I spent five days in Death Valley National Park exploring and photographing its beautiful, barren terrain. Known as the hottest place on earth in the summer, it holds the record for the hottest temperature ever recorded in the United States—a scorching 134 degrees Fahrenheit in 1913. It is also known for its massive Badwater Basin, an expansive salt flat that, at 282 feet below sea level, is the lowest point in North America.

The Basin comprises most of the valley floor and is typically bone dry. Still, this year, due to heavy rainstorms in California, it has partially filled with water to form Lake Manly.

I chose to photograph a sunset on Lake Manly from an overlook known as Dante's View, which rises some 6,000 feet from the valley floor. The particular evening I was able to be there didn't provide much in the way of cloud formations, but in the desert, clear skies create beautiful sunsets with deep yellows and oranges.

I spent the golden hour shooting long-lens abstracts of the rivulets of water flowing across the exposed salt flats into Lake Manly.

As the sun set, deep blue shadows saturated the Panamint Mountains across the valley from my perch and tinted the white salt below me with cool blue tones. Above, the sky turned warm shades of yellow and orange as the sun set behind the mountains, lightly tinting the waters flowing into, through and beyond Lake Manly into the valley.

Fortunately, this typically windy location was very calm – just a soft breeze, which gave me confidence that a long exposure would stay in sharp focus. I composed a down-valley 55mm shot (aperture priority) and waited for the light to come. When it did, I was able to capture this image.