Far at the southernmost tip of Africa lies a fascinating, beautiful, and truly surreal place: the jewel of the south, the vast and magical Namibia.
Namibia, with its almost otherworldly landscapes shaped by the forces of nature, is a huge country offering an incredible variety of scenery and a staggering potential for photography. Towering red dunes rise 300 meters above the desert floor in the world’s oldest desert, while petrified trees stand like black skeletons, remnants of a long-lost era. A wide variety of wildlife can be observed both on the ground and from the air.
Deadvlei is a clay pan near the settlement of Sesriem, in central Namibia. The pan sits at the end of the Tsauchab River, which disappears into the sand dunes in its futile attempt to reach the Atlantic Ocean. It was formed after rainfall when the river overflowed, creating temporary shallow pools (“vlei” = marsh). These pools allowed low vegetation to grow, and camelthorn trees took root there.
I decided, together with a fellow photographer, to book a doorless helicopter to capture the famous sand dunes from 300 to 1,000 meters in the air.
This is the ideal way to capture the scenic beauty of the surroundings from a bird’s-eye view, and it is utterly enchanting. The flight takes you over the breathtaking expanse of desert: gently rolling dunes, steep mountain peaks, frozen rock formations, and sometimes through dense cloud formations while the sun casts a wide spectrum of light across the landscape. The photo shows part of Deadvlei and the clay pans (the white patches) in the foreground, flanked by a few striking camelthorn trees.
Deadvlei - Namibia
Far at the southernmost tip of Africa lies a fascinating, beautiful, and truly surreal place: the jewel of the south, the vast and magical Namibia.
Namibia, with its almost otherworldly landscapes shaped by the forces of nature, is a huge country offering an incredible variety of scenery and a staggering potential for photography. Towering red dunes rise 300 meters above the desert floor in the world’s oldest desert, while petrified trees stand like black skeletons, remnants of a long-lost era. A wide variety of wildlife can be observed both on the ground and from the air.
Deadvlei is a clay pan near the settlement of Sesriem, in central Namibia. The pan sits at the end of the Tsauchab River, which disappears into the sand dunes in its futile attempt to reach the Atlantic Ocean. It was formed after rainfall when the river overflowed, creating temporary shallow pools (“vlei” = marsh). These pools allowed low vegetation to grow, and camelthorn trees took root there.
I decided, together with a fellow photographer, to book a doorless helicopter to capture the famous sand dunes from 300 to 1,000 meters in the air.
This is the ideal way to capture the scenic beauty of the surroundings from a bird’s-eye view, and it is utterly enchanting. The flight takes you over the breathtaking expanse of desert: gently rolling dunes, steep mountain peaks, frozen rock formations, and sometimes through dense cloud formations while the sun casts a wide spectrum of light across the landscape. The photo shows part of Deadvlei and the clay pans (the white patches) in the foreground, flanked by a few striking camelthorn trees.
Deadvlei - Namibia