Namibia is a photographer’s dream destination. The country’s spectacular landscapes of soaring dunes, vast horizons and cracked pans, rugged mountains, dramatic canyons, startling Skeleton Coast, unpolluted night skies, incredible wildlife, and unusual flora, couldn’t be more photogenic.
Namibia’s top photographic destinations are:
- Etosha National Park for wildlife photography
- The dunes around Sossusvlei for those quintessential desert scenes
- The petrified trees of Deadvlei in Sossusvlei
- The deserted ghost town of Kolmanskop
- Damaraland, where you can see desert elephants against a backdrop of arid mountains and stony plains
Make sure you have all the batteries and memory cards you need, as you won’t be able to find them in most of Namibia.
Namibia has such diverse landscapes and attractions that you’ll want to be traveling with a range of lenses, from wide-angle for the vast desert horizons to super telephoto for those wildlife shots.
A tripod is essential for landscapes and wildlife photography (where you can set up at a waterhole such as in Etosha’s camps) and night sky photos.
Namibia is very dusty, so be sure to protect your gear in closed boxes while traveling in the car and clean lenses carefully to get rid of dust.
Different seasons offer varied photographic safari highlights:
- The rains have stopped by April and May, and these months are best for clear, dust-free skies.
- For the best chance of getting up close to wildlife at waterholes in Etosha, June to October is the ideal time to travel.