Photographer of the
Year – Portfolio
Certificate
Trophy
4N/5D Stay at
Jamoon, Corbett's Hidden Treasure
Winner
(3 per category)
Certificate
Trophy
Jury Selection
(5 per category)
Certificate
Plaque
Finalist
(120 in total)
Certificate
Goodie Bag
The Jury Curator is Nature inFocus
co-founder, Kalyan Varma.
Wildlife Photographer
Dhritiman Mukherjee is one of the most respected nature, wildlife and conservation photographers from India. He is a recipient of Earth Heroes award from the Royal Bank of Scotland, for inspiring people towards conservation with his images. He was also awarded the Carl Zeiss Conservation award and Kirloskar Vasundhara Mitra award among many others. Dhritiman spends more than 280 days a year in the field and has been doing this for the last 20 years. He loves to work on challenging, less-done endangered species and has worked all over India and in 35 countries across the world. His work has been published in BBC Wildlife magazine, National Geographic Traveller, Lonely Planet, New York Times, Nature inFocus and more. He is also one of the authors of the book 'Magical Biodiversity of India' and a co-founder of Saevus, a nature and wildlife magazine from India.
Wildlife Photographer
Andy Rouse is a positive-thinking, professional wildlife photographer and animal hugger who advocates the benefits of nature and photography for mental health and well-being. Throughout 2020, he inspired countless thousands of people worldwide with his motivational social media posts, Youtube videos and ideas about working with local wildlife. Andy has won over 30 awards for his photography and supports conservation causes worldwide. He is a recipient of the Cherry Keaton Medal from the Royal Geographical Society for his services to wildlife photography. He has a special passion for India, specifically, Ranthambhore. He shoots with the Olympus camera system and loves the amazing tech and super lightweight kit, which allows him to take world-class imagery that inspires others to love nature and photography like he does. Away from photography Andy’s family is the most important thing in his life, as are his close friends and his obsession with West Ham Utd and 70’s disco music. When he hears the beat he just wants to throw some shapes but fortunately, for all of us, it’s usually in private!
Wildlife Photographer
Dhritiman Mukherjee is one of the most respected nature, wildlife and conservation photographers from India. He is a recipient of Earth Heroes award from the Royal Bank of Scotland, for inspiring people towards conservation with his images. He was also awarded the Carl Zeiss Conservation award and Kirloskar Vasundhara Mitra award among many others. Dhritiman spends more than 280 days a year in the field and has been doing this for the last 20 years. He loves to work on challenging, less-done endangered species and has worked all over India and in 35 countries across the world. His work has been published in BBC Wildlife magazine, National Geographic Traveller, Lonely Planet, New York Times, Nature inFocus and more. He is also one of the authors of the book 'Magical Biodiversity of India' and a co-founder of Saevus, a nature and wildlife magazine from India.
Chief Naturalist, Jungle Lodges & Resorts
Karthikeyan S, known to most as Karthik, is the Chief Naturalist at Jungle Lodges & Resorts Ltd. He has about four decades of experience in teaching various age groups about nature. He brings an insight into the lesser known organisms and strives to create awareness about them. He also runs the popular JLR Naturalists Training Programme. Karthik was conferred the Carl Zeiss Wildlife Conservation Award in March 2013.
Business Head, RoundGlass Sustain
Neha Dara is the business head of RoundGlass Sustain, a treasure trove of stories on India’s natural world. She has been a travel writer and editor for most of her career and has a keen interest in sustainability and responsible tourism. At Sustain, she and her team are working to inspire a sense of wonder in India’s wildlife and habitats while supporting conservation and building a compassionate community.
National Geographic Photographer
Prasenjeet Yadav is a molecular biologist turned photographer. He combines his research experience with his photography skills to popularise ecological and conservation sciences to the larger public. Prasenjeet collaborates with researchers, administrators and conservationists to create impactful stories. He is a contributing photographer for National Geographic, The New York Times, NPR, Wired, among others.
Director and Head of Science and Conservation, WCS-India
Dr Vidya Athreya is the Director and Head of Science and Conservation at WCS-India. She obtained her MS in Ecology from Pondicherry in 1993 and MSc in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Iowa in 2000. She then got her doctorate from Manipal University in 2012 for her thesis, ‘Conflict resolution and leopard conservation in a human-dominated landscape’. Based in Pune, Vidya has been studying the human-leopard conflict in Maharashtra for the past decade. She also works closely with Protected Area managers and the public to mitigate conflict involving big cats. A member of the IUCN Cat Specialist Group, she has assisted in formulating state and national level policy guidelines on managing human-leopard conflict. Vidya’s research has increased awareness of large carnivores outside Protected Areas in India. Vidya was awarded the Carl Zeiss Wildlife Conservation Award in 2011, T N Khoshoo Memorial Award in 2012 and the Maharana Udai Singh Award in 2013.
Wildlife Photographer and Filmmaker
Kalyan Varma is a wildlife photographer, filmmaker, naturalist and explorer specializing in environmental issues in India. He freelances with many of the world's leading magazines, environmental NGOs and television networks like the National Geographic and BBC. He is one of the founders of Nature inFocus.
Contest Rules and Guidelines – Terms & Conditions
Everything you need to know before you submit your images.
Categories 1-5 have 8 prizes each:
Only one Winner will be declared for Category 6 (Photographer of the Year – Portfolio).
The cash prize for each of the categories will be:
All finalists will receive a certificate and a special goodie bag.
The winner of the Photographer of the Year – Portfolio award will also get an exclusive 4N/5D stay at Jamoon, Corbett's Hidden Treasure.
Here is a quick reference for some of the questions you might have. But do read the Terms & Conditions of the contest for the nitty-gritty. In fact, we insist you do so before submitting your images.
If I face trouble with the submission process, whom should I contact for help?
You should be able to find the answers to most of your queries here. Please read through the FAQs before you contact us at [email protected].
I did not get a confirmation email after signing up. Why?
Please check your spam folder, sometimes we get grouped with the dirty bunch. Blasphemous, right!
Unable to log in, the password is not working. What do I do?
You need to go to the login page and generate a new password using your registered email ID. Again, make sure to check your spam folder, if you can’t find the email with the new password in your inbox.
Can I log in with last year’s login details?
We are new and improved this year. Of course, you have to sign up anew to be able to log in and participate.
Can I use the login details of the film contest to log in to the photography contest and vice versa?
The film and photography contests are independent of each other. We are delighted that you want to participate for both, but you will need to sign up separately for both.
When will I receive the cap?
The caps are made to order in limited quantities. They will be dispatched to you right after the contest comes to a close.
Ensure that the postal address you submit is full and accurate. We are not responsible for packages that go missing because of a wrongly-entered address.
I can’t find a submit button. Have my entries gone through?
There is no ‘Submit’ button for all categories except the Photographer of the Year – Portfolio. Your submissions get saved in our database as and when you upload them, so we did away with the submit button. We are cool like that. You have time until the contest closes at 11:59 PM (India Time – UTC + 05:30) on Sunday, July 31, 2022, to review, modify and delete your entries. When the contest comes to a close, all the images on your upload page are automatically considered as your final submissions. Only for the Photographer of the Year – Portfolio category, you must click on the ‘Submit Photo Story’ button. Remember, you will lose all photo story data if you exit the page without submitting.
Is it mandatory to submit images in all the categories?
Of course, not! You can submit all your entries in just one category, if you so wish. However, we urge you to submit all of your best work, across categories.
Can I submit images of captive animals?
Unless you are trying to highlight a wildlife conservation issue, our answer is NO.
My image is very heavy in size and I don’t know how to reduce it to under 2MB.
Have you tried the ‘Save For Web’ option on Photoshop and Lightroom? You will also find tutorials online.
Why do you have a rule about the image being 72dpi?
We recommend 72dpi to restrict the image under 2MB. If you are able to achieve a low image size at a higher dpi value, please feel free to resize accordingly.
Why do you charge entry fees?
The modest participation fee covers the cost of bringing together an expert panel of judges to review and score each image, as well as submission administration costs and exhibition venue hire.
When does the contest close?
The contest will close when the clock strikes 11:59 PM (India Time – UTC + 05:30) on Sunday, July 31, 2022.
Will the deadline be extended?
In 2020 and 2021, the closing dates coincided with the first and the second wave of the pandemic, forcing us to push the deadline by a month to give you more time to upload images. Hopefully, in 2022, such a situation will not arise. So the short answer is no, it will not be extended. Not even if you send us cake.
Once the contest is closed, can I review my entries?
No. You must finish reviewing your entries before the contest closes, at 11:59 PM (India Time – UTC + 05:30) on Sunday, July 31, 2022.
Photos after upload seem to lose colour and brightness and the thumbnail preview looks different. Should I be concerned?
The photos you have uploaded are saved in their original form, without any changes or edits, directly in our database. What you see as thumbnails on the site are just low-resolution previews of the same images. The judges will not be looking at these previews, they will only be looking at the original files you submitted, that are now saved in our database.
Is cropping allowed?
Cropping is allowed as long as the original message/content of the photograph is not altered drastically.
Can I submit black and white images?
Yes, black and white images can be submitted in any category.
How will I know if my image is shortlisted?
While we would love to send Hedwig your way (and we are working on that), for now, we entrust this to our email servers. You will receive an email from us notifying you that your image/s have been shortlisted.
Will I hear from you if my image is not shortlisted?
Due to the large volume of submissions we receive, we are unable to notify participants individually if their images haven’t been shortlisted.
Will you inform me in advance if I have won a prize?
While you won’t find out exactly what you have won (you are not Sherlock!), you will be informed if you are among the winners.
What should I write in the caption?
The caption should ideally ‘explain’ the photograph to the viewer. A simple trick to write a good caption is to describe the WHO-WHAT-WHY-WHERE-WHEN of the scene you have photographed. We frequently share submissions and winning images on our social media pages. Use #NiFPhotographyContest2021 to browse through the captions from our contest last year.
Can you give me an example of a photostory for the Photographer of the Year – Portfolio category?
Please click through these links for inspiration:
Following The Desert Fox | Nature inFocus