Indian Photographer Bags First Prize in Nat Geo’s Nature Contest

Varun Aditya won the ‘Animal Portraits’ category with his photo of a green vine snake.

The winners of this year’s National Geographic’s ‘Photographer of The Year’ awards have proved yet again that capturing nature at its best requires a keen eye and impeccable photography skills.

Indian photographer Varun Aditya has bagged the top prize in the ‘Animal Portraits’ category for his image of a green vine snake. Aditya, who hails from Tamil Nadu, shot the image, titled ‘Dragging You Deep Into The Woods’, in Amboli, Maharashtra.

Here’s how Aditya managed to capture the winning shot:

A morning stroll into the blissful forest! Ceaseless drizzles dampening the woods for 12 hours a day; The serene gloom which kept me guessing if it was a night or a day. Heavy fog, chilling breeze and the perennial silence could calm roaring sprits; And there I spotted this 20 cm beauty, the Green vine snake ! I wondered if i needed more reasons to capture this with the habitat; For I was blessed to see this at the place I was at. I immediately switched from the macro to the wide angle lens (sic).

Caption of the photograph

He announced his big win on Facebook.