Neon in Nature: A Light Painting Journey Across Nevada

This body of work was created for The Neon in Nature Series, an exhibition at the Nevada State Museum in collaboration with Travel Nevada.

In June 2024, my little family embarked on a road trip across the state of Nevada, stopping at select locations so I could capture a series of light paintings exclusively within the Silver State.

Nelson Ghost Town - Eldorado Canyon

Our first stop was Nelson Ghost Town, just south of Boulder City near the Colorado River. This location was a playground for photographers - with vintage cars from the 1940s to the 1960s, weathered structures, a chapel, a phone booth, and scattered cacti and ponderosa pines.

Chapel - A scene inspired by a sculpture I saw outside the historic Boulder Dam Hotel (built in 1933) designed by Jeanine Young (below). Seeing the chapel in the ghost town, I knew it would be the perfect backdrop to recreate two figures embracing in holy matrimony.

Like I said earlier, Nelson Ghost Town is pretty much a photographer's playground, and there's a lot of history about the mines in the surrounding canyons.

This placard tells a bit about the wild west history of the location:

One of my favorite captures from this night was taken toward the early morning, when I was running low on battery and energy. It’s often in that state of exhaustion where unexpected creativity happens - what I call the delirious state. Sometimes the best works are the ones you don’t fully remember capturing until you see them the next day.

Bugatti Royale - Later that evening, I found the perfect abandoned gas station scene to photograph this legendary car. Only seven were ever made between 1927 and 1933, and the six surviving models are considered priceless.

And just for a bit of fun:

Cowboy Ghost - Though deliberately simple, this capture involved careful composition, environmental lighting, and a backlit stained glass window.

Logandale Trails

Next, we headed to Logandale Trails, with its red sands, rock formations, and off-road trails. The full moon illuminated the landscape beautifully and provided the perfect scene to showcase Nevadadromeus - a dinosaur unique to the Silver State.

Cathedral Gorge State Park

At Cathedral Gorge, our family hiked during the day and explored slot canyons and scenic overlooks. That night, I made one of my proudest captures - a long exposure light painting that lasted over ten minutes, creating dramatic star trails against the canyon walls.

The Extraterrestrial Highway & Tonopah

Traveling west on the Extraterrestrial Highway, I couldn’t resist returning to a roadside sign near Rachel, Nevada. I shot Alien Abbey Road - a nod to The Beatles and this iconic desert setting.

On the long drive back to Tonopah, I stopped at a dirt road that led into a vacant and vast desert landscape. This was where I would capture Cow Abduction under the bright glow of a full moon. 

Earlier this evening we planned on staying at the historic, and supposedly haunted Mizpah Hotel (built in 1907), a place where Jack Dempsey and Wyatt Earp worked as bouncers for the wild west mining clientele of the early 1900's.

So that night I left my family in a haunted hotel and was a little anxious after the bellhop checked us in..

He glanced at me, then my wife, and then squints towards my 3 year son who was hopping from bench to bench in the lounge, then looks back to me and says "He has no idea, does he?" - referring of course to the fact that this hotel we were staying in was the most haunted hotel in America. Father of the year, I know..

Although I stayed out late both nights on my light painting missions - I asked my wife if anything weird happened while I was away, and she told me to get close to the windows and listen because they made an eerie sound. 

So I did and found that the recessed windows of the building produced an odd vibrational sound like if you blew wind past an open bottle - something of a low howling hum that varied based on the speed of the wind. A bit odd but not necessarily a malevolent force. 

During the day we explored the town, visited Tonopah Historic Mining Park, had lunch at Tonopah Brewing Company, and checked out the very strange Clown Motel along with its friendly and perhaps haunted neighbor, the Tonopah Cemetery.

These places are a must stop if you're in town, they are so bizarre and interesting that they need to be experienced firsthand. 

I enjoyed reading the stories on the graves themselves and seeing the extensive collection of old, new, and perhaps cursed clowns at the motel.

These were some of my favorites:

I didn't do any light painting on location due to the challenging ambient lighting from the nearby street and motel sign, but if I was to visit again, perhaps I would light paint some of these clowns emerging from the graves in the cemetery.

Belmont Courthouse & Goldfield

On the second night in Tonopah, I made the long drive up to Belmont, where I photographed the stately Belmont Courthouse (built in 1876).

Looking in through the windows you can see thousands of names and dates scrawled into the walls. The dates read from the 1930's through the 70's - graffiti becoming part of history itself.

Later, we visited Goldfield, Nevada, home to The International Car Forest of The Last Church, where I climbed atop a bus to capture skeleton figures set against the sunset.

Get On the Bus - Light Painting
This piece took 8 minutes and 15 seconds to capture: a rainbow skeleton scene glowing in the last light of day.

Stargazing Skeletons
Under a brilliant milky way, this nocturnal light painting felt like the perfect cosmic complement to the road trip.

Rhyolite & Goldwell Open Air Museum

The final stop on our journey was Rhyolite’s Goldwell Open Air Museum. The large sculptural figures by Albert Szukalski didn’t need much from me - just carefully cast light to highlight their haunting forms.

The Last Supper - Against approaching pink storm clouds from Death Valley, I recreated this scene with an homage to Da Vinci’s iconic composition, painting color and intention into each figure.

Final Thoughts

This trip was a whirlwind of art, history, landscape, and discovery. We saw so much, yet it still feels like we barely scratched the surface of what Nevada has to offer. I’ll be back.