With a massive dust storm bearing down, an AP photographer held out to get this photo

PHOENIX (AP) — Ross D. Franklin is a staff photojournalist for The Associated Press based in Phoenix for the past 19 years. He, covers news, sports, the border, immigration and Native American stories.

Here’s what he had to say about this extraordinary photo.

Why this photo?

Dust storms, including the towering wall of dust known as a haboob, are common in the desert southwest, but having a massive dust storm of this magnitude is very rare. All the metrological pieces must be in place for a 50-mile wall of dust that can reach 5,000 feet in the air to occur. For one, it needs a dry monsoon with little to no rain. The other part is an extremely strong rain storm directly behind the dust storm that creates the air downflow push necessary to give lift to all that dirt and sand. The last haboob of this size happened in 2011.

The weather in Arizona is strange, especially in the Phoenix metro area. Storms can come from any direction at any time. So, you need know from day to day what direction the weather is coming from.

How I made this photo

On Monday I knew from constantly scanning the weather apps on my phone there was a strong possibility of a haboob coming in from the southeast directly toward Phoenix. Once the weather alerts chime on your cellphones it’s too late to get into the right place to make photographs at the right time. These storms typically move in very fast.

I pre-positioned myself along the Marcos De Niza hiking trail on the eastern edge of South Mountain Park in Phoenix. I knew I wanted to be at this place because the vista gives the perfect view to the southwest desert expanse but still showing the suburban sprawl of homes. The homes would be the perfect foreground and create a great sense of scale of the storm. As I was driving to the park I didn’t notice much of a dust-wall buildup, but by the time I hiked with my camera gear and tripod high enough along the trail, the early signs this was going to be a gigantic dust wall were starting to take shape. It was at about 1,200-foot elevation where I decided it was the right spot to set up one camera on a tripod.

I used a Sony a1 camera body with a f/2.8 24-70 zoom. Due to the strong winds I knew were coming I put the camera on a tripod. My camera settings changed dramatically over the next 30 minutes as the sunlight disappeared with the growing storm - as particulate dust filled the air and the rain and thunderstorms began to gather and spread. The sky just got darker and darker. The wall of dust was headed right at me.

I made images throughout the advance of the storm, but the best images captured were when the storm started to engulf the neighborhood right in front of me. Within seconds, the 50-plus mph winds pushed the storm right on top of me. All visibility was gone. It all happened so quickly. To get this image you have to understand you are going to get caught in the storm. The air is full of sand and dirt in seconds. The rain pelts through that air creating airborne mud. The wind is vicious.

Make sure to have plenty of dry towels in your car or proper rain covers for you and your cameras.

This image was shot at 24mm, 1/400 shutter speed, f/6.3 for a bit of added depth of field and 1250 ISO.

I had a second Sony camera as a backup, with 70-200 f/2.8 zoom for a different perspective, just in case the storm changed direction. Having a second camera also helps, so you don’t need to change lenses. You never want to change lenses during a storm like this. The debris that can get into the sensor area of the camera can be devastating.

Why this photo works

As the storm began to grow, I knew this was going to make an incredible visual impression. It was going to be an unusual and unique photograph.

It’s not every day you can illustrate a storm that is literally engulfing and affecting people at the ground level. There is usually that separation from clouds in the sky to the people on the ground, and that makes this image different and unusual. There is also a ferocity and menace to the image seeing this dense cloud moving and swallowing up everything in its path.

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