Winners announced for Trek Photographer Of The Month April 2018

This April, we saw a wide variety of pictures! Right from the dramatic Everest Base Camp trek, with the snow-covered Gokyo Ri, to the wonderful spring colours of Uttarakhand.

We’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

We have picked three winners. In addition, we also have a Trekkers’ Choice Award for the photograph with the maximum number of votes.

Trek Photographer of the Month

The Deoriatal Campsite – Picture by Sudipto

This is a calendar-worthy shot of the Deoriatal campsite. It’s one of the rare treks where you meet with big mountains with 2 km of your trek! And Sudipto has captured the entire campsite beautifully! We love it especially for the depth, the colours, the right amount of view of the lake and the tasteful editing.

First Runner Up

A striking view from Maninda Tal – Tushar Bhujbal

Here’s another one from Har Ki Dun — this is the view from Maninda Tal. We were surprised to see such vivid browns and oranges in the month of April! This picture captures the scale of the Har Ki Dun valley wonderfully, giving us a perspective of how tiny humans can be amidst these big mountains! Also, there’s wonderful play of light and shade in this picture, which makes it especially appealing.

Second Runner Up

A grand sunset at Chopta – Picture by Nikhil Aggarwal

This spot at Chopta seems to be a favourite amongst photographers! That makes it all the more hard to get a photograph that stands out! And Nikhil Aggarwal has done just that, with this sublime sunset shot! The colours, the contrast, the depth, the sharpness and the composition are all spot on!

Trekkers’ Choice Award

A semi-frozen Gokyo Lake – Picture by Santhosh

Rarely do you see mountains 20,000 ft above sea level towering right before your eyes. The Everest Base Camp is one of those rare treks! Here’s Mt Machermo, standing tall at 6,273 m (20,580 ft) rising behind the Gokyo Lake. Only a very lucky trekker will get to experience such clear skies and crystal clear reflections!

Nominations

Simplicity at its best – Picture by Pinaki Mandal

We love the lightness and the heartiness of this picture. The composition is interesting, giving us a peek into life in the mountains, while at the same time showing us a little bit of Garhwalil culture through the subject. The timing of this picture is everything, because it’s not often you get to capture a young child smiling candidly!

The mountain village of Osla – Picture by Madhura Korantak

This picture beautifully captures a slice of life in the mountains. The wooden architecture, the Supin river in the distance, the surrounding forest cover, the clothes hanging out to dry facing the easterly sun. No frills. Just a plain day in the mountain village of Osla.

A long way ahead to Pangarchulla – Picture by Nishant Narkhedkar

The Pangarchulla summit always makes for great photographs. It is an adventurous summit climb that resembles an expedition, both in pictures and in terms of experience. Trekkers start their climb much before sunrise, at around 3.30 am or 4 am to make it to the summit on time. It takes around 6-7 hours to climb one way up to the summit. This picture captures the early hours of the climb, the morning light, where the sun is just about to rise. A great story-telling shot!

The Julota Campsite on the Kedarkantha trek – Picture by Harish

What a vibrant shot! The way Harish has captured this campsite is making us immediately want to head to the Kedarkantha trek. We intentionally moved away from the regular route and the Juda Ka Talab campsite because of the crowd. Now trekkers camp here, at Julota, in an isolated clearing in the forest, without a soul around!

The Barnala Tal at Dayara Bugyal – Picture by Srikanth

A peek into how trekkers spend their day after the day’s trek. Here are trekkers relaxing by the Barnala Tal after a short day’s trek Dayara. One of the biggest attractions of such easy-moderate treks are that you have the afternoons all to yourself. You’re free to explore the forests around or read a book sitting by your tent, or in this case, share conversations sitting by a lake.

Life at the Everest Base Camp – Picture by Santhosh

We love this picture for the drama and the story it tells! The Khumbu Glacier, the moraines, the expedition tents on the moraines, the snow, the stormy clouds. It’s a classic representation of the hard life that mountaineers live — and this is just the beginning of their climb to Everest!

So those were the Top 10 entries for the Trek Photographer of the Month April 2018.

Congratulations to all the winners and nominated photographers!

What you should do now

1. If you’d like to see a few great photo stories from our tresk: You’ll find our photo stories on this page.

2. If you’re a professional photographer: Perhaps we could sponsor your trek! We take photo trekkers on our treks if they can showcase our beautiful Himalayas with their skills. To apply, send your portfolio to sneha@indiahikes.com and tell us why you want to be a photo trekker with us.

3. If you would like some tips on photography specifically for treks: Click here, or here or here.

4. If you want to see some videos on how to manage camera gear: Watch this video.

5. If you ended up here by chance and were actually looking for treks to do: Then head over to our upcoming treks page. You’ll find all our Himalayan treks there.

6. If you want to see the 13 best treks of India: Then get our guide here.