GMC Photo Contest

In celebration of our centennial year, the Green Mountain Club is once again sponsoring a digital photo contest for members and the public. The contest will also provide us with fresh material for use in GMC publications. Scroll to the bottom of the page for entry details.

2009 Photo Contest Grand Prize Winner: "Pleated Curvature" by Tom Anderson

Last year’s Photo Contest Grand Prize winner Tom Andersen recently submitted half a dozen spectacular entries for the 2010 competition. With the photos came a brief narrative illuminating two of the most impressive images:

Made it up on top of the Hump today with, I think, ten or so minutes left prior to the sun cresting the horizon. Getting soft – twilight sacrificed for a couple extra winks.

Cold up there this morning, and almost too clear. The real fireworks happen when clouds are in the mix bending the light.

A somewhat comical scramble up when ol’ Mikey, one third of the way up, with the unmistakable profile of the summit visible through the denuded trees, happened to offer: “That’s our objective!" (Said with enthusiasm and followed by a distinct pause.) "Boy, we got a ways ta go." (Said with just a hint of incredulity.) It always looks worse than it is! And that very sentiment of hope is what drives the whole cockamamie enterprise, more often than not.

The first shot is lookin’ to the north, with the morning sun hitting Mansfield and the valley below.

Photo by Tom Andersen 

The second is looking south, towards the Mad River Valley.

Photo by Tom Andersen 

The first and only time I’ve encountered Tom in the mountains was there on the summit of Camel’s Hump at about 5:00 a.m., not long after an early-rising summer sun had cleared the horizon. After taking a few (or more than a few) photos I crossed over the summit and encountered a kindred spirit firing away in the other direction. It was Tom.

Looking at Tom’s recent photos was all the inspiration I needed to plan another sunrise outing. I looked at the NOAA online weather report and saw a promising morning on the way. Knowing I’d need to be at work by 9:00, I decided to stay close to home. I rose early and started up the Waterbury Trail to Mount Hunger.

As I approached the summit it was becoming light – too light. I climbed out of the spruce-fir forest onto the craggy dome to see the full disc of the sun already above the horizon. Silently, I cursed myself for lingering in bed. Halfheartedly, anyway. The morning was too magnificent to get myself worked up over arriving later than planned, though – golden sunlight illuminating a windswept patchwork of evergreens, glacier-scoured bedrock, and glistening snow.







 

Have you captured a moment in the mountains of Vermont that few people get to experience? Enter the contest!

Prizes

Grand Prize: A Green Mountain Club guidebook and map collection: Four books – the Long Trail Guide, Day Hiker’s Guide, Walker’s Guide, and Nature Guide to Vermont’s Long Trail – and four maps – Vermont’s Long Trail, Mt. Mansfield and the Worcester Range, Camel’s Hump and the Monroe Skyline, and Northeast Kingdom hiking trail maps. Grand Prize photograph will be published in color in a 2011 issue of the Long Trail News.

First Prize in each category: Choice of a GMC logo CoolMax t-shirt, a long-sleeved Long Trail t-shirt, or the club’s centennial coffee-table book, A Century in the Mountains: Celebrating Vermont’s Long Trail.

Honorable Mention: Eight worthy entrants will receive a Green Mountain Club centennial logo gray fleece blanket.

Categories:

Green Mountain Flora and Fauna

The Long Trail: Hikers, Shelters, and Trail Scenes

Vermont Wildlands: Mountains, Forests, Streams, and Ponds

Photo requirements:
1. High resolution digital photos. All images must be 2 MB minimum, in jpg or tiff format, on a CD or DVD. Enter up to three images per category.
2. Information about the photos: photographer, date, location, story behind the photo

How to enter:
A CD or DVD should be mailed or delivered in person to Matt Larson, Green Mountain Club, 4711 Waterbury-Stowe Rd., Waterbury Center, VT 05677. Please include your name, e-mail and postal addresses, and phone number with submission. All entries must be received by December 31, 2010.

By entering the contest, entrants grant GMC a royalty-free, non-exclusive license to display, distribute, and reproduce the entries, in whole or in part, for any GMC purpose, including, but not limited to, GMC publications, merchandise, and website. Any photograph reproduced in GMC publications will include a photographer credit. GMC will not be required to pay any additional consideration or seek any additional approval in connection with such uses. Professional photographers, GMC staff, and board members are not eligible to enter. Decisions of the judges will be final.