About the Shot: Saharan Dust and Rain from Flatside Pinnacle
In June of 2020, while the pandemic was spreading, we got another phenomenon from the other side of the world. The Saharan dust storm made its path all the way to the Ouachita Mountains here in Arkansas. For most mornings and afternoons, golden hour became blood red sky hour, giving us an uncanny, eerily surreal change of our usual sky.
Around that same time, I was taking trips out of the city as far away from people (and their germs) as I could. On this humid, rainy day, I drove out Highway 10 to the Flatside Pinnacle Wilderness to see what the mountains were doing. I was not disappointed!
Rather than the rusty red that we’d been seeing in the skies from the dust storm, I was treated to this desaturated blue-grey sky with a gorgeous mist rising from the mountains. The rain was a very light drizzle, and the light filtering through the clouds and dust gave this beautifully soft color across the horizon. The sharp, shadowy peak of Forked Mountain in the center of the frame creates a nice focal point and contrast to the soft white cloud of mist rising from the mountain in the foreground.
This image is a re-edit of more grey, flat edit I’d originally done. I wanted to bring out more of the softness in the clouds and mist, as well as more of the blue in the sky. Turns out I’ve learned a lot of new editing tricks since the early days of the pandemic. I was able to use some of them in this edit.
I think what I love most about this photo is that it feels like something from a Tolkien novel. Misty Mountains, indeed.
