Well this is nothing close to a desert butte, but I thought it kind of looked that way. It is actually a building (probably a hanger) on the former Alameda Naval Air Station. The warm tones of isolation of the building the openess of the area, and the interesting cloud formations of the sky, all lent themselves to the desert butte theme. On the far right side off in the distance is the skyline of San Francisco.

I remember reading that landscape photographs are often at their best when you shoot a little bit down right in front of you using a wide angle lens. This way you can get the foreground to become an active part of the picture. Seems to work in this shot.