Want to photograph this area? I will be hosting a photographic tour/workshop through C4 images and safaris in April next year. This workshop will give you unrestricted access to privately owned land as well as twilight and night time shooting inside the world famous Sossuvlei.

Ever since I started landscape photography as a hobby, people have been asking me when I’m going to Namibia to photograph the landscapes. I had been there twice for two weeks on holiday at the age of 13 and again at 15, though  I don’t remember it so clearly, I can’t recall such impressive landscapes. I remember dunes and dry riverbeds so I wasn’t really that keen on visiting the desert. I’m a person who hates the expectations of other people. So when people expect me to go to Namibia, I won’t.

I was hanging around a book shop about two years ago, just flipping through all the nature oriented coffee table books. I took one from the shelf called ‘Scenic Namibia’ by a certain Jean du Plessis. It was an A3 size book with a wraparound cover of the main Spitskoppe under stormy skies. Boring cover, but I decided to check it out anyway. I opened the book, turned a useless credits page and before me there was a side of the Namib I had never seen before.  Ivory colored grass that lied like a carpet on the slope of a mountain valley, blurred to a white fluff by long exposure. The valley descended to the bottom and rose again to merge with brown Granite hills that climbed into a crystal clear sky painted pink and blue by the dawn. Like the watchman of the valley, there stood an ancient Camel thorn tree, gnarled,yet thriving in the semi-desert Climate. I spent about 5 minutes looking at the image, snapped back to reality and bought the book.

About 18 months after buying the book, I was finally on my way to the Namib Rand, camera and book on the passenger seat. I had arranged accommodation on a farm about 95km due West from the town of Maltehohe. I had never been in this part of Namibia and didn’t know what to expect, but I wanted to see grass valleys, dunes and thorn trees. After turning West at Keetmanshoop I still had about 240km to get to my destination. I was expecting the landscape to start changing soon, but apart from the odd patch of red sand it was still flat plains with rocks and shrubs. I got to Maltahohe and the landscape was still the same boring nonsense.  I started thinking this lodge I was going to was nowhere near the scenic area I was hoping to photograph. The scenery was the same for the 70km after Maltahohe, until I got to a sign showing the start of a ‘Tsaris Pass’. Driving down the pass, it became clear that I was about to descend into the holy grail of landscape photography captured that had been haunting me for 18 months.

I arrived about 1 hour before sunset and was planning to let no twilight go to waste. I had limited time there and it’s a good 2000km from home.  I drove out on the farm’s criss-crossing dirt roads and I immediately found the perfect tree…but behind it was another one…behind that one another two…Everywhere there was a tree just screaming to be photographed. All the other elements were there- Red sand, white grass, brown mountains and cloudy skies. By the time I had my tripod setup in front of a tree, sunset was peaking and I still didn’t know what to shoot. A Good sunset went to waste and I felt like I had just taken a blow to the head.

The landscape is completely overwhelming. Each valley has to be dotted with a million different compositional opportunities. Everything is perfect, so simple. I felt like a kid in a candy store, but it was exactly like going to a restaurant…you go with an idea of what you want to eat, but when you look at the menu you don’t have a clue. Afterwards, you wish that you had eaten something else. Very corny comparison, I know, but it describes my experience so perfectly. I don’t have any interesting stories of my trip and what I experienced just felt like an invitation to come again and again and again. I can’t put it into words.

So here is one very boring report of events with the images!

On the first morning I headed out to the same area for sunrise. Conditions were nice but nothing spectacular.

5D II, 16-35mm II, ISO100, f/16, 0.4s, 0.9 soft grad

The owner of the farm I was staying on is a passionate photographer himself and he was like a tour guide to me in the area. The afternoon we headed out to a friend’s farm about 50km away. This farm borders with the famous Wolwedans near Sossusvlei and is home to the notorious fairy circles. The potential on this farm is amazing, but I spent the majority of the afternoon just exploring. The weather looked good upon arrival, but sunset was slightly disappointing.

 

5D II, 16-35mm II, ISO100, f/11, 1/40s, CPL filter

5D II, 16-35mm II, ISO100, f/16, 25s, 0.9 hard grad

The 2^nd day we went to another farm, also close to Wolwedans. I pretty much spent the whole 4 days shooting on these two farms close to Wolwedans. Sunrise was again impressive, but not amazing. I still got some good stuff.

5D II, 16-35mm II, ISO100, f/22, 1/15s, 0.9 hard grad

5D II, 16-35mm II, ISO100, f/16, 1/8s, CPL Filter

For sunset I went back to the other location where I had shot sunset the previous day. The weather was looking promising, but I expected the light to hit the clouds from below so I wasn’t quite shooting as much as I should have been…This was as good as it got. You can see how withered the grass is below the trees from the wildlife that take refuge in the shade. I had a  lot of encounters with Oryx on the dunes

5D II, 16-35mm II, ISO100, f/16, 0.6 hard grad

On the 3rd morning I was shooting at a location that I had shot twice over the previous couple of days so I knew exactly which composition to shoot in which direction…NOT. I was still mucking about, trying out new stuff. Each little dune and tree is worth at least 10 shots with any calibre of light/sunset. It was about 25 minutes before sunset and exposures were still in the minutes. My plan was to shoot into the light, but in the mucking about I took one exposure to my back and realised that there was one biblical light show about to unfold behind me. I had to find a composition in the opposite direction and do it quickly. Long story short…about 90 minutes of running from tree to tree I had some amazing shots, but even two months later I still think about the opportunities that I missed that morning. I had a nightmare last week in which I relived the shoot, but my camera wouldn’t work. Anyone else get nightmares about photography? Maybe I’m just weird

5D II, 16-35mm II, ISO100, f/16, 0.4s, 0.6 soft grad

5D II, 16-35mm II, ISO100, f/13, 1/15s, 0.6 hard grad

5D II, 16-35mm II, ISO100, f/16, 1/30s, 0.6 hard grad

5D II, 16-35mm II, ISO100, f/16, 1/30s, 0.6 hard grad

After the first three days I had covered a good 50km by foot on the sand, so I took the 4^th morning off to recover and download. There was a forecast for 4 days clear skies so I spent the whole midday looking for the ideal tree for a milky way shot, then I went back to the one farm for sunset.

5D II, 16-35mm II, ISO100, f/16, 4s, 0.6 hard grad

5D II, 16-35mm II, ISO3200, f/2.8, 25s

After 4 days of dune climbing and 20 hour days I was half dead, and I was happy with what I got. My conclusion about the place after spending a mere 4 days there is that I’m going back…A LOT. I’ve already got about 5-9 weeks there next year between January and May. I think I will be in eternal pursuit of images like those of Jean du Plessis, but a good 200mm of rain has to fall before the grass will be green enough for that

Want to photograph this area? I will be hosting a photographic tour/workshop through C4 images and safaris in April next year. This workshop will give you unrestricted access to privately owned land as well as twilight and night time shooting inside the world famous Sossuvlei.