Carla Meeske is a Scottsdale-based nightscape photographer who blends technical precision with a deep connection to the Southwest’s dark skies. After capturing her first Milky Way image in 2018, she studied advanced night photography techniques and developed a disciplined approach to creating detailed sky-to-land compositions. A juried member of the Sonoran Arts League, Carla has twice exhibited large-scale nightscapes at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix and hosts the MilkyNight Studio during the Hidden in the Hills Tour.
Nightscape photographer Carla Meeske captures striking landscapes beneath the stars—from twilight’s liminal glow to the blazing Milky Way core. Her images are portals into the universe and into ourselves. We are unique incarnate signatures created from stardust and Earth, alive and radiant with the beauty of creation. View these images with a dreaming eye and experience the Spirit’s breath within you.
Using an astromodified camera and a star tracker to ensure sharpness, Carla often devotes an entire night to a single image. The magic comes alive in post-processing, where she enhances the colors and reveals the dramatic interplay between celestial and terrestrial beauty in the Southwest. Printed on semigloss aluminum or face-mounted acrylic, her photographs shimmer with depth. Carla’s mission is to bring the night sky’s magic into our hearts, reminding us that we stand at the center of the mystical bond between Earth and cosmos.
Carla is based in Scottsdale, Arizona, and photographs the Southwest’s most striking landscapes, where the cosmos brings the night to life.
getting hooked
In Hawaii on vacation in 2006, I stepped into the LavaLight Gallery and was blown away by CJ Kale’s images of light-painted trees in the starry night. I wanted to do that! I bookmarked that thought in my mind and made a silent promise to myself. I had dabbled in travel and art photography and my images were fun, but I didn’t get serious about photography until 2018 when I bought a Sony 6500 for vlogging and found a tutorial on photographing the Milky Way.
I headed out into the dark sky of the Mogollon Rim and boom, like a rocket ship, I was off shooting the night sky here in Arizona. With training in photography and editing from the best of the best, my laser focus was to create images that are portals into the Spirit World through the dancing mirror of our beautiful land and starry nights.
magic of night
A national park can be like a crowded zoo all day long, but at 2 a.m. even the busiest places are empty, peaceful and alive with wonder! Sometimes it’s the cooing of birds or the swoop of a night hawk and even eyes that glimmer from the edges. “Hi, friends! Thank you for allowing me to share this world with you.” As long as the location is away from city lights, it’s Heaven on Earth!
Night photography is very complicated and requires laser focus, but once the camera is whirring away, there is time to absorb the beauty. I didn’t know the constellations until I embarked on these night adventures. Now the stars feature as much in my world as the plants in my Sonoran desert home.
shamanic starlight stories
Carla’s Magical Nightscapes express the mystical connection of Sacred Land with the Infinite Sky, because Carla’s roots are in core shamanism. She has been offering professional shamanic services for over 30 years, including leading SpiritHealerCircle.com, an online shamanic school and community. Join her for workshops in shamanism and nightscape photography.
Shamans connect the creative energy of the heavens with the nurturing spirit of Earth. Carla’s compassionate Spirit Guides lead her into the landscape, and delight as she gathers images that honor heaven and Earth. Earth and sky tell the stories of their mirroring life force, embodied in the land, the trees, the animals, and us! Carla gathers those stories from the Spirits of the Land as she photographs through long starry nights. Listen as you look deep into these images, and you will hear the stories too!
Shaman’s understand that the truth, beauty and wisdom of the sky is alive in our bones. We are expressions of this grace. Carla honors the Spirits of the land and asks their permission to make photographs. They respond by showing her a sign, like a pottery sherd on the ground that wasn’t there before – was it? As the sky casts to night and the stars come out, night sounds rise, and Carla sings with them. The whole world comes alive with the music and the dance. These images are treasures of our sacred living moment, mirrors of our souls and affirmations of our beauty. Cherish them as your own. Because the living treasures we see today can so easily be gone tomorrow.
Learn about Carla’s shamanic work at Spirithealercircle.com