Top places to photograph in Sossusvlei in 2024

Deadvlei at night is one of the most amazing experiences you can possibly have. It feels as if a billion stars are within arm’s reach and as if the trees have stories to share from 900 years of nights spent amongst the dunes. If you are lucky enough to spend a few hours of darkness in Deadvlei, make the most of it.

This is one of my favourite dunes as it doesn’t require clouds or wind or anything special to produce the above photograph. On the contrary, it actually just needs plain old boring cloudless sunlight, which is available 317 days a year in Namibia. It is also protected by humanity’s laziness, as you have to walk a substantial distance from your car to get the shot. Fortunately all of the walk is on a flat gravel plain. No matter how tempting it is to drive to the dune, always keep in mind that it takes decades for a set of tracks to disappear naturally.

This dune has fantastic tree at the foot of the spine, which makes for an excellent subject.

Dune 45 has recently become a bit crowded in peak times, so the park is in the process of making Dune 43 exactly the same – parking lot at the base for easier sunrise/sunset climbs. Being a government responsibility in Africa, it has taken them the better part of 2 years to grade a 500 m section of road with a parking area at the end, plant some poles along it and put a sign up. Currently I don’t know if they have any plans to finish it, but right now there are some really ugly poles leading up to the base of this dune.

All it means for us photographers is that we have to shoot it at a slight angle in order to exclude the poles. As with three-tree dune, you’ll need a 400 mm+ lens
for this shot, otherwise you can’t fill the frame with only sand and the tree becomes too small.

This scene offers something different from the other dune shots as it is a bit more grand and dynamic. The challenge here is that it’s a much longer shot than the others. If there is an interesting sky, then a 400mm frame will be roughly 1/3rd dunes and 2/3rd sky. If however the sky is boring, then it becomes a 600mm pano.

Get to know the Tsauchab valley and all of its potential shots and you’ll be able to find something in any type of weather.

There are two large bowls in the spine of Dune 45, which make a fantastic foreground with the massive Northern dunes in the background. Any person in reasonable shape can reach the first bowl within about 45 minutes, but you shouldn’t wander any further into the dunes if you are not exceptionally fit. Keep in mind that if you walk along the spine from the parking lot you’ll ruin your foreground, so you have to walk along the base, climb up the side and then approach this spot from the South.