The Drakensberg Photography Workshop

Join the Hunter’s of Light community for an amazing weekend of photography training, locations and discussion in the extraordinary Drakensberg Mountains. 

For the amateur photographer wishing to learn more, the workshop provides a strong teaching focus, while also bringing the photographer to an absolutely stunning location.

We visit arguably one of the finest portions of the Drakensberg Mountains, which themselves are part of a UNESCO World heritage site that stretches into the mountainous kingdom of Lesotho. Although called ‘An Introduction to’, this workshop is suitable for photographers of all levels, and even for partners that’d like to join as well, but are not that interested in photography themselves. It really is a 4 night excursion which revolves mostly around having fun and learning a ton.

This workshop is a collaboration between the Hunters of Light community and lead photographer Quintin Mills and Emil von Maltitz, lead instructor with Nature’s Light. It promises to be a packed excursion with landscape composition, shoots, macro, interior architectural photography, post-production and critique sessions planned for the group. ​​

Key Highlights

Photograph:

• The Amphitheatre – one of South Africa’s most iconic mountain faces.
• The Tunnel and its exquisite sandstone curves.
• Capture one of the most iconic views of the Drakensberg, seemingly only ‘discovered’ by experienced photographers.

Enjoy:

• Probably the world’s best instructor to participant ratio, maximizing your learning while on tour.
• Having highly experienced tutors watching over your shoulders and helping you on the spot as you craft your images of the amazing Drakensberg and its beautiful valleys and peaks.
• Spending time with like minded people in one of South Africa’s most spectacular places

Learn about:

• Creative Composition: The basics and beyond, such as The Element Approach, Balancing Composition etc.
• Basics to advanced techniques in digital landscape photography. With two instructors (depending on group size) all levels of ability can be catered for
• Workflow & digital asset management.
• How to create awe-inspiring Astrophotography and star trail images.
• How to create panoramic images.
• Post-production using Lightroom, Capture One and Photo Shop

What to expect

​The Drakensberg is one of South Africa’s most beautiful landscape features and possesses some of the world’s top trekking routes (the Giant’s Castle Cup Trail is ranked in the top 50 trails of the world and is considered equal to the Fish River Canyon, Otter and Atlas Mountain Trails). Because the Drakensberg is mountainous (an average escarpment height of 3000m above sea level) it experiences extreme weather throughout the year. This can mean that rain or snow can put a damper on activities. From a photographic point of view though, extreme weather also means for the most interesting images. During winter it does snow, so be prepared for cold weather (I have experienced a snow storm on the escarpment on New Year’s Day – the middle of summer).

Water in the streams is drinkable away from the actual lodges and there are no water-borne bacteria in the streams in the escarpment proper as well as in the foothills. The foothills all have decent walking paths and see day visitors walking comfortably in all manner of ill-equipment. The escarpment is another matter. The route we are taking onto the escarpment is popular and well trodden, unlike most of the rest of the escarpment, so trainers or even running shoes are adequate.
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Some wildlife can be viewed in the foothills, while birds of prey such as the endangered Bearded Vulture are likely to be seen on the escarpment. The escarpment view itself is unparalleled and there have been accounts of people seeing the Indian Ocean on a clear day (technically possible as the escarpment view is roughly a vertical kilometre above the base of the escarpment). What most people seek from the Drakensberg are the amazing mountains themselves, unique in that they form a solid basalt wall that stretches for almost 200km from south to north. In effect the Drakensberg is really the eastern face of the huge Maluti Mountain Range which forms the country of Lesotho.