Moonrise at Castle Butte, Valley of the Gods Size:30x45 The stone formations didn’t disappear

The stone formations didn’t disappear into darkness

The sky was captured later that same night during peak airglow activity

I had no certainty that photography would become my future

drawn toward the sound of moving water

and that collective feeling becomes part of the landscape

Moonrise at Castle Butte, Valley of the Gods Size:30x45 The stone formations didn’t disappearValley of the Gods, Utah This photograph was made near the Castle Butte in the Valley of the Gods, and it came from a single frame pulled from a time lapse sequence. It was never intended to be a complex composite or a heavily engineered night image. The moment simply worked on its own. The bright glow on the left horizon and the soft illumination across the desert floor come from a moonrise, captured just as the moon crested the horizon. That natural