Earlier in my career I spent nearly five years living in the Libyan Desert. Away from the Mediterranean Coast the vegetation quickly disappears to be replaced in the main by seemingly endless gravel plains.
The traditional definition of a desert is based on a (lack of) rainfall figure – less than 250 mm (10 in.) rainfall per year. An alternative definition is a place that lacks sufficient vegetation to support human population. the English word desert comes from the Latin ‘desertum' meaning an abandoned place.
Certainly the rainfall in the interior of libya is way less than 250 mm per year. I only recall three days in five years in the interior when we had sufficient rain to shut us down. Occasionally we'd come across ancient rock carvings and try to imagine the landscape as rolling savanna grasslands.
The Mojave Desert clearly gets more rain than the interior of libya. This shot shows the scrubby vegetation at the foot of the Nopah Range in California which lies to the east of Death Valley.
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Production Data
Camera: canon eos 5d
Lens: Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS USM AF Lens
Processing: Lightroom 4.0
Processing: photomatix 4.02
Processing: Photoshop CS5
Processing: Topaz Adjust 5
Processing: Nik Software Color Efex Pro 4 (Nik Software)
