How to get this photo from the Mojave Desert

Photo by Steve Berardi

This photo was taken at Joshua Tree National Park, which is in the Mojave Desert of the Southwestern United States.

I think the photo is unique for a couple reasons:

Color saturation (those rocks look brown most of the time)
It’s a single exposure (I didn’t capture the moon in a separate exposure)

And, here are a couple of tips on how to get this kind of photo:

Get to your photo location before sunrise. This photo was taken just a few minutes after sunrise, when the sun is casting a very warm red-tinted light on the desert landscape. There are only two times of the day where those rocks look red (sunrise and sunset)–the rest of the time they’re a dull brown.

Check out a moon phase calendar for your location.Find the day of the month where the sun will be rising at the same time the moon is setting. Once a month, there’s a perfect opportunity for you to photograph the moonset (or moonrise) with one exposure–both the sun and the moon will be low on the horizon (giving you perfect light).

For a great moon phase calendar, check out StarDate, or the iPhone application VelaClock. Many handheld GPS units also have great moon phase calendars.