Himalayan Rododendron bloom

Rhododendron arboretum

Bhutan

Sometimes things happen in the blink of an eye, and is in addition completely unexpected. I had stopped at this location to capture an amazingly beautiful Rhododendron growing out of a sheer cliff – almost dangling in the air – like a Bonsai tree. Twisted trunk and full of red flowers.

No matter which angle I found I simply could not capture this amazing beauty – it was too far away, and the angle too steep. I kind of gave up, and went back to the car, and turned my head one last time only to gasp in awe to what I saw! It looked as if I was a diver looking up to the sky through the ocean, and the columns of sun rays were filtered through the ocean. The clouds hanging over the mountain had suddenly diminished, and the sun risen high enough to cast its rays through this amazing forest and illuminated these incredibly beautiful Rhododendrons flowers as if on fire!

The amazingly red inflorescences stood out against the otherwise uniformly dark and in parts green foliage and the fog slowly gliding through the forest, creating these amazing crepuscular rays.

In this image you can see the Rhododendron that started it all – the one that made it possible for me to witness and capture this incredible moment – short lived as it was: it’s hanging out from the very right edge of the bare rock face in the bottom of the image – still in the shadows.

This was over as quickly as it had appeared, as the movements of the air pushed the clouds away and the sun was burning away what little remained and the sun of course was climbing ever higher, shortening the long shadows and magical angle of sunlight on the way.
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