The high desert of California is significantly underappreciated. The vast majority of people who have ever encountered this bizarre landscape, only do so in passing. They drive through the small towns on highway 395 with the mountains in the distance, and don’t even think about stopping. It’s for this reason that I was pretty excited to head down the Alabama Hills for a shoot with the production crew of CreativeLive.

We were there to film an advanced online course on night photography techniques; teaching people how to capture the Milky Way, star trails, and light painting. It was the perfect location for that kind of photography, because of the complete lack of light pollution, absence of other people, and completely clear skies.

Over the three nights that we were there in the Alabama Hills, we saw a lot of amazing things. Beyond the incredibly bright and vivid Milky Way, we watched the sun set dramatically over the Sierras, and we saw an incredibly active meteor shower.

This shot was taken on the first evening, right as the sun began to set over the Sierras to the West. As it did, it cast an incredible glow into the valley where we were, and beams of light began to make their way through the mountainous peaks and through the remaining clouds. The purpose of us being there was to capture the Milky Way, but this VAST photo ended up becoming my favorite shot from the entire trip.