Chadar Jan/Feb - 2013 Photo Contest

The contest results are out !  The top three winning photos are below. Our Judge Srinivasa Prasath shares with you why the pictures turned up winners. Post your comments below.

First Prize: Arun

Sometimes we need to wear monochrome goggles to experience the true beauty offered by the scene, stripping off all usuals including colors. It takes a lot of imagination and observation to shoot a frame in monochrome. First prize rightly goes to Arun for coming up with a Chadar scene in monochrome. It helps the viewer enjoy the selective play of light during that time of day, relate to the mood of the trekkers relaxing next to their camps in such a beautiful place and finally the simplicity of living in the tents with bare minimum requirements! Exposure is handled very nicely with good details even in the shadow region. Depth is good with sharp details from foreground to background. A fantastic capture, truly deserving!

Second Prize : Dave

Well done Dave for choosing this amazing perspective to capture this frame. It has all the interesting elements that make up Chadar trek! Trekkers climbing up that incredible slope is a great choice of the foreground subject and by positioning them in the bottom thirds intersection you have anchored it very nicely. The frozen zanskar river, the deep gorges and the sheet of chadar are very clearly visible from this POV. Good exposure combined with lighting ensured the sky color and details on the mountains. In all the frame makes the viewer want to be there and enjoy the beauty of the scene. A nice capture!

Third Prize Sourav

Saurav has managed to capture a scene that is very unique to Chadar trek – Walking on the sheet of ice! Overall exposure is good except for the sky. Having sky without color is lacking a bit of interest on the top thirds. But the color of the sheet of ice in the bottom two thirds make up for that completely. Depth is very good with good details on the white ice flakes in the foreground to the distant mountains in the background. The line-up of people is also interesting, slowly leading the attention into the frame. Overall a good capture!

Here are the shortlisted 15 best photos of the Chadar frozen river trek. Trekkers were asked to submit their best photos from the trek for the contest.

Our  judge Srinivasa Prasath will now run through these photos and choose one among them as the winner. Before the judge chooses, tell us which of these photos deserve the best photo award (use the comments box below).

The photographs selected here are in random order. The numbers attributed to the photos are to identify the photographer and does not denote any ranking by Indiahikes. Use the number and the name of the person to make your comments.

Please click on the photo to view the enlarged image.

A note from Indiahikes:

The winners get the following awards from Indiahikes.

The winner of the photo contest gets a Rs 5,000 Trek Voucher from Indiahikes.

Rs 2,500

Rs 1,000

1-Photographer: Adil

2-Photographer: Anshul

3-Photographer: Arun

4-Photographer: Bhushan

8-Photographer: Koteshwar

10-Photographer: Ravi

11-Photographer: Rohit

12-Photographer: Sourav Sana

13-Photographer: Shweta

14-Photographer: Vikas

12-Photographer: Vikas