Arnoud Quanjer Wildlife Photography

The Sossusvlei area is undoubtly one of the most photographed areas in Namibia. Thousands of people visit Sossusvlei every year and many of them are photographers. The contrast between the red sand dunes and the dark shadows that they cast during sunrise and sunset give photographers endless opportunities to shoot impressive pictures. Although many people visit the Sossusvlei area every year it's surprising how little information can be found about the best locations for photography. I searched the Internet for hours and hours but I didn't find any good hints or tips regarding the best spots for early morning or late afternoon photography. Most hints and tips I found were about seeing the sun rise or set from the top of Dune 45. Although Dune 45 is a nice dune there is a special reason for it being so popular; People who are not staying inside the park (eg Sesriem campsite) can only enter the park at sunrise. From the gate Dune 45 is the first dune that they they encounter on the way to Sossusvlei and they stop there because when they get there the warm sunrise light is already fading. Sossusvlei is another half and hour down the road so they can't get there during sunrise.

If you're staying at Sesriem campsite then you can enter the park one hour before sunrise, and you can return one hour after sunset. If you're serious about taking photographs at Sossusvlei then staying at Sesriem is a must as you need the warm light for photography. Also when you arrive at Sossusvlei late then the sun will be high in the sky and then you've lost the dramatic effect of the shadows which the dunes cast.For early morning photography two places are my personal favourites. The first one is Dead Vlei and the second one is Hidden Vlei.

Early morning photography (Dead Vlei)

Dead Vlei is probably the most interesting of all the vleis in the area. In Dead Vlei you will find around forty dead camelthorn trees which stand out aginst the cracked white surface of the vlei, the red dunes in the background and the blue sky above. To get to Dead Vlei you drive the 4x4 track to Sossusvlei and from there you have to walk just over a kilometer through the sand dunes. If you leave Sesriem when the gates open and drive straight to Sossusvlei you'll get to Dead Vlei as the sunlight reaches the western side of the vlei (there is a dune on the eastern side of the vlei which blocks the light from the sunrise for abou 30 minutes). From the moment that you reach Dead Vlei you'll have around an hour of nice warm light for photography. What I would advise you to do is to walk around in Dead Vlei for a bit to decide where you want to setup your tripod. The trees in the vlei give lots of opportunities for nice pictures but composition is the most important thing to think about. Carefully select the framing of the trees, the background and the foreground. One thing to think about when taking pictures in Dead Vlei is the dynamic range of your camera (or film). If you take pictures of a camelthorn with a shaded dune in the background then it may look awesome in your viewfinder, but the dynamic range of that picture might prove to be too much for your camera. If this is the case then the tree will sort of blend into the background which leads to a visually unappealing picture. If you make sure that the background is a dune in full sunlight then the picture will be much more appealing (see examples). As you probably will be shooting at a small aperture I'd recommend using a tripod.

Most of my pictures in Dead Vlei were made using a 24-70 f/2.8, a 70-200 f/2.8 and a 300 f/2.8 lens.

Early morning photography (Hidden Vlei)

Besides Dead Vlei another awesome location for early morning photography is Hidden Vlei. Unfortunately Hidden Vlei is not marked on any of the roadsigns, the GPS coordinates for a nice viewpoint are 24°43'55.86"S 15°18'47.86"E. When you arrive at this location you'll have to walk up a small 10 meter high dune and behind that dune lies Hidden Vlei. From the 4x4 track you won't be able to see Hidden Vlei.

At Hidden Vlei you'll be able to get some nice panoramic shots and with a large telelens (>=300mm) you can get some nice close-ups of dunes and shadows. Just scan the dunes looking through your viewfinder until you find some nice patterns. Usually there's nobody at Hidden Vlei as it's not very well known with the general public. I go there everytime I visit the Sossusvlei area and it never ceases to amaze me.

Most of my pictures in Dead Vlei were made using a 10-22, a 24-70 f/2.8 and a 300 f/2.8 lens. 

Photography during the day

During the day the light is very harsh, but that doesn't necesarilly mean that you can't take any pictures. The dunes are all pastel coloured during the daytime and you can still take decent pictures of them, you won't see the dramatic shadow effects on the dunes though. Most tourists in tourbusses turn up after 11 o'clock and most of them climb either Dune 45 or Sossusvlei Dune so during the day you can get some nice pictures of people climbing the dunes.

Late afternoon photography

For photography in the late afternoon I can recommend the area between Dune 45 and the 2x4 parking place near Sossusvlei. This fifteen kilometer stretch of road is lined with huge red sand dunes and it offers many opportunities for landscape and telelens photography. If there have been good rains in the rainy season (if you can talk about a rainy season in Namibia) then the foreground of the dunes will be filled with yellowish/brown grass which looks awesome in combination with the red dunes. Dune 45 itself is also a good location for photography late in the afternoon. There are some camelthorns next to Dune 45 and you can get great shots of them with Dune 45 in the background. Directly opposite to Dune 45 are some enormous sand dunes that cast nice shadows in the late afternoon.