Photo creates itself

Telephone Pole
Photograph by Tom Atwood

Sometimes a photograph almost has a mind of its own. This picture, for example, a telephone pole near Edwardsville, Illinois, created itself. It was unplanned. Accidental. Or was it? Is anything ever an accident? The sun was setting yesterday in a sky filled with low, fast-moving clouds. I was trying to catch distant rain pouring from isolated clouds in the sunlight. There were rainbows. But when I pointed my camera toward the sun, a telephone pole was "in the way." But it looked interesting so I took this picture. Or else the picture created itself and I snapped the shutter?

Shutter: 1/2500; Aperture: f/18; ISO: 200; Focal length: 200 mm