‘DESERT STORM’ - NAMIBIA PHOTO WORKSHOP

Day 1 Windhoek 

The guesthouse shuttle will collect all arriving guests from the Windhoek International Airport during the day. At 18:00 we will have dinner where everyone is introduced and the guides will get you excited about the photo opportunities that lie ahead.

Days 2-3 Quiver Tree Forest

After Breakfast at the hotel, we'll board our spacious bus and journey 500km south to Quiver Tree Forest. Found in only in South-Western Africa, quiver “trees” are actually very large succulent plants. With their cracking golden-white bark and remarkable shape, they make great photographic subjects. We’ll arrive at our destination early afternoon, leaving plenty of time for everyone to familiarize themselves with the amazing trees, before a sunset shoot, followed by a night shoot and dinner. We will spend the next day further shooting the quiver trees in the forest and in Giant's Playground just around the corner, where even more trees and interesting rocks await.

 

Quiver Tree Forest is a great location for night photography. We will shoot the quiver trees under a blazing Milky Way every night. 

Days 4-5 Kolmanskop - The Ghostly Remains of a Diamond Rush

After a sunrise shoot and breakfast we'll get back in our bus and make a 3-hour drive to the Coastal town of Luderitz. We’ll spend a long afternoon familiarizing ourselves with the many colorful, sand filled rooms of Kolmanskop. Situated just 5 minutes inland from Luderitz, it is the long forgotten site of one of the greatest diamond rushes in history. Just after the turn of the 19th century, German mining companies invested a fortune to build an entire town in the middle of nowhere. Everything from the door frames to the paint was imported from Germany and today the desert is reclaiming this once-glorious town. Despite being flooded with sand, the dry climate has done an amazing job of preserving the colorful rooms. There are well over 25 rooms worth photographing, so everyone can do their own thing. The guides will assist everyone to identify a room with an east-facing window for the next morning. After sunset we’ll have dinner at the Hotel.

Capturing the Ghost Town

We’ll get up for an early coffee and depart for the Ghost town in darkness. The guides will make sure that everyone is in place for a beam of orange light in the buildings as the sun crests the horizon in the East. After a quick morning shoot we'll head back to the hotel for breakfast. We'll return to Kolmanskop just before noon to make sure we capture the shadows of open roof slats under a 1 o'clock sun, and then have another relaxed afternoon exploring the Ghost town.

Days 6, 7, 8 - Deadvlei, The World's Highest Dunes, Aerial Photography

Our final destination is Sossusvlei; a one of a kind landscape created by an ancient river flowing into the desert. Like several other rivers in Namibia, the Tsauchab River used to flow from the mountains, through the desert, all the way to the coast. Thousands of years ago it was cut off from the ocean by the expanding desert and this created a seasonal wetland amongst the dunes. Over the millennia, this wetland has retreated inland as the Namib Desert slowly reclaims the valley that the river cuts through the dunes. As it stands today, Sossusvlei is about 60 kilometers from the coast, but still 40 kilometers into the towering red dunes of the Namib Desert. Although the river only flows all the way to Sossus a few times every decade, the valley still sustains a large population of wildlife amongst the dunes. There is always the chance that we may witness the river in flood and since it hasn’t flooded since 2012, the statistics are in our favor.

The amazing photos of snaking dune spines are all captured along the 40km drive into the Tsauchab Dune Valley. Thanks to this valley’s East-West orientation, the afternoon sun creates deep black shadows on the Eastern side and bright red colors on the Western side of the dunes. This offers great opportunities for telephoto shots of snaking dune spines. 

 

At the end of the Tsauchab Dune Valley is the famous Deadvlei, which was cut off from Sossusvlei by a low dune an estimated 700-800 years ago. The lack of water, arid climate and hard wood of the Namibian Camel Thorn tree has kept the trees of Deadvlei from decomposing. The result is a collection ghostly trees rising from a cracked white clay surface. The pan is deceptively large and offers about 50 of the oddly shaped trees to photograph. The location can be overwhelming at first, but the guides know the location well and will assist everyone to find the best trees and photograph them adequately.

 

Please note: Reaching Deadvlei requires walking 1.1km on soft sand and over a dune that is about 50 meters high. The climb is very gradual and for a person in reasonable shape it won't be a problem. The guides will always be available to help carry heavy camera when the going gets tough.

In the past we have gotten spectacular weather conditions including heavy rain (creating reflections) and magical mist. 

 

 

There are many great lodges at Sossusvlei, but only two of them allows you to shoot in the ideal hours and thus it’s not always easy to get a booking there. Moreover, we hope to have the truly unique experience of shooting Deadvlei by night. Please note that night access is dependent on a legal loophole that might not be available - it's down to luck and cannot be guaranteed by anyone.

 
Aerial photography: The workshop offers an optional helicopter flight for aerial photography. Flying over this landscape and capturing it from above is a once in a lifetime experience. The operator has two Robinson Raven II R44’s, which can take 3 passengers at a time. Upon arrival at Sossusvlei we will draw up a roster to figure out who will go for aerials on which mornings/afternoon. The rest of the group will still go about the morning and afternoon shoots as usual, while the respective people take their turn to go for aerial photography.

 

Aerial photography is a truly fantastic experience, and when combined with some of the most impressive desert landscapes on earth, it's simply delightful!

 

Day 9 On to Extension/Back to Windhoek

After a last sunrise at Sossusvlei, we'll say goodbye to the sands of the Namib. The participants doing the 'Sea of Sand' annex will drive onward to Swakopmund, whereas the rest will be driven to the airport for their flights home. Expect an afternoon arrival in the airport.