August 10, 2024, was the last day of our summer vacation with family at Cape Breton. Roy and I were spending our last night at a friend’s house, just outside of Inverness. She was called away unexpectedly, and Roy found me at my aunt and uncle’s place earlier that afternoon. We would meet up at my friend’s place later. Vacations are not about schedules; they are about making memories and spending time with the ones you are with. Being present in the moment is something I am learning to be better at.
He finished packing the car and followed to find me after I went with my parents on a last round of visits before the long drive home the next day. He took a detour all the way back to Cheticamp for a pizza, and after he picked me up, he parked the car near the Inverness beach to watch the ocean from the car while we ate. Raindrops were spitting out of the sky, which was dark and brooding, kind of like us.
We talked, we ate pizza; we split a bottle of pop. In mid-sentence, Roy said, “Look behind the car, dear. There is a rainbow!”
I craned my neck to see, and he was right. A big, beautiful rainbow was right behind the car. I reached to open the car door to climb out to get a picture, but he made me wait so he could turn the car around for me, so I wouldn’t miss it.
I scrambled out of the car and took two pictures on my phone, and as rainbows do, it faded back into the clouds. We could not believe how lucky we were to see it, and that I could get the pictures before it disappeared. Our mood became lighter, and I took it as a blessing for the end of our vacation.
I have always enjoyed taking photos, especially when my camera is capturing a scene in nature. Sunsets, flowers, the coastline of Cape Breton Island, from land or sea, I like to think of myself as an amateur photographer. It is a rewarding hobby when you capture that once in a lifetime shot. And this rainbow picture was one I could never forget.
You see, the photo taken in its original format was from behind the Inverness Beach sign, between it, the boardwalk, and the ocean. When you are driving towards the beach from uptown, you can read the sign. But from the other side, the words are backwards.
The sign is also significant to this story. A classmate designed it before she died suddenly in 2023. A relative made the sign after she passed away and mounted it in her memory, near the boardwalk to the beach. There is a small plaque on one signpost for people to read about it. If you get the time of day and distance correct, you might capture a photo of the sun setting over the horizon, peeking through the sign at you.
If we had been on the other side of the sign, I don’t even know if we would have seen the rainbow. When I took the photo, I focused on the rainbow; how clear and bright it mesmerized me. It was beautiful.
I showed the pictures to my husband and friend, and they agreed with me it was a unique photo. Which got me thinking about what to do with it.
I am an author, artist, and entrepreneur. When I see potential in something, I try to figure out the best way to use it for my business. And there was potential oozing out of this photograph. But I didn’t want to rush any plans to use it. I needed to overthink it first.
After we were home and all unpacked, I tried to edit the photo. As an amateur, I did a bit of editing on my phone, and then I uploaded the image into Canva. That first round of edits turned into what I am calling the Technicolour photos. It is whimsical and full of colour.
I also flipped the picture horizontally so that the sign was readable. In reality, you cannot read the sign from where I stood to take the photo. But I knew a flip would produce a mirror image of the photo and make the sign readable. Promise is the version of this photograph with the least amount of layers added to the photo. I knew it would appeal to the people from Inverness, because of the location of the photo, and the sign being in the frame. And now it is a reflection, almost as if the photograph was taken from the other side of the rainbow, where you see the town in the background, not the Inverness Beach.
As much as I love the version of the photo after my first attempt at editing it, I knew it would be a bit too much for some people’s taste. I gave it another try, and the editing efforts this time created a more realistic colour palette of the photograph. The Natural photos are from the other round of edits I did. For this, I could use Canva and Affinity, and it looks more like the moment I snapped the picture.
As time passed, and Canva's tools developed, so did my editing skills. I worked with the photo and removed the vehicles from it, and some power lines and slight visual distractions from the focus of the photograph. And then it was time to play and see what I could really do with the photograph in Canva.
I created two colour stories, Natural and Technicolour. I then duplicated the photos and removed the Inverness sign from the copies. With this line of photos, it could appeal to a more global audience, outside of Inverness, and even farther away.
I am a Gen X woman, and I grew up watching television in the 80s. My childhood memories inspired the themes of some of my designs. Songs about rainbows are close to my heart.
Each pair of photos was edited and adjusted to reflect a thought or message through my creative process. Some are not duplicated, and this was a creative choice by the artist.
Just as the colours blur between the lines of the rainbow, so does my interpretation of each variation within the Tishspiration Rainbow Collection.
Recent Comments