Oklahoman's image of a double rainbow featured in U.S. Postal Service stamp collection

Oklahoma native Sean Ramsey was out storm chasing, when he looked off to the east and caught a glimpse of a double rainbow as the clouds were clearing.

“It just really struck me when I saw it, I was just like ‘I've got to capture that,'” Ramsey said.

Among a field of green wheat in Kansas, Ramsey took out his camera and captured what would later become a part of the United States Postal Service's O Beautiful Forever stamp collection.

Ramsey's photo, titled “Daydream” was among 20 photos chosen to represent the natural beauty of America in the collection, which was released on July 4.

“Whenever they called me about it, I was kind of like ‘yeah right' at first. I thought it was just somebody else trying to sell me something,” Ramsey said. “What they said was there's more than 60,000 photographs submitted each year to be suggested to be put on stamps and you're one of the ones that made it.”

The stamps are themed after the song “America the Beautiful,” with sets of four stamps corresponding to different verses from the song. Ramsey's photo is under the “Spacious Skies” category and the other categories include “Waves of Grain,” “Mountain Majesties,” “The Fruited Plain” and “Sea to Shining Sea”.

“'America the Beautiful' is one of my favorite songs,” Ramsey said. “Just to know that my picture is associated with that song now — it just doesn't get any better than that.”

As a longtime storm chaser, Ramsey has become accustomed to watching the "spacious skies," but he wasn't always a photographer. Ramsey said he got into photography when he decided that he wanted to find a better way to share the sights he was seeing.

“I couldn't quite capture the things that I was seeing the way that I wanted to,” Ramsey said. “From a storm chaser's standpoint the ultimate goal is to capture a tornado, but for me as a weather photographer, I'm looking for scenic skies — I'm looking for anything of interest, real color, action, things like that.”

Ramsey said he follows the weather wherever it leads him — Oklahoma, Kansas or Colorado — and every photo he takes is a little bit different.

“One day it might be like a really intense storm that looks really mean and ominous and then the next time it will be just really colorful and awe inspiring,” Ramsey said.

Some of his best photos, like “Daydream,” are captured simply out of luck, Ramsey said.

“I was in the right place at the right time, which is what you do when you're photographing the weather,” Ramsey said.

Ramsey said he is grateful to be able to share the feeling that his photo gives him with the world.

“It's just a real honor to be included with the other talented photographers,” Ramsey said. “Every time I see the photograph it just gives me this really free feeling like that's where I want to be — that's what I want to see.”