President Obama Shoots Rainbow Out of His Hand

[jberryhill]

53. A good photographer sets up shots like that

Rainbows are not by any means rare in tropical climates. They don't move around (other than with your own view of the 42 degree incident angle of the sunlight)

The plane is going to be boarded by that ramp.

It doesn't take any sort of genius to know that he's going to go up the steps and wave goodbye, so you move to the point where the rainbow is going to be in the frame and wait for him to wave.

I took this photo of my bike a while back, and it is not a cosmic accident that the sunset lines up with the wheel the way it does:



You move to the angle where things line up. It's not a random accidental "exact moment".

It's just like setting up these "halo" shots, which are classic fare:











The photographer has freedom of movement to line up any two things separated by distance, and can move along the linear axis to get the foreground subject to be the desired size in relation to the background object.