When the Light Goes Down in the Desert

This photo appears on a utility box in front of Hawks Landing Golf Club in Yucca Valley, CA. It was the winner of a contest to beautify Yucca Valley. This is a huge honor for me. I hope you like it. This is a real photo taken at night in Joshua Tree National Park during a full moon. I set my tripod-mounted camera to a long exposure, keeping the shutter open for a long time, which makes the camera much more sensitive to light than our eyes. I illuminated the scene with warm white light from a handheld ProtoMachines LED2 light during the long exposure. Light painting to illuminate subjects is a beautiful, addictive art, as you can walk around the scene, deciding what to bring to light and what to keep in shadow. Also, it's more fun than AI-generated art. JTNP is my spiritual home for night photography, and it felt utterly fantastic to return here to photograph here at night and hike during the day.