Desert Monsoon Part Two
Wide open spaces. That’s what’s so appealing to me about photographing storms on the Great Plains and in the desert southwest. There is nothing to block your view of a glorious, towering thunderstorm.
If At First You Don’t Succeed…
Jon Christofersen and I were lucky to photograph last week’s Friday Photo of a monsoon sunset. We decided to return the next morning to the Kofa Wildlife Refuge, south of Quartzite, Arizona for a dawn shoot. High, photogenic clouds were forecast.
It was a total bust. Severely clear skies meant there was zero visual interest in the sky. We decided to head back to Quartzite for pizza at Silly Al’s, the best (and apparently the only) pizza restaurant in town.
The pizza was excellent, and the beer was cold. It definitely had a local vibe with cowboy decorations and a gun hanging from the ceiling. No chain restaurants for me!
Courtesy of Silly Al’s
We continued to check the forecast and headed back to Kofa when scattered storms around sunset appeared likely.
The Shot
When we arrived about an hour before sunset, we could hear the rumble of distant thunder. A storm slowly made its way towards us.
After sunset, it finally moved close enough to photograph. At first, the light was flat and boring. And there was no photogenic cloud-to-ground lightning.
Suddenly, the light became exhilarating. A narrow band of warm light broke through and illuminated the middle of the cloud. We couldn’t believe our good luck and just kept shooting until it was gone.
Leaving well after dark, we crossed our fingers that the Jeep track was again passable back to the highway. Flash floods and washouts often make dirt roads impassible. We were lucky and had an uneventful ride back to our hotel room in Quartzite.
Next Week Off
I’ll be in the field next Friday, so no Friday Photo on the 15th.
Thanks for looking,
Chuck Derus