Outcroppings rising from the savanna in Tanzania's Serengeti, Kopjes (KOH-peez) form islands of granite providing footing for trees, shade for wildlife, and a vantage point for predators.

Drifting over Namibia's Namib Desert by hot air balloon, weeks after record rainfall, green grass briefly carpets the sands, a sight few ever see.

The Milky Way arcs over a camel thorn tree, home to a Sociable Weaver nest, under some of the darkest skies on Earth (Bortle 1) in Namibia's Kalahari Desert.

Shaped by time, Death Valley's Twenty Mule Team Canyon rises in layers of mineral-rich rock with the grandeur of a natural cathedral.

At dusk in the Mojave, light broke through storm clouds and swept the desert, leaving only minutes to frame the mountains before it vanished.

Flying low over Sossusvlei in Namibia's Namib Desert, the dunes below revealed ripple patterns pressed into the iron-stained sand by wind, millions of years in the making.

On a hilltop in Belize, Brahman gather beneath the trees as the morning fog lifts. The wide-open pasture feels intimate, something small, still, and close.

A Great Blue Heron wades in the shadow of cypress trees and Spanish moss in Louisiana's Atchafalaya Basin, with morning light glowing beyond.

In a park close to home in Missouri, swaying grasses and an intentional use of focus soften the edges, invoking the feel of a sketch.

From a hot air balloon over the northern Serengeti, the Mara River leads past an acacia tree to another balloon drifting ahead on an early morning flight.

From an open-door helicopter over Botswana's Okavango Delta, this view explores the convergence of water and desert during the seasonal floods.

In New Mexico's White Sands National Park, a lone woman stands among gypsum dunes that seem to roll like waves toward the San Andres Mountains.

On the floor of the Grand Canyon, the day’s last light catches the top of two peaks, before fading into shadow.

A centuries-old camel thorn tree, preserved by Deadvlei's dry clay pan, stands as an organic sculpture against Namibia's reddish dunes.

In Kolmanskop, a ghost town in Namibia's Namib Desert, sand has drifted into abandoned buildings for decades, reclaiming the rooms inside.

The red Aztec Sandstone that gives Nevada's Valley of Fire its name leads out to the blues of distant mountains, spanning miles of layered desert terrain.