SOSSUSVLEI SHOOT TIPS

Sossusvlei is truly a wonderful piece of nature. If you’ve ever been lucky enough to experience it in real life or if you only witnessed the eerie dead trees on a photo, it’s hands down a unique & breathtaking photoshoot location. After doing a few shoots there we have learned (the hard way), that it does come with some strange antics.

Here are a few things to consider before booking your shoot with us at Sossusvlei:

1.) Super bad road conditions

Unfortunately, the road towards Sossusvlei is a dirt road, and it is in pretty bad shape at the moment. There are thousands of tourists who flock to this remote landmark every year, and the dirt roads just cannot keep up.

So if you are driving there on your own, make sure you have a spare tire (or two), a tire-pressure monitoring system, a tire patch kit, and a compressor.

2.) Golden Hour

Golden hour is when we make our best magic, and it’s when we want to photograph you beauties. But being in the heart of Sossusvlei – The Deadvlei area – at that specific time of day isn’t as straight forward as it seems.

The entrance to the Sossusvlei park area opens and closes at different times depending on where you are staying. If you stay outside the reserve you have to be in and out the gates at sunset. This all sounds easy, but seeing as the Deadvlei is about an hour’s drive from the Sesriem gate, you’ll be wasting your best light traveling in the car. If you are staying inside the reserve your gate times are extended by an hour which is perfect for photography.

Try and book at the following campsites or lodges inside the reserve:

This means we will be able to drive the 63km from the Sesriem gate to the Deadvlei before (or after) Golden Hour. Yay for sexy sexy golden light!

This is all a little complicated, so if you aren’t too sure about how to go about arranging your accommodation before the shoot, please give us a call or drop us an mail.

3.) Wind

Like it or not, the wind is a MASSIVE player when it comes to Sossusvlei. We’ve had the pleasure of camping there during East Wind, with 45km/h winds blowing sand up our nostrils inside our tent!

Luckily, technology can help us here. There are many weather apps that can help, but we’ve tried and tested an app called “Windy”, and it is extremely accurate.

That said, conditions might change overnight, and we might have a beautiful shoot in the afternoon, and a windy nightmare the next morning. If that is the case, we will most probably move into the Sesriem Canyon, where the wind cannot reach us.

4.) Tourists

As we said before, thousands of tourists flock to Sossusvlei during the year. This means there will almost definitely be people lurking about while the two of you hug and kiss each other.

That’s why we try to be in the perfect areas as soon as possible, or as late as possible, to try and dodge the masses. If we cannot avoid them though, we will find a secluded spot where they won’t be in the shot, and you two can have some privacy!

5.) Distance

Sesriem is about 344km from Swakopmund, and about 321 from Windhoek. That’s quite the distance!

So if you are planning on doing a photoshoot there, please remember to factor in the time it takes to travel this distance, along with some extra time to accommodate the bad road.

Fill up at every fuel station available. Sossusvlei is very remote and there is only a hand full of places to get refreshments and diesel/petrol. The places might run out of fuel (this has happened to us) or close at strange times leaving you in a pickle, so rather fill up every time and avoid a stressful situation. An extra Jerry can also come in handy.

That’s it for all we have to say about Sossusvlei! We really love this wonderful piece of nature, and hopefully, by the time this post is one year old, they would have built a proper road!

If you have any questions about this topic, please do consult us before you make any bookings, especially accommodation bookings. Let’s work together so we can make the most of your time in the oldest desert in the world.

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