Wild animals, bizarre deserts and a diverse culture – Namibia is not without reason one of the most popular destinations for photographers worldwide. The diverse country in the south-west of Africa also cast its spell on Luke Stackpoole. No sooner had the new ultra-telephoto zoom 150-500mm f/5-6.7 Di III VC VXD become available than he was on a plane to Windhoek. From the capital, he wanted to explore Namibia’s vast game reserves and red dune landscapes. Today, only about 2.5 million people live in the democratic country, which is more than twice the size of Germany. Tourism plays an important role. Before the pandemic, Namibia had a good 1.6 million guests a year. And many of them want to take with them two things in particular: the unique wildlife in the north of the country and the fascinating natural landscapes of the Namib Desert.
On tour
"Having the chance to photograph free-ranging lions and leopards at eye level was a long-held dream for me," says Luke. After a photo safari in the north and a visit to the AfriCat Foundation in the Okonjima Nature Park, he went to Sossusvlei and Deadvlei, the world-famous salt-clay pans in the Namib Sand Sea. Surrounded by a bizarre dune landscape that shimmers in a multitude of orange, red and brown hues depending on the incidence of light, countless dead trees have been rising into the sky here for centuries. "The dimensions are unbelievable. You only realise how high these dunes are when you try to climb them," Luke tells us.
Wild animals and bizarre beauty
Luke mostly used the 150-500mm f/5-6.7 Di III VC VXD for his photographs in Namibia. "This compact ultra-telephoto zoom is ideal for wild-life and artistic landscape photography," he says. "Animals can be brought into the frame large, so that even individual hairs of a lion’s mane are rendered sharply. The narrow angle of view makes for content-dense images with high graphic quality." In short, the 150-500mm is the perfect lens choice for a diverse photographic paradise like Namibia.
