14 June 2015 1 Min Read

June's top 10 travel photos shot by Sunday Times readers

in Lifestyle / photography-competition by Sunday Times Travel Weekly

A Mount Mulanje leaf picker, strapped into a heavy wicker basket, pauses during a dawn harvest.

Winner: Sunday Times Travel Photograph of the Month – June 2015.

The judges said: “A magnificent frame that captures the beauty of man and nature. Portrays the worker in a dignified fashion. Wonderful.” Expertly applying the rule of thirds, the shot nails the setting’s misty sense of place and the mystery of Mount Mulanje.

Amritsar’s Golden Temple in Punjab, India, one of sikhism’s holiest places and a daily attraction to tens of thousands of pilgrims. Here a temple guard keeps an eye. The spear is a traditional sikh weapon, used by the guards for ceremonial purposes.

Runner-up: Sunday Times Travel Photographer of the Month - June 2015.

The judges said: “This is a strong, well-composed portrait. The subject's personality really comes through. The colours and textures are great, creating a redolent mood that draws you into the guard's enigmatic face.”

“The Accademia Bridge, from which this photo was taken, provides the quintessential view of Venice. The challenge to the night photographer is that, being a wooden structure, the bridge is prone to significant vibration as hordes of tourists and locals tramp over it. The result is blurry photos – but with patience and luck I snapped a few crisp ones.”

Highly commended: Sunday Times Travel Photographer of the Month - June 2015.

The judges said: "The photographer worked hard to make this slow-shutter exposure work well. The composition and exposure result in a masterful cityscape. The streams of light lead the eye nicely along the canal's curves, rendering a lovely mood”.

- “Many pilgrims to Varanasi, men and women, shave their hair on the banks of the Ganges to strip themselves of vanity. This is also a form of sanskara (rite of passage) where they believe they are purifying the body and mind and perfecting the human journey of life,” the photographer recounts.

- A flock of pigeons take off into a brooding sky at Wilson's Wharf, Durban.

- A fruit vendor waits to serve his clients on the busy and dirty streets of Delhi, India.

- A man dips into the sacred waters of the Ganges in Varanasi, India, to do his morning prayers and receive his blessings.

- An experimental view of the Pantheon in Rome.

- “I was walking down the road outside Macy's in New York, when I saw smoke coming out of a temporary road-repair structure,” the photographer recalls. “This shot reminded me of the lengths that New Yorkers will go to in order to reach their destination quicker, especially in the rain.”

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Here are the winning shots and other top contenders from the June entries in the Sunday Times Travel Photographer of the Year Competition 2015

Are you a globetrotter with a penchant for photography? Enter the Sunday Times Travel Photographer of the Year Competition and you could win your share of R290 000 in prizes, courtesy of Sunday Times Travel Weekly and Canon South Africa.

How this competition works

• Whether you’re a professional or amateur photographer, you’ll have the opportunity to enter up to 10 of your travel photographs every month up until November 27 2015. We’re looking for knock-out travel photos that capture the essence of any destination on earth.

• Each month a winning photograph will be selected from the entries received. The photographer who snapped it will be named the Sunday Times Travel Photographer of the Month and receive a R5 000 cash prize, courtesy of Sunday Times Travel Weekly. Congratulations to June's Travel Photographer of the Month, Morgan Trimble.

• Each of the 10 monthly winners will also be in the running to be named the Sunday Times Travel Photographer of the Year and win one of three grand prizes comprising top camera gear and photo printers from Canon worth a total of R240 000!

• The overall winner, first and second runners-up will be selected by an expert judging panel and announced in December 2015. (Read the full terms and conditions.)

Visit Sunday Times Travel Weekly's Facebook page to see more of this months entries.