Namibia Adventure Photography Workshop

2024

 An exclusive photography workshop with Paolo Sartori in the ultimate Namibia adventure experience

Only 6 spots available in this once in a lifetime photography experience!

What is it?

The Namibia workshop is a 13 day long outdoor photography course that will take place while exploring some of the most beautiful corners of Namibia. You will have constant instructions and mentorship with Paolo, who will share the knowledge he gathered in a decade working full time in the adventure photography industry, making sure you will walk away with amazing photographs, improved skills and great memories.

What makes it special?

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 really 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 normally closed to the normal tourists, giving us the chance to take unique photos at the best time of the day.

What will I see?

Locations include:

• Sossusvlei, where you will see the world highest sand dunes

• Deadvlei, with its iconic petrified forest providing endless photo opportunities

• The coastal towns of Walvis Bay and Swakopmund

• The magic landscape of the Damaraland desert, where you will get to see astonishing sunset light and, with a bit of luck, the rare desert elephants, rhinos and lions

• Etosha National Park, one of the biggest parks in Africa

• Expect to see and photograph plenty of giraffes, zebras, various species of antelopes, elephants as well as lions, leopards, black and white rhinos, cheetah, hyenas and many more

What will I learn?

Both photography and adventure skills will be covered:

• See how Paolo creates his visual work first-hand

• Conceptualize work that is unique to you

• Frame natural scenes, from wide landscapes to tight wildlife portraits

• Post production basics

• Tell stories visually

• Work with light (sunset, sunrise, blue hour and night photography)

• How to efficiently pack for different photography scenarios

• Problem solving in the field

• How to work as a photographer in remote and wild locations

• Various tips & tricks that Paolo learned over a decade of working as professional adventure photographer

Our itinerary

Day 1

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 drive approximately one hour to a safari lodge where you can get comfortable and relax after the long journey. Before sunset we head out for our first safari drive, where we have the first sights of oryx, giraffes, zebras and various antelope species. On this drive see how to get the best shots while on game drives, so that you will be prepared when later in the trip we will find lions and elephants. After sunset we head back to the lodge for a welcome dinner.

Day 2

After an optional photography session at sunrise and a good breakfast it’s time to hit the road and head towards Sossusvlei. We drive for around six hours along scenic gravel roads crossing some spectacular mountain formations while getting closer to the desert. We take a break at Spreetshoogte Pass where we have the first glimpse of the endless Namib Desert lying almost 1000m below. We then proceed to 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 on 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 sand dunes, providing for 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 in order to exit the park gates before it closes, we can stay till late making the most of the magic dusk light.

Day 3 and 4

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 catch the 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.

Back at the lodge, after a good breakfast we have some time to relax before meeting in the afternoon for some post-production lessons and one-on-one sessions with Paolo before heading back to Deadvlei, ending with photographing these photogenic location with millions of stars.
Alternatively to Deadvlei you can choose to photograph dunescapes in the afternoon, ending with night photography using the textures of the dunes as the subject, framed by the Milky Way. Dinner at the lodge.

Day 5

After one last optional sunrise session and a breakfast in the lodge we leave the Sossusvlei region behind and head further north; the drive is approx. 5 hours, with a quick stop in the small town called 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 main commercial harbor, 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 dinner we will go out on a restaurant in Swakopmund.

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

Day 6

After an optional shoot at sunrise and a good breakfast in our guesthouse, we drive a couple hours to Spitzkoppe, known as “the Matterhorn of Africa”. This is a really stunning area to photograph huge boulder formations in the golden light of the afternoon. We take accommodation in a nearby lodge that give us on foot access to this wild landscape, that we can explore freely looking for the best compositions.

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

Day 7

In the morning we can photograph Spitzkoppe as the first rays of sunshine hit the rocks. After a nice breakfast we pack our 4x4 again and start another adventurous drive though 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. Today we have the longest drive of the trip, lasting 5 to 6 hours depending on the roads conditions. While we are aware that this is a long drive, Namibia is a really big country and long drives are part of the experience. Anyway, you won’t get bored by the landscapes that you’ll see during the drive!

In the afternoon we will finally reach our destination, a small lodge with access to one of the biggest private concessions on the planet. A wide variety of mammals including rhinos, elephants and lions adapted over time to live in these dry lands, but they spread over a really wide area so they are not so easy to locate. For this reason, on our afternoon drive we will focus mainly on the landscape, preparing to capture one of the most astonishing sunsets you will ever see, before heading back to the lodge for a good dinner.

Day 8

Today we look for wildlife! Starting before sunrise we head out in the Torra Conservancy on a private car, together with a professional tracker that will try his best to follow rhinos and elephants tracks on the desert to hopefully see and photograph these elusive animals. If we are really lucky we might even see some desert lions!

We come back to the lodge in the early afternoon and after some relax and optional one-on-one sessions with Paolo we head out again for another sunset mission.

Day 9

Early breakfast and here we go, our destination today is the Etosha National Park, one of the largest parks in the whole Africa. 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 guarantee to see large herds of antelopes, elephants, rhinos and lions, and with a bit of luck we might even see leopards and cheetah. The dry season is starting 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 on a private game drive, with a special permission to stay out till after sunset. Our accommodation, located once again inside the park, is very special. In fact, we have 24h walking access to an artificially lit waterhole, where we can see animals during the night hours when they are most active. Expect giraffe, 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 “Night on Earth” series by Netflix!

Day 10

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 go out again with our private guide, looking for more interesting sightings at sunset and coming back in the dark.

Day 11

After a final sunrise game drive in the Etosha we drive south to our last destination, a luxury private reserve that has one of the largest leopard populations in the country. Up to this point, the chances to see a leopard were quite low, but not anymore. Here we will go on a game drive specifically to spot and see some of these magnificent cats; if we’re lucky, we might even see one on the hunt! We will then have a luxury dinner just aside of the bush, with jackals and brown hyenas roaming freely a few meters from our restaurant.

Day 12

We go for another leopard drive at sunrise - we promise, you won’t get bored of doing it twice! - before having again some one-on-one time with Paolo, that will give you personal advices to keep improving in your photography. In early afternoon we start our final drive that take us back to Windhoek, where after checking in in a guesthouse we have our final dinner at the legendary Joe’s Beerhouse.

Camera Equipment

With the focus being on landscape, nightscapes and wildlife, you will ideally (but not necessarily) need to cover a focal length of 16-400mm. Let’s see a bit more in detail…

Landscape

The landscapes on this trip mostly require mid-and telephoto focal lengths as a lot of it is vast, rolling dune landscapes, which look best when compressed with a longer lens. Expect to use your mid-range lens (24-70mm) and a polarizer a lot.

Adventure Reportage

We’re goin to live a true adventure, and we want to create photographs that can show our emotions to other people. For this kind of images, a wide to mid range focal length is what you will use the most - something between 24mm and 35mm.

Astro

This trip has been planned to fall perfectly around the winter solstice new moon – as most of the scenes face West, there are not many compositions that allow an astro shot with the evening milky way. For only this brief period of the year, one can shoot a bright galactic core setting on the western horizon in the early morning hours. Having a dedicated astro lens (the best being prime wide angles as 20mm f/1.4 or 24mm f/1.4) will make a huge difference to your astro shots; however, a wide angle of 24mm with a f2.8 aperture will be more than enough to get amazing shots.

Wildlife

We expect a lot of wildlife encounters on this trip; in addition to the iconic orix we will see plenty of flamingoes, zebra, various species of antelopes, brown and spotted hyenas, jackals, giraffes, black and white rhinos, elephants and the big predators like lions, cheetah and leopards. We can usually get fairly close to the animals so you won’t necessarily need a super long telephoto and a 70-200 will usually be enough, but to capitalize as much as we can we recommend you to cover up to 400mm – a zoom in the 100-400 or 200-600 range would be perfect. If you have anything longer, we highly recommend that you bring it along.

Panoramas

This section of the desert is panorama paradise with its sweeping views. Make sure you have a solid tripod with a spirit level or leveling base.

Batteries & Memory cards

We will have regular access to electric power; we recommend to bring enough batteries and memories for at least a full day of shooting.

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. Backup and storage strategies will be discussed by Paolo during the trip.

Getting there

We will pick you up on day 1 at Hosea Kutako International Airport (WDH) which is located around 40 minutes out of Windhoek. If you are flying from Europe we recommend either the Ethiopian Airlines flights to Windhoek through Addis Ababa (landing in WDH around 1.30PM) or the Lufthansa/Eurowings through Frankfurt (landing in WDH around 8AM). There is no time difference between Namibia and Europe so you will be good to go.

While we accounted an easy day on day 1, if you are traveling from different time zones or at different timing (landing later than 2 PM on day 1) we recommend flying to Windhoek one day prior to the start of the workshop in order to get rested and adapt to the new time zone. Let us know if this is your case and we’ll be happy to arrange airport transfer and accommodation for you.