As I've mentioned before, I like just getting into a car and driving. East of Las Vegas you'll find the Lake Mead National Recreation Area. Northshore Road, strangely enough, runs along the north shore of Lake Mead. It doesn't hug the shore – in fact you struggle to glimpse the lake from the road. But what you can see are fantastic desert vistas.
Most of my time in the deserts or North Africa and the Arabian Peninsular were in very arid, largely vegetation free deserts. Even scrub bushes were few and far between. The climate around Las Vegas however, provides just enough moisture for scrubby bushes to dot the landscape. Sometimes the distance looks quite green but it's fooling you. Get up close and there are large patches of rock or gravel between the bushes.
It's not always possible when traveling to wait for the golden hour at the start or end of the day. Sometimes you just have to shoot when you are there but the results can still be quite satisfying. This image was taken around noon.
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Production Data
Here I've taken a symmetrical approach to the foreground since the vanishing point of the road occurs below the low point where the two buttes meet.
Camera: Canon EOS 5D
Lens: Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS USM AF Lens (B&H)
Processing: Lightroom 3.6
Processing: photomatix 4.02
Processing: Photoshop CS5
Processing: Topaz Adjust 5
