See this photographer's incredible picture of a double rainbow at the end of South Shields Pier

Professional photographer Steven Lomas, from South Shields, captured the beautiful picture while he was out walking on Tuesday evening (May 24).

Having captured many moments along the North East coast such as a baby seal resting on South Shields Pier or the Northern Lights above Littlehaven Beach, Steven had always wanted to capture an image of a rainbow.

The photographer almost missed his chance on Tuesday as he was getting ready to head off home before he captured the image.

Steven told the Gazette: “It was just one of those things, I’ve always wanted to capture a rainbow from the pier so when the showers were passing yesterday, I thought I’d chance it.

"One minute we had torrential rain then it turned to drizzle and the rainbow actually looked quite faded, it started off really poor.

"I was getting ready to head off home when the sun burst through the clouds and there it was, it is probably the best rainbow that I have ever seen.”

After sharing the image online, Steven has had a good response to those who were equally impressed with how good the picture looked.

He added: “The feedback on it has been really good, rainbows in photos typically tend to get quite a good reaction anyway.

"However I don’t think many people have seen this one, there certainly wasn’t too many people taking photos of it yesterday from what I saw.

"The photo has been shared widely on social media and the BBC have picked it up also so it has been excellent.”

According to the Met Office, a double rainbow is formed when sunlight is reflected twice within a raindrop, with the violet light that reaches the observers eye coming from the higher raindrops and the red light from lower ones.

The phenomenon of a double rainbow is “relatively common”, especially at times of the day when the sun is low in the sky, such as early in the morning or late in the afternoon.

The second rainbow is fainter in tone than the primary rainbow because more light escapes from two reflections compared to one.