Location: Nevada, USA

Look again: this image is not what it appears to be.  What seems like an aerial shot of a dying lake is actually something quite different, and on a much smaller scale.  Any guesses?  I spent a lot of time roaming through Nevada’s high deserts, encountering all sorts of odd relics in ghost towns and along lonely dirt roads.  I found this “lake” atop the rusting carcass of an automobile near Gerlach.  The top of the car had been dented in, collecting rainwater during the winters and then drying up during the summers, for how many years is anyone’s guess.  I was immediately struck by how it mimicked an actual desert lakebed.  I captured this photo during the day, framing the lake tightly, and leaving only a hint of the car’s rain gutter and open window on the bottom right of the image.