As usual, today we went to work by car. I actually asked myself if I should carry my photo camera at work again, since there was nothing special happening anyway. Like every morning for the last 2 weeks, we were very happy about the beautiful sunrise that was about to become visible from behind the clouds. As we were watching the sunrise at an intersection of roads, suddenly a great pillar of light emerged from behind the clouds, with the sun being only partially visible, making the sky vibrate in a few thousands of yellow, red, orange, blue, even green nuances. I was breathless, and I am partially colorblind. I wanted to stop, but we were late at work. Still, I was watching in my back mirror this wonder, asking myself if I should abandon my worries and just stop and shoot.
Of course, I decide to stop. The clouds were already releasing the sun light fully, so I have kind of missed that special minute. Still, the pillar of light remained, which gave me the probably unique possibility to showing you this wonder.
The phenomenon is described by Wikipedia:
Light pillars are a kind of optical phenomenon which is formed by the reflection of sunlight or moonlight by ice crystals that are present in the Earth’s atmosphere.
The light pillar looks like a thin column that extends vertically above and/or below the source of light. The light pillar is prominently visible when the Sun is low or lies below the horizon. It normally forms an arc that extends from five to ten degrees beyond the solar disc. Light pillars can sometimes also be seen arising from the Moon.
Light pillars are formed by reflection from ice crystals with roughly horizontal faces.