Getting to Dead Vlei to make this photo was a long time in the planning. I used Photopils to figure out the moon location and set our time in Sossusvlei to coincide. I also ensured we stayed at the only lodge inside the park to get an early start. We got up at 4:30am but there was a bit of an issue with the park ranger who stated we could not set out before 6am. In any case we got away with our driver and headed out for the 1.5hour drive in the desert to the second parking lot. Arriving before sunrise - with headlamps on - we trekked 1km across the dunes to the entrance to Dead Vlei. It was tough going. Apparently, the path used to be dune free however over the past couple of years the dunes have moved in making it an uphill slog through soft sand to finally reach the vlei.
We were the first ones there and the sun was just shedding the first light. We specked out our photo compositions and put markers on the locations as we knew the time would be short to get the shots we wanted. I was really happy with the outcome! Taken with my Pentax K1 and Pentax 28-105 lens.
