12 days once-in-a-lifetime experience covering all the best photography locations of Namibia

GUIDED NAMIBIA PHOTO TOUR – ICONIC NAMIBIA

Discover Namibia’s natural beauty and let us help you capture unforgettable memories. Our professional photo guide will accompany you on your journey and show you the best spots to capture that perfect shot.

Namibia Photographic Tour Iconic Namibia
After many trips to every corner of Namibia Paolo gained a deep knowledge of the country. This allowed us to design a tour that will make the most of your time there, ensuring that you will always be in the right place at the right time. Plus, we will have access to locations at times that are usually closed to normal tourists, giving you the chance to take unique photos at the best time of the day.

We aim to take you to beautiful locations and give you every opportunity to get great images while improving your technique throughout the workshop. We limit the number of participants in our workshop to just six which gives us plenty of time with everyone in the field, meaning Paolo will be close at hand to provide you with any advice or help you need, from lens choice to composition and camera settings. From day 1 Paolo will assess your photographic level and what you’d like to focus on, then tailor the sessions accordingly.

We selected the dates of our workshop to ensure we are in each location at the best time of year. The trip takes place at the peak of the dry season when water is very scarce and wildlife activity tends to gather around waterholes. We also aligned the trip around the moon phase so that we can photograph Namibia’s incredible dark skies at their best.

Highlights

Detailed Itinerary

Guided Namibia Photo Tour – Iconic Namibia

Your photo guide and driver will be waiting for you at the international airport near Windhoek.

After meeting at Hosea Kutako International Airport and a brief stop in a mall in Windhoek, where you have the chance to buy everything you might need for the trip, we start heading south towards our first destination, the Quiver Tree Forest. We will reach our destination in time to check in at our lodge and to go out for a first sunset session. After sunset, we will have our dinner before coming back for a Milky Way session that will last till around midnight.

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Kolmaskop, an old mining town.

After an optional photography session at sunrise and a good breakfast, it’s time to hit the road and drive East towards the coastal town of Luderitz. We will cross some incredible desert landscapes and, if we are lucky, we might even be able to see the wild horses of the Namib, the descendants of a group of horses rumoured to have escaped from a German fort in the early 1900s.

We will have time to walk a bit around Luderitz before setting out for our first session in Kolmaskop, an old mining town that was established when diamonds were discovered in the area in the early 1900s and has now been abandoned since the end of WW2, with the desert slowly claiming it back. We will take our time to explore the countless rooms, each one telling us a different story. After sunset, we will drive back to our accommodation in Luderitz.

Stunning view of the dunes.

The day starts early as we have special access to photograph Kolmaskop with the sunrise light shining through the rooms. We will then travel back to Luderitz to have a good breakfast before saying goodbye to this little town.

It will take us around five hours to reach Sossusvlei, our next destination. Following scenic gravel roads and crossing the Namib Rand Nature Reserve. At Sesriem, the entrance point to the Sossusvlei and Deadvlei, after everyone has settled into their spacious tented rooms on stilts that will be our home for the next three days, with a stunning view of the dunes in the distance, we all go on a drive into the park to discover the beauty it has in store for us. Expect to see lots of oryx roaming freely at the base of the world’s highest dunes, providing endless photography possibilities as the sun slowly goes lower.

Our lodge is located inside of the park gates, so while most of the people must leave around sunset time to exit the park gates before it closes, we can stay till late making the most of the magic dusk light fading on the dunes.

Photograph pre-dawn and sunrise in Deadvlei.

We have a full day in the park. The days start very early and we drive off when it is still dark, in order to cover the approx 70 km (including 6km on sand) and reach Deadvlei with the sunrise light. first rays of sunlight over the dunes. We will photograph pre-dawn and sunrise in Deadvlei until 9.30 am when the light gets harsher, the temperature gets higher and the regular tourists arrive.

After a good breakfast at the lodge, we have some time to relax before meeting in the afternoon for some post-production lessons and one-on-one sessions with Paolo. Then, we head back to Sossusvlei for some sunset dune scapes. Dinner will be at the lodge.

One of the prime locations worldwide to see flamingos.

After one last optional sunrise session and breakfast in the lodge, we leave the Sossusvlei region behind and head further north. The drive is approximately five hours, with a quick stop in the small town of Solitaire and then up towards the coastal town of Swakopmund. Prepare yourself for a complete change in weather, as Swakopmund can be foggy and quite chilly, especially after the warmer temperatures we have gotten used to in the south of Namibia and the Sossusvlei region.

After the check-in to our boutique guesthouse located just under the dunes, we take another short drive along the coast to Walvis Bay. This coastal town, home of Namibia’s main commercial harbour, is famous for its flamingos feeding in the lagoon and the surrounding wetlands. It is considered one of the prime locations worldwide to see flamingos, with numbers reaching over 40,000 individuals. You will be able to see both the Lesser and the Greater flamingo here and photograph them from a close distance, with a magic light as the sun disappear behind the ocean. Alternatively, we can decide to spend the sunset on the spectacular sand dunes facing the ocean, where we can get creative with the shapes created by the dunes’ texture and the fading sunset light. For tonight’s dinner, we will go out to a restaurant in Swakopmund.

Here we also have more time for private portfolio reviews and one-on-one sessions with Paolo.

Spitzkoppe, known as ‘the Matterhorn of Africa’.

On day 6 we have a free morning. You can choose between a sunset session on the dunes close to Swakopmund, a 2-hour scenic flight over the Namib desert (not included) or a simple walk around Swakopmund, a town with a distinct German influence. After lunch, we drive a couple hours to Spitzkoppe, known as “the Matterhorn of Africa”. This is a stunning area to photograph huge boulder formations in the golden light of the afternoon. We take accommodation in a nearby lodge that gives us on foot access to this wild landscape, which we can explore freely looking for the best compositions.

After dinner, we can also photograph this location at night, trying to capture the stars as they twinkle above the rock arch that made this area famous.

The impression of being on Mars.

In the morning we can photograph Spitzkoppe as the first rays of sunshine hit the rocks. After a nice breakfast, we pack our 4×4 again and start another adventurous drive through the amazing views of Damaraland. As we proceed we will find fewer and fewer people while the landscape will change dramatically giving us the impression of being on Mars.

Our destination is a small lodge with access to one of the main riverbeds of Damaraland. Our afternoon drive will focus on the desert-adapted elephants that can only be found in this area. The riverbed is also home to a wide variety of mammals including rhinos, leopards and lions adapted over time to live in these dry lands. The lack of resources forces them to spread over a really wide area so they are not easy to locate, but with a bit of luck, we might have some amazing encounters.

Follow rhinos and elephant tracks in the desert.

We will drive out of the lodge at dawn with a professional tracker who will try his best to follow rhinos and elephant tracks in the desert to hopefully see and photograph these elusive animals. If we are really lucky we might even see some desert lions!

After the safari, we will have a good breakfast and here we go, our next destination is the Etosha National Park, one of the largest parks in the whole of Africa. The transfer will be around 4 hours to the gate of the park – Namibia is a really big country! After registering at the gate we will keep driving for about 75km to reach our destination, in the heart of the Etosha.

With a surface almost as big as Switzerland, the Etosha is home to a wide range of mammals and birds. While this is still wild nature and not a zoo, it’s almost guaranteed to see large herds of antelopes, elephants, rhinos and lions, and with a bit of luck we might even see leopards and cheetahs. The dry season is at its peak and as the water becomes more and more scarce in the bush, animals are coming to the waterholes to drink. That’s where we are going to find them, targeting some of the best waterholes where rhinos, elephants and lions usually come to drink.

After checking in to our accommodation we head out with our 4×4 to check some selected waterholes where predator activity tends to be higher. Once back at our camp, we will have 24-hour walking access to an artificially lit waterhole, where we can see animals during the night hours when they are most active. Expect giraffes, elephants, rhinos and lions to be here between sunset and sunrise. The scenes here are so good that the waterhole appears for a long chapter in the “Night on Earth” series by Netflix!

Explore the waterholes looking for predators coming out of the Etosha pan.

Today we spend the whole day in the park, heading out well before sunrise on our private game drive; as early morning and late afternoon are the moments when most animals are more active, we will try to spot some wildlife while is still dark so that we are ready to take our photos when the first light will arrive.

After the drive, we go back to our camp to have lunch and take a look at the waterhole; the central hours of the day are usually the ones with less wildlife activity, but sometimes animals show up even at midday!

In the afternoon we will have some time for a photography review and Q&A before heading out on another safari session where we will explore the surrounding waterholes looking for predators coming out of the Etosha pan.

Try to spot some of the lions that roam these areas.

Another early start today, as we head out again with our private safari guide. Today we will focus on lions, trying to spot some of the big prides that roam these areas, so have your camera ready!

In the afternoon we will drive to the eastern border of the park, where we will check into a private reserve that borders the main Etosha National Park. Being in the reserve will give us more exclusive access to animals, with the possibility of driving off-road to find the best photography angles. We will go out for our afternoon session with very skilled guides that will be able to track and spot any wildlife activity. Dinner at the lodge.

Explore the waterholes looking for predators coming out of the Etosha pan.

Today we go out at 6 am looking for leopards and cheetah. The drives are about 4 hours long and we come back to the lodge around 10 am for breakfast and some relaxation. In the afternoon we will meet again for some photo reviews before heading for another private safari till after sunset. Dinner at the lodge.

Explore the waterholes looking for predators coming out of the Etosha pan.

Today we go out at 6 am looking for leopards and cheetah. The drives are about 4 hours long and we come back to the lodge around 10 am for breakfast and some relaxation. In the afternoon we will meet again for some photo reviews before heading for another private safari till after sunset. Dinner at the lodge.

While the focus is on wildlife, you will also have plenty of opportunities to capture stunning landscape views, so you will want to cover a wide range of focal lengths, ideally from 16mm to 400mm. You will need a dSLR or mirrorless camera with interchangeable lenses. The best option for this type of photography is one of the latest mirrorless systems with advanced autofocus, but if you already have a dSLR system you should be good to go.

Wildlife

Wildlife is the primary focus of this trip; in addition to the iconic orix we will see plenty of spingboks, mountain and plains zebra, various species of antelopes, brown and spotted hyenas, wildebeest, ostriches, jackals, giraffes, black and white rhinos, elephants and big predators like lions, cheetah and leopards. These encounters will happen in the wild and we will be shooting from an open safari vehicle, with sometime limited possibilities to change our position relatively to the subject. As main lens for these situations we recommend a zoom in the 100-400 or 200-600 mm. If you also have a prime telephoto (400mm f2.8 to 600mm f4) we highly recommend that you bring it along.

If you want to rent a telephoto lens for the trip do not hesitate to contact us and we will be happy to assist you with our on-site rental partners.

Landscapes

During the trip we will also have plenty of opportunities to photograph wider landscapes; for this a wide angle zoom in the 16-35mm range, or alternatively a 20-70mm lens, will be perfect.

Batteries & Memory cards

We will have regular access to electric power; however we recommend to bring enough batteries and memories for at least a full day of shooting – that might be several thousands of images per day, depending on the situations.

Laptop to review and edit images

Together with your laptop we highly advise at least one external small hard drive for storage and backup of your photos. Post processing workflow, backup and storage strategies will be discussed by Paolo during the trip.