A single straight road cuts through a desert toward a distant city, seen from 20 miles away at night. The city is a cluster of light on the flat horizon — white, amber, and occasional neon colors — shimmering slightly in the heat that the desert floor is still releasing. The road's white center line stretches from the camera's feet to the city lights, a painted arrow pointing at civilization. On either side of the road: flat, dark, nothing — the desert is a featureless void under a sky packed with stars so dense the Milky Way is visible as a bright band across the upper frame. The road is empty except for the two faint parallel lines of reflective road markers catching the starlight. Shot on a Nikon Z8 with the Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 S at 14mm, f/2.8, ISO 6400, 15-second exposure — long enough to record the stars as points rather than trails, short enough that the 14mm wide angle keeps them as dots (the 500 rule). The foreground road is lit by the camera car's parking lights — a subtle warm wash that reveals the asphalt texture without overpowering the natural darkness. This is the Vegas approach, the Albuquerque distant glow, the lonely road photograph that every landscape photographer dreams of.