A photographer from Lake Travis, Texas, happened to be in the right place at the right time for capturing a photo of an unmistakable mythical creature: a fire dragon-shaped cloud of smoke.
Joe Moxley, who lives in the town of Lago Vista on the lake’s north shore, managed to spot the telltale wisp of smoke that looked like a dragon’s fiery breath. The last of the daylight added an extra dimension by highlighting the cloud with yellowish flame.
“As the sun started to set, I noticed an interesting cloud formation that continued to evolve into the image of a fire-breathing dragon,” Moxley said, according to Caters News.
Talking about the beautiful spectacle of the sun setting over the lake each evening, Moxley, 47, said: “What fascinates me with capturing images of interesting sunsets is how quickly the colors and shapes change.”
Moxley happened to catch just such a fleeting moment on the night of Oct. 13, 2018. The well-defined shape of the lower cloud emerging upward certainly gives it the appearance of a dragon in his picture, but the strange smoke emerging from it across the sky is even more intriguing.
What was particularly amazing was the way the dragon’s golden blast seemed to scorch the clouds above.
“It was exciting to see how it materialized,” Moxley said. “I was able to get some great shots that depicted the dragon fire turning into purple smoke.”
While Moxley’s picture was rather spectacular, he wasn’t the first photographer to have caught a dragon breathing fire into the evening sky. California photographer Nicolas Locatelli, 25, captured another cloud that strongly resembled a dragon’s head spewing “fire” several years ago.
It just so happened that Locatelli saw his dragon right around April 23, which is the celebration of St. George in the United Kingdom. The patron saint of England was famous for having slain a dragon that had been terrifying the population.
Like any good sunset photographer, Moxley understands the importance of being present to the huge changes that take place as the sun gets closer to the horizon.
“You can get something different from one second to the next and then it’s gone,” Moxley said.
