The standard Sossusvlei photograph shows a full dune, usually with a person climbing it, against a blue sky. It is a good photograph. It conveys scale and colour. But the dune surface offers an entirely different category of image that most visitors overlook: the abstract, where the subject is pattern, line, texture, or form rather than the identifiable landscape.
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Sand ripples on the slip face: Wind creates regular ripple patterns in the sand on the leeward face of the dune. At low sun angles (just after sunrise or before sunset), these ripples produce precise alternating bands of light and shadow that resolve as a purely graphic pattern at telephoto focal lengths. Fill the frame with nothing but ripple; no sky, no horizon, no context. The image reads as abstract geometry.
The crest shadow line: At certain times of day, the shadow cast by the dune crest falls across the slip face as a single, perfectly clean curved line dividing the lit upper face from the shaded lower face. This shadow line is one of the most graphic elements available at Sossusvlei; a telephoto compression of this line fills the frame with a minimal composition of two tones.
Wind erosion features: The leading edge of a dune crest is frequently scalloped by wind erosion into a series of curved arcs. Seen from the dune face looking along the crest, these arcs create a repeating geometric pattern against the sky.
A single footprint: One footprint in otherwise virgin sand, shot from directly above at ground level, with the dune face or the blue sky as background. The most minimal composition available; the simplest subject; often the strongest image.
Technical Approach
Focal length: 100 to 400mm for compression of ripple patterns; 16 to 35mm for the shadow line and crest features. Both ends of the focal length range are useful.
Aperture: f/8 to f/11 for the textural images (maximum depth of field throughout the frame); f/1.8 to f/2.8 for the selective focus compositions (a single ripple crest sharp against a blurred background).
Timing: The ripple pattern photography works best in the 30 minutes after sunrise and the 30 minutes before sunset, when the sun angle is low enough to create shadows in the ripple troughs. At midday, the overhead light flattens the texture and the ripples become invisible.
Position: Get down to sand level. Lying flat with the camera at sand height produces a perspective that elevates the foreground ripples and creates depth through the frame.
Black and White
Dune abstract photography often works as well or better in black and white than in colour. The orange-red of the sand, when desaturated, becomes a range of grey tones that emphasises the geometric quality of the patterns. Process in black and white with high contrast to make the shadow lines graphic and clean.
For the full site coverage, return to the Sossusvlei photography guide.