Arching over the world famous Victoria Falls this mesmeric rainbow shines in the moonlight creating a nocturnal light show.
Known as a 'Moonbow', the hypnotic phenomenon was captured under the gaze of a full moon over 'The Devils Cataract' section of the falls.
Photographer and television presenter Charlie Hamilton James travelled to Cataract Island on the Zambezi River between Zimbabwe and Zambia, where he managed to observe this rarely witnessed event.
‘The photos of moon rainbows over The Devils Cataract are probably the first ever taken,’ said 38-year-old Charlie, from the West Country.
‘Victoria Falls is also known as "the smoke that thunders" because it creates such a huge spray of water - up to a mile high. This is obviously perfect conditions for rainbows - both day and night rainbows.
‘We took them from Cataract Island in Zimbabwe and I spent several nights shooting more time lapses and also still images.’
Rarely photographed, Moonbows are common events that reveal themselves at the most unsociable times.
‘Moon rainbows are not a rare phenomenon you just need the conditions - large amounts of spray and a full moon,’ said Charlie. ‘I'm sure moon rainbows happen all over the place but most will be too faint to see. Victoria Falls is one of the largest falls on earth and so creates the massive amounts of spray needed.’
Spectacular when photographed, the Moonbow was in fact underwhelming to the naked eye.
‘Funnily enough it’s not too impressive to the naked eye, it's just a faint white milky arc with no colour in it,’ said Charlie.
‘The joy of photography is that we can keep the camera shutter open for a long time and reveal the true nature of the light that our eyes are simply not sensitive to see.
‘Even though they don't look so impressive to the naked eye, it's still a very cool thing to witness.
‘Seeing them exposed on the screen on the back of the camera was very cool.
‘It was not easy getting into the locations we needed to be to shoot the images and we had to shoot them on the few days over the full moon.
‘So when it all came together it was very exciting.’
Charlie's passion for photography began at an early age, with fascination with kingfishers. He went onto win Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year award twice in 1990 and 1991.
Charlie's passion quickly transcended to film and he carried out his first paid job at the age of 16, helping out a cameraman on David Attenborough's Trials of Life.
Charlie went onto work for the BBC's Natural History Unit before he met his future wife, TV Presenter Philippa Forrester in 2000.
The couple have since gone onto make award winning films for the BBC.
The 330-foot-high and nearly one-mile-wide Victoria Falls is the world’s largest curtain of falling water.
An astonishing 137million gallons of water passes over the Falls per minute.
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