They usually arch above us and have admirers craning their necks to take in their full effect.
But rainbow-chasers had to lower their sights a little to appreciate this unusual phenomenon just above the surface of the Inverness Firth – a “low bow”.
Nairn woman Amanda Galleitch took a picture of the rare spectacle, which could be seen from the Kessock Bridge and the city’s Stadium Road.
Met Office office forecaster in Aberdeen, Matt Roe, said that the flat-looking appearance of the rainbow close to the water means it is sometimes referred to as a “low bow”.
He added: “How much of the rainbow is seen is dependent on where the rain is actually falling and also on the elevation of the sun above the horizon.
“If the sun is approaching an elevation of 40 degrees in the sky then the arc of the rainbow will be almost on the horizon, as in this example here.”
Mrs Galleitch took the stunning pictures as her husband Mike drove along Stadium Road on Thursday afternoon.
Mrs Galleitch, a senior care worker, said that her 72-year-old husband said he had “never seen a rainbow like it” in all of his days spent living in the Highlands.
The 44-year-old, of Clans Crescent in Nairn, said: “We were on our way home, coming past Stadium Road and looked out of the window and thought, ‘that is absolutely stunning.’ It’s hard to believe but I wound down the window and took them when the car was still moving, as we couldn’t stop anywhere.
“It’s a brilliant photo and all it needed was a Moray Firth dolphin.”
Mr Roe added that these types of rainbows are not unusual and, in October last year, a photograph was taken of a “low bow” over the Isle of Harris.
A rainbow is an arch of colours visible in the sky, caused by the refraction and dispersion of the sun’s light by rain or other water droplets in the atmosphere.
The colours of the rainbow are generally said to be red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.