Overview – Namibia Photography Workshop

Namibia has the most spectacular and varied desert landscapes on earth. This harsh and beautiful country is home to a unique variety of wildlife that has evolved to live in one of the least habitable regions in the world. You will be astonished by your images of the vast vistas, incredible dunes, exotic wildlife, and people while traveling the wildly alien landscapes of Namibia!

The Desert Elephant is a separate species of elephant and is unique to the deserts of Namibia. We will photograph these highly adapted creatures as they move through the beautiful Namib valleys in search of life-giving water. The “grail” shot will be finding Oryx as they navigate the red dunes on their never-ending quest for food and water.

The aptly named Skeleton Coast is littered with shipwrecks and whale bones the results of the hammering waves and winds off of the Atlantic Ocean. Frequent dense fogs add to the eerie photo opportunities of the Skeleton Coast a place where only vast colonies of Sea Lions call home.

Namibia’s desert winds have sculpted the world’s highest dunes out of the red sand, and it is these dunes that make the Namibian landscape like no other on earth. In some places, the dunes rise out of endless fields of grass, and in others, the dunes emerge as high as mountains from rocky rubble. In Deadvlei the sand cut off the water supply to a seasonal wetland, and today it’s an alien landscape dotted with petrified trees. In the far South, we will explore the ghost town of Kolmanskop. Kolmanskop was once the site of a fabulous diamond rush, and now it is a ghost town slowly being reclaimed by the Namibian Desert. The western deserts are a unique combination of rocky ground and hot, arid conditions from which one of the most alien plants on earth, the Quiver Tree, was born.

Join our unique African Safari in Namibia where you will experience and photograph the one of a kind landscapes, amazing animals, and the Himba people under the professional guidance of two leaders. Together with local experts, we have designed a trip where we will take you to the most photogenic locations, not only carefully planned for the best light but also with the specific intent to improve your photography skills with multiple styles of photography. You will be proud of the images that you’ve made and the skills you learned. We are confident you will be telling stories about your fabulous Namibian Safari with Jeff and Kevin for years to come!

Highlights Namibia Photography Workshop

  • 14 Nights and 15 Days
  • Small Group of 8 Clients
  • Two Instructors and Local Guides/Drivers
  • Includes Most Meals, All Lodging and Local Transportation

Arrive

Arrive in Windhoek March 10, 2019

Depart

Depart Windhoek March 24, 2018

Location

Windhoek, Namibia

Tuition

$10950 USD single and $9950 USD double

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March 10, 2019 – Day 1

You will arrive and be transported to our lodge in the hills over Windhoek and enjoy our first meal together in the beautiful surroundings.
Note: the easiest way to get to Windhoek is to fly to Johannesburg (South Africa) where the group can meet, and take the same flight to Windhoek together. Details will be in the preparation guidebook.

March 11, 2019 – Day 2

Today we take a drive to Keetmanshoop and visit the Quiver Tree Forest, and hopefully also get a little bit of astrophotography in to photograph the Milky Way with the Quiver Trees. We will have the opportunity to be out from sunset to sunrise shooting the iconic milky way and star images over the Quiver trees.

March 12, 2019 – Day 3

We will enjoy one final morning with a visit to the Quiver Tree Forest and Devils Playground. We will be heading west through harsh but beautiful terrain which changes to vast open desert plains to a small town called Aus where you can view and photograph the Feral Horses before heading on to Lüderitz.

March 13, 2019 – Day 4

Today is spooky as we head over to the Ghost Town, Kholmanskop. We will be there from dawn to dusk to photograph the ghost town in every kind of light.

March 14 and 15, 2019 – Days 5 & 6

From Luderitz, we travel to Sossusvlei where we stay inside the national park so that we can get access to Deadvlei at dawn to photograph the iconic Camel-Thorn Trees in silhouette again the red dunes.

We will also have photo sessions of the surrounding dunes during our time in the beautiful Sossusvlei area. Sossusvlei is the iconic area for the Namibian dune photographs that you always see.

March 16 and 17, 2019 – Days 7 & 8

Depart after breakfast and head north crossing the Tropic of Capricorn, through the Gaub and Kuiseb Canyons via the Namib Gravel Plains to the coast. The Namibian coastline is known as The Skeleton Coast due to the barren areas, shipwrecks and whale skeletons scattered on the beach.

On day nine we have scheduled a full day 4×4 Sandwich Harbour Excursion in the dunes overlooking the coastline where sand meets the ocean.

March 18 and 19, 2019 – Days 9 & 10

We head towards Palmwag. We head north along the Skeleton Coast, via Henties Bay to visit the Cape Cross seal colony. We also plan to stop at the Lichen Fields as well as the famous shipwreck between the picturesque small town of Henties Bay.

From our base in the beautiful lodge at Palmwag, we’ll visit a Himba settlement. The Himba are a nomadic people who let us into their village and share aspects of their culture, giving us ample chances to capture their unique way of life.

March 20 and 21, 2019 – Days 11 & 12

We will switch gears a bit and go and visit the Cheetah Conservation Fund. A location where you will spend the next few days. Once we arrive at our lodge, we will enjoy a Serengeti Sundowner Drive with the lodge guide & vehicle.

March 22, 2019 – Day 13

You will enjoy a custom designed Cheetah Runs and Cheetah Drive activities that we created just for our guests. Get ready to get up close and personal with the fastest predator on earth. You will have an unparalleled photo experience with adult and juvenile cheetah. These private access photo sessions would be nearly impossible to photograph any place else in Africa.

March 23, 2019 – Day 14

We will head back to Windhoek late in the morning to our final lodge where you will spend your last night at Windhoek Country Club.

March 24, 2019 – Day 15

Our guide will transfer us to the Windhoek international airport in time for your onward travel arrangements. If time permits, our guide will take you on a short Windhoek City Tour before your flights home.

What is Included?
  • Airport pickup and drop off at Windhoek, Namibia
  • All accommodation during your tour
  • All breakfasts and dinners are included except the evening meal on day 8 and 9 when you will have your choice from the hotel menu
  • Snacks, water will be stocked in our two air-conditioned vehicles
  • A professional guide and driver to transport us safely around Namibia for the entire trip
  • Admission fees for planned facilities and excursions
  • Non-commercial photo permit for Ghost Town (sunrise to sunset), Night photography at Quiver Tree Forest Rest Camp (sunset to sunrise) and a full day 4×4 Sandwich Harbour Excursion in Walvis Bay
What is Not Included?
  • Your flight and any other travel costs to Windhoek Airport and back home again after the tour
  • Any hotels while traveling before or following the trip (although our travel partners can help you with booking any additional hotels during transit before and or after the safari, at your expense)
  • Beverages at some lodges and other items ordered during meals
  • Entrance fees for any unplanned activities for which the opportunity may arise – you would be made aware of any additional costs before engaging in any such activity
  • The cost of any vaccinations that your physician may advise before traveling to Namibia.

We will share our photography knowledge with you so that you will leave a better photographer than when you arrived. You will learn about planning shots, reading the light and making the correct camera adjustments, landscape, Astro and wildlife photography techniques. We will share our post-processing workflow and help you create a workflow that is best suited to your needs.

Our goal as we set-up your camera for you is to give you the knowledge so that you can get the same results at home as when you were with us.

The tour size is limited to 8 photographers so you can count on minimal interruption from too many tripods and with a 2 to 1 client instructor ratio you can get a ton of one on one attention and education.

What Should I Bring?
  • You’ll need at least one SLR or mirrorless camera, ideally two to give you the opportunity to shoot with multiple lenses simultaneously, and also as a backup
  • Lenses from wide-angle up to around 400mm (or the 35mm equivalent)
  • A sturdy tripod and cable release, and a polarizer and neutral density filters also broaden your horizons

It’s almost impossible to list everything that you’ll need, you will receive some recommendations, and then this will be covered again before your trip on a one on one phone discussion we will have with you.

At any point feel free to reach out to either of us, and we’ll talk you off of the ledge!

US Citizens Traveling To Namibia*

Passport

Valid for a full six months after your scheduled departure.

Blank Passport Pages
Six blank pages required

Visa Requirements
Yes, planeside visa available for tourists up to 90 days.

Vaccination Recommendations
Yellow fever, if traveling from a yellow fever endemic country.
Arrival and Departure Airport

Hosea Kutako International Airport (WDH) is the ultimate destination airport in Namibia’s capital city, Windhoek. Our drivers will meet us at the airport after we clear customs and immigration and re-claimed our luggage.

Note: the easiest way to get to Windhoek is to fly to Johannesburg (South Africa) where the group can meet, and take the same flight to Windhoek together. We will forward the flight specifics in a future email.

Early Arrival
Let us know if you need help with accommodations if you plan to arrive early.

Departures
We will drop you off at the airport after our last adventures in Windhoek.

Lodging & Transportation

The workshop includes all lodging and local transportation as described in your itinerary. You may be liable for any changes to that itinerary.

Trip Insurance

We always use trip insurance. It’s so much easier and with so many more benefits when you compare it with your insurance. I’ve found the costs to be reasonable given the benefits. I use Travel Guard when I travel and even though; I’ve not had a claim they were helpful and easy to deal with on the phone.

*Information for US citizens travel to Namibia was obtained from the US Department of State and was valid as of April 2018. If you are going to Namibia from another country, please check with your embassy to check the travel requirements for your country.

Click the Green Button at the Bottom the page and that will take you to my payment processor and you can choose your favorite method of payment. In the White Box you can enter the number of places that you would like to book.

About 30 days before departure, you will get a welcome kit with the nuts and bolts of what to expect. Of course, feel free to email me or call me and we can talk about it as much as you like!

There is a 2.5% convenience fee to pay your balance by credit cards. There are no fees with any of the listed payment methods for your deposit. Be sure to read the Terms and Conditions and or the FAQ to fully understand about deposits, cancellations and other important, but boring stuff.

I’ve been very passively advising my clients to purchase travel insurance for a while, but lately it seems like there have been multiple people having travel issues. Some have lost their deposits and sometimes even the cost of the entire trip!

Based on my client’s experience, I cannot stress more strongly how crucial it is to purchase travel insurance. Like I said before, and here it comes again, there is never a way to predict what is going to happen when you are booking trips months and years into the future.

You can read more about my thoughts about the importance of travel insurance in this blog post.

Or you can go get a free quote and book your vital travel insurance.

https://wildlifeworkshops.link/Travel_Insurance_Quote

Who Should Join the Namibia Safari?
  • Anyone with love for culture, landscape, and wildlife photography with an adventurous spirit
  • Anyone that wants to improve their photography while shooting the photographs of a lifetime
  • Anyone that has been on a typical “Big Five” safari that is looking for something new
Who Should Not Join the Namibia Safari?
  • Anyone that does not want to photograph landscapes, people, astrophotography
  • Anyone only interested in a wildlife “check-list” safari. This safari will be heavy on the landscape side of the photography spectrum and is not a game drive and look for wildlife style safari. The wildlife sightings that we find will have the potential to be unique and unlike 95% of the images that you have seen before.

Registration Information

Tuition

The tuition for the Ultimate Namibia Photo Safari is $10950 USD single occupancy or $9950 USD if you share the accommodations.

Deposit

The deposit for this workshop is $1500 USD. The deposit can be paid by PayPal, Credit Card, Wire Transfer or Check. Actually, if you have another way you would like to pay, I am open to new ideas when it comes to collecting money!

The balance of the workshop tuition will be due December 10, 2018 (90 days prior).

Ready to Go?

Here is the plan, you are going to create great images, you are going to leave a better photographer than when you arrived and we’ll have some laughs along the way! Hit the register button now!

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