UKC Top Photos App and the UKC/UKH Photo Awards

© UKLC
UKC Top Photos App: Electric Blue   © Bob Llewellyn
UKC Top Photos App: Electric Blue
© Bob Llewellyn

photo
UKC Top Photos App: Home Page/iPhone
© UKC/UKH

The UKC Top Photos App is now available for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. Each week this app showcases the best mountain, climbing and landscape photography at UKClimbing.com and UKHillwalking.com by downloading the best photographs, as voted by you, on to your iPhone and iPad. The Android version will be available later this year.

This is our second UKC/UKH App. The first was the UKC Finder App that contains detailed listings and the locations of Climbing Walls, Outdoor Shops, Accommodation, Guides, Instructors, Outdoor Companies and Climbing Clubs all over the UK.

Go to iTunes to get the UKC Photos App

We are also very pleased to announce that the UKC Top Photos App is sponsored by Berghaus, the UK's leading outdoor clothing and equipment brand and part of this deal is that they are also sponsoring the popular Photos Latest Page and the new annual UKC/UKH Mountain Photography Awards (see below for details). We are very grateful for this generous support from Berghaus.

Angela Turley, UK Marketing Manager for Berghaus had this to say;

"As a brand Berghaus is about adventure and photos are a fantastic way to inspire people and share the amazing places we've been and things we've done.

We're proud to sponsor the UKClimbing and UKHillwalking photos app and Mountain photography Awards to encourage people to get outdoors and capture their experiences."

The UKC and UKH Photo galleries

The UKC and UKH Photo galleries display over 1,000 new images each month - there are over 120,000 photos in total - taken by over 10,000 climbers, mountaineers and hillwalkers who are out there in the world's wild places climbing and hill walking and recording their adventures for us all to witness.

Registered users can then vote and comment on each photograph and each week we publish the Top 10 Climbing & Mountaineering Photos/Galleries at UKC and the Top 10 Hillwalking and Mountain Photos/Galleries at UKH. These are the photos that are downloaded on to the UKC Top Photos App each week.

UKC Top Photos App: Summit Ridge. Yanapacha (5400m). Cordillera Blanca, Peru.  © THE.WALRUS
UKC Top Photos App: Summit Ridge. Yanapacha (5400m). Cordillera Blanca, Peru.
© THE.WALRUS

The quality of the best photographs is stunning and they provide not only pleasing outdoor eye candy to help you if you are bored at work or the weather is lousy, but they also provide inspiration and ideas for places to visit, and motivation.

We thank everyone who has uploaded and shared their photographs.

About The UKC Top Photos App

UKC Top Photos App:  Available Downloads  © UKC/UKH
UKC Top Photos App: Available Downloads
© UKC/UKH

Russ Clune on the crux dyno move of Fuel Injector (5.13b).  © Alex Buisse
Russ Clune on the crux dyno move of Fuel Injector (5.13b).
© Alex Buisse, May 2011

  • All the images featured on the UKC Top Photos App are reproduced from the UKClimbing.com and UKHillwalking.com Photo Galleries. Each week the Top 10 photos from various galleries are chosen by UKC/UKH readers and are available online at www.ukclimbing.com/photos/top10 and www.ukhillwalking.com/photos/top10
  • The Gallery App automatically downloads the latest set of Top Photos on Sunday which you can view full screen on your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch.
  • You can view previous weeks UKC/UKH Top Photos by clicking the button which appears on the top right of the home screen when previous weeks are available.
  • You can also remove previous Top Photos to free storage.
  • You can toggle captions for the photos on and off by touching the image lightly.
  • You can view more photographs by the same photographer by clicking on the head icon. It leads you to their UKC/UKH gallery if you are online.
  • You can view each weeks Top 10 by slide show.
  • The UKC Top Photos App will be globally available via the iTunes Store and later as an Android version. Please make sure you caption your photos clearly with the location, the climbing or walking route and if you want recognition, your full name.
  • The copyright of these photos remains with the photographers. Please check our Terms and Conditions: www.ukclimbing.com/general/terms.html. If you want to purchase or use the photographs featured please email the photographer through their user profile.
  • If you need help uploading a photograph at UKClimbing.com or UKHillwalking.com please go to our Photos Help Page

In the late Galen Rowell's own words: 'You only get one sunrise and one sunset a day, and you only get so many days on the planet. A good photographer does the math and doesn't waste either.' See Galen's work at www.mountainlight.com

Go to iTunes to get the UKC Photos App

The idea for this App came from UKC/UKH Senior Editor Mick Ryan and has been developed by UKC User Stuart Coupe.

UKC Top Photos App:  Fitz Roy, RHS Cerro Torre showing slide show function  © Jon Griffith
UKC Top Photos App: Fitz Roy, RHS Cerro Torre showing slide show function
© Jon Griffith

Annual UKC/UKH Mountain Photography Awards sponsored by Berghaus

Berghaus Logo

Ricky Bell, 1st Ascent of 'The Lost Forgotten' E7 6c, Eagle Mountain, Mournes  © Craig Hiller/Hillerscapes
Ricky Bell, 1st Ascent of 'The Lost Forgotten' E7 6c, Eagle Mountain, Mournes
Craig Hiller, Jun 2011
© Craig Hiller/Hillerscapes

This year will see the first Annual UKC/UKH Mountain Photography Awards. Awards will be presented to the top three photographers and the best photographs in each of the Photo Gallery categories.

The winners will be decided by a combination of reader votes and the final decision by a panel of judges: representing Berghaus will be top climber, alpinist and big wall climber Leo Houlding and professional photographer Alastair Lee; representing UKC/UKH will be Editors Jack Geldard and Dan Bailey.

Prizes will be donated by Berghaus and UKC/UKH.

The awards will be for photos uploaded in 2011 only. Judging will begin 1st January 2012 and Prizes awarded 1st February 2012. The awards are open to all registered users at UKC and UKH.

These are the award categories:

Best Photographer/Gallery

1st. Best Photographer/Gallery
2nd.Best Photographer/Gallery
3rd. Best Photographer/Gallery

Single Category Awards

Best Photo in each category:

Hillwalking
Expedition and Alpine
Sport Climbing
Bouldering
Trad Climbing
Winter Climbing
Winter Walking
Landscape
Scrambling
Indoor Wall
Biking
Running

More details about the awards in the autumn.

Once again a big thank you to all who have uploaded photos to the UKC/UKH galleries and have made this happen.

Photography In The Digital Age by Mick Ryan

Julian Heath Dukes it out on Gigantic  © jamesgodwin64
Julian Heath Dukes it out on Gigantic
© jamesgodwin64, Sep 2010

It is not rare for a photograph to catch your eye at the UKClimbing.com/UKHillwalking.com Photo Galleries. We are blessed with thousands of photographs that inspire, inform and please the eye.

As climbers and lovers of the mountain environment most of us carry a camera to record our adventures; souvenirs of our climbing tourism. We are descendants of the climber-photographers Vittorio Sella in Italy, and George and Ashley Abraham in the UK. Whilst climbing and climbing photography were elite activities back in the 19th and early 20th centuries, nowadays cumbersome and expensive plate cameras, and involved processing, have been replaced by inexpensive and simple to use portable digital cameras, accessible to all.

But whilst photography is more egalitarian and much of the work can be done by modern cameras, those photographers that really shine have several things in common: they always carry a camera with them, they start out early and return late, they get out often, and they have an understanding of light, exposure and composition.

The UKC/UKH Photo Galleries

Using online photo-galleries we can share our adventures instantly and improve our photography by getting feedback on our images and by witnessing the work of others. Online photo-galleries are also where we get exposed to many of today's great photographers and emerging talents, no longer are photographers at the mercy of a magazine's photo-editor, we can all self-publish. Online galleries are also perused by companies and media looking for images to buy, and many photographers who present their work at UKClimbing.com have successfully sold images for editorial and commercial uses.

But more importantly by sharing your adventures with others never underestimate the effect that you have on others, images are very powerful. I personally have done routes, got off my ass when I have had low motivation, and visited areas because of the photographs I have seen on the UKC and UKH galleries, and I am 100% certain I am not the only one.

The UKC Top Photos App

Whilst the UKC/UKH Top Photos are available online for all to peruse I believe that the UKC Top Photos App will be downloaded far and wide and inspire many to get out there and enjoy the wild places of the world in a quiet way.

Some of the top Photo Galleries at UKClimbing.com and UKHillwalking.com

On the Kuffner at sunrise with an inversion just below  © Jon Griffith
On the Kuffner at sunrise with an inversion just below
© Jon Griffith

Ruth and a raven on Great Gable looking down Wasdale  © Ice Nine
Ruth and a raven on Great Gable looking down Wasdale
© Ice Nine

Jon Griffith: Gallery

Stuart' Ice Nine' Holmes: Gallery

Mike Meysner: Gallery

Streapadair: Gallery

Jamie Moss: Gallery

Dan Arkle: Gallery

Alex Messenger: Gallery

ChrisJD:Gallery

Nick Smith: Gallery

Michal Madera: Gallery

Mr. Lopez: Gallery

Jethro Kiernan: Gallery

Adam Long: Gallery

Gordon Stainforth: Gallery

UKC Top Photos App: : Ski mountaineering, Nappstind, Lofoten  © Tore Pettersen
UKC Top Photos App: : Ski mountaineering, Nappstind, Lofoten
© Tore Pettersen

We hope the new UKC Top Photos App will motivate you to take and share your best photographs.

Go to iTunes to get the UKC Photos App


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8 Aug, 2011
I've got an Android phone :(
8 Aug, 2011
does it work on android?
Hi Ian> I searched for UKC earlier and it showed up? Where were you searching, iPad, iPhone, or iTunes? Hi Steve> An Android app will be out later this year. Cheers, Paul.
8 Aug, 2011
I can't comment much on the app (I don't have an iwhatever), however I do have a question (and second smaller gripe). Firstly, will the terms and conditions of upload be amended to allow a photographer to exclude their photos from being distributed via this app? I only ask as for some people this may not be how they want their photos distributed, and it's a bit presumptuous to think everyone will be fine with it. (I do approve of your 'you keep the copyright' approach though!). Second (and this is more of a long running thing about the site), hows does the development time required to produce and maintain two iphone apps compare to that of upgrading the general usability of the site? The new app comes across as being a bit of a gimmick (like I say I haven't actually tried it, but I also understand it gets revenue from a cooperate sponsor). However from the perspective of a long term users of the site, I'd much prefer the website to have less niggly usability issues*, than to be able to look at pictures on an iphone which I could already see through my web browser. I personally would love to see the site brought up to a really good modern standard and feel before branching out into trendy side projects :-) (* just to illustrate one which annoys me every day -- when you're on the front page of the photos section and spot a particularly interesting photo (say the one above 'New this Week'), clicking on does not take you to the photo your interested in, but instead to a page where 9 times out of 10 the photo isn't present).
8 Aug, 2011
Re your last point, click on the small + sign to the top right hand side of the photo and that thumbnail will then open as the full sized version.
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