Kashmir Great Lakes - September, 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: Kedar

Lsp says ” This picture has all the elements that make a perfect landscape photograph! By going low on the perspective, the photographer has managed to create a sense of symmetry using the reflection on the water body. Rock in the foreground act as a comfortable anchoring point to rest the attention and wander around the photograph. Lake’s shore line leads the attention towards the background and in the background, the mountain is gorgeously lit by the golden light, glowing beautifully! Reflection on the water creates a nice symmetry between top and bottom portion of the frame. Also the shadow of the mountain on the right side creates a vertical symmetry with mountain to the left. This aesthetically balances the frame both horizontally and vertically. Orange on the mountain is perfectly complementing the blues in the frame. Icing on the cake is definitely the moon setting beyond the mountains! Good exposure balance between the shadow area and the brightly lit mountains. Also the depth is adequate. Well qualified to be FIRST in this contest.”

Second Prize: Aju Marshal

“Photography is all about seeing and showing familiar things in a different-interesting perspective. Photographer Aju Marshal has done that perfectly in this case! KishanSar lake has been photographed so many times by different photographers, in so many different perspectives. Yet in this case photographer has managed to capture the same lake in a totally unique perspective! Generally when we see people on the summit, it is very common they are surrounded by open sky all around them. In this case the mind is fooled by the vast KishanSar lake surrounding them in all directions. Taking perfect advantage of the vantage point, photographer has created this beautiful frame using his perspective. Composition is very powerful using the negative space of the lake. Tiny people at the bottom of the frame contribute to judging the scale of the lake shown above them. Reflection of clouds and mountain on the lake adds an element of interestingness to the otherwise empty portion of the frame. All in all this picture deserves to be SECOND for breaking the pattern and reintroducing the lake to us in a breathtaking perspective!” says LSP

Third Prize: Regina

“The saying ‘Add a horse to your landscape and make it look more beautiful’ fits so perfectly to this scene! This is one of those ‘Being at the right place, at the right moment’ kind of photograph. It has a nice peaceful and soothing ambiance created by the magical light rays in the background and the silhouetted horse grazing near the placid lake. Positioning of horse inside the frame is well balanced and the curving lake leads the viewer’s attention into the frame. Just wish the photographer went a bit low on their perspective to place the horse right on the bright spot created by the light rays. That would have made the horse positioned right at the place where the light rays fall instead of that small disjoint created by the bright spot. Nevertheless this picture stands THIRD for the wonderful artistic frame”. says LSP

Here are the shortlisted 15 best photos of the Great lakes trek. Trekkers were asked to submit their best photos from the trek for the contest.

Our Judges 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.

The second winner gets Rs 2,500 Trek Voucher from Indiahikes.

The third winner gets Rs 1,000 Trek Voucher from Indiahikes.