My wife and I went down to Phoenix in March for a special trip to see the Chihuly Glass exhibit at the Phoenix Desert Botanical Garden. The glass was fantastic, but the real show came later. We stayed to watch the sun set. There was a lot of high alto stratus that day and a bit of brown smog in the distance. I set up at the top of a hill with my Nikon D600 and an 18 - 35mm lens. I exposed for the sky, which was just going crazy for a good 45 minutes, changing constantly before and shortly after the sun set. The full frame D600 does a great job of capturing detail, such as the saguaro spines and stones on the desert floor.

I got a lot of nice images, but this one stood out when I noticed how the glow on the desert floor meandered and pointed right at the sun on the horizon. I brushed a couple of stops of brightness in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom there to enhance the image. I customized the white balance some to warm the sky up.