snapped the photo, and he presumably still is. But in the SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2)—aka COVID-19—post-pandemic economy nothing can be certain. “I work with plants, studying genetic variations and underlying DNA content”, he says. “Outside of work, I enjoy photography, backyard astronomy, and watercolor painting”. Three years ago: “A lightweight Lumix LX7 is always with me”. Lucky for you and for us.
“I drifted back to film photography by 2019”, he adds. “I take pictures mostly with Smena 8M, Kiev 4, Lubitel 166B, and Stylus Epic. I am using Ilford, Fomapan, and Lomography films, and cannot say which one is my favorite. Different films capture light through different lenses in different ways, and it creates opportunities to be a painter rather than photographer”. In 2020, he “discovered pinhole photography”.
Alexander joined Flickr in September 2013 and remains active. For him, the service “gives a great opportunity to explore the diverse multicultural life around the world”.
Photo Credit: Alexander Kozik