Sitting atop its 1,350-foot namesake, Mount Nebo State Park has a rather unusual arrangement. Property in the state park system is typically owned by the state. However, the property on Mount Nebo is a mix of both state and private property. You can be spending the night in a state park cabin, and that cabin may be situated next door to someone’s personal residence.
A few years ago, I had the opportunity to spend several nights on Mount Nebo, and I was looking forward to some wonderful photographic opportunities. What I was hoping for was a few early morning or early evening clouds to really catch some amazing sunrise or sunset colors. The first two nights, the weather was certainly nice, but the clouds weren’t materializing like I had hoped.
But my luck changed on my last night there. During the late afternoon, a strong line of storms came through the area. The rain continued until about 7:00 that evening. I was hoping the clouds would begin to break and give me a chance to photograph some rainbows, but the clouds continued to linger. Finally, about 30 minutes before sunset, I decided to drive around to see what I could find to photograph.
I drove to an area on the southeastern part of the mountain known as Sunrise Point. When I got there, I was amazed by what I saw. A cloud had formed level with the top of the mountain, and it seemed like I could simply walk out and stand on the cloud. It was something I had never seen before, and it was absolutely incredible. I immediately pulled out my camera and began shooting, and the image above is one of my favorites from that evening.
Taking this shot was actually pretty easy. Because the sun was still obscured by cloud cover, the contrast was well within the camera’s dynamic range, so exposure wasn’t a problem. The main concern was maintaining complete depth of field because this picture needed to be sharp from the foreground all the way to the distant horizon.
By using the smallest aperture on the lens, f/22, and focusing on a point about eight feet from the camera at the lens’ 24mm length, I was able to achieve complete sharpness throughout the frame. This image would not have been successful if any part of the photograph was not tack sharp.