Borrego Springs, California, is a designated International Dark Sky Community. It's one of 23 places in the world that has taken significant measures to preserve the night sky. The small town has no stoplights, and all outdoor lighting is monitored by the Borrego Springs Dark Sky Coalition. The lack of light pollution allows nature to put on a big, awe-inspiring show each night, filling the sky with the millions of stars invisible in most other places.

This vast sky makes Borrego Springs an ideal place for a night photography workshop. Atlas Obscura traveler and photographer Neal Skorka took his camera to Dark Skies, Desert Beasts: Night Photography in Borrego Springs. He shares the tips he learned and some stunning photography from Galleta Meadows Estate, a sculpture park featuring massive metal animals.

They say that the desert comes alive at night. A night photography class in Borrego Springs proved it.

During the day, the sculptures were lonely in the landscape, standing in still, solitary fashion in the dry heat. As I shot them in the daytime, I found that moving close to the animals with a wide-angle lens (10mm-22mm) made the best photos. The texture on the rough steel popped, and the color stood out in contrast to the sandy ground. Still, the hard sunlight took a lot of color out of the scenery, and I had to add a little contrast and saturation in post-production.

When we started the night shoots, the landscape changed to a cooler environment, and the real fun began. We took the information we learned from our instructors, and we brought the sculptures to life. Collaborating with the other photographers in the class, we painted the sculptures with light so that they became an active part of their landscape. Mastodons, dinosaurs, bears, scorpions, serpents, and giant insects looked like they were wandering the desert, seeking something. Revenge? A meal? Escape from photographers?

To me, night photography is a technical challenge that requires experimentation. If you plan to do this workshop with Atlas Obscura, make sure you’re as familiar with your camera in the dark as you are in the daylight. Know where the buttons are and how to change settings without looking at the camera—this will save time and keep you on task.

Stay up as late as you can to get the full experience. And watch out for the choya cactus at night: If you lay down in it (as I did) to get low shots, you’ll spend the next week picking needles from your sweatshirt!