Dead Vlei

March 17, 2013

The Dead Pan is a salt flat with dead trees a thousand years old, surrounded by red dunes.  For a photographer, this is one of the best, and most challenging, places on earth to take photos.  The challenge is to take something other, far better, photographers have not taken.  Because this is a place all great photographers have come.

With the sand stranding fresh in our minds, we took the air out of the tires and pushed through the sand road with gusto.  We passed tourists cars and tractors, and sped into the Vlei.  We rode so fast, we actually passed it and first parked in another part of the salt flat.  We were a little frustrated but used the opportunity to take some other photos.

First, I captured the people walking up a dune to get an overview of the Dead Vlei.

Then Nadine posed for this one on the salt flat.

Finally, I found a camelthorn flower with a fly on it and used the macro lens.

We made our way back to the car and finally found the Dead Vlei.  Its marked by a small sign at another parking lot in the sand.  The walk from the parking lot was 45 minutes in the hot sand.  The outside temperature was 40C and there was no shade.

I approached the Dead Vlei first from the right and scanned the perimeter.  I took several photos with the Olympus 45mm trying to get the scale of the place.

Its too wide to get great landscapes, so I switched to the Panasonic 20mm and went in close.

The magic of Dead Vlei is the simplicity of the black trees on the white salt flat against the red dunes in the right light.  Too early or late and the dunes get de-saturated.  I guess we got there at exactly the right time.