2021 Calendar

Submit Your Photos to the 2021 Appalachian Trail Calendar

Have a jaw-dropping photo of the Appalachian Trail? Would someone enjoy looking at it for up to 31 days straight? If so, we are accepting submissions of color transparencies and digital images for the official 2021 ATC calendar until July 15, 2019.

The ATC calendar, first published in 1987 (for 1988), features a mix of photographers and subjects but has always had a dual purpose: To show the visual allure of the Trail to hiking and non-hiking publics alike, throughout the country, and to brag a bit in the captions on the volunteers who maintain it.

Each photographer is limited to 36 submissions, and all scenes will be cropped to a square. Neither prints nor date-stamped digital images can be accepted. Slides (35mm) or other transparencies are accepted. Digital images at least 13 inches on the shorter dimension should be submitted on a CD or DVD—not by e-mail—in TIFF or EPS formats, at a resolution of not less than 300dpi at that size. Low-resolution JPEGs will not be considered.

The scene should show the footpath, a view from the footpath, or, if taken from a distance, a recognizable landmark in the Trail corridor. Scenes on side trails other than shelters will not be considered. Visible blazes are a major bonus; so is sunshine. Candid shots of hikers near blazes are a double bonus (posed shots cannot be considered). Gorgeous close-ups of flowers and insects that do not say “A.T.!” will be admired but not selected.

Images from mid-Atlantic states are particularly desired; attempts to achieve a regional balance often fall short because those states seldom are included in a year’s submissions. (Southern springs and New England autumns are way overrepresented, on the other hand.)

Each person’s submission must include a list of images that includes the location of the shot (as definitive as possible), the month it was taken, and the names of any identifiable persons in the foreground, along with the name, address, telephone number, and e-mail address of the photographer. Slide mounts and the file names of digital images must include the photographer’s last name and the scene’s location or an identifying number that correlates to the submissions list. Submissions with inadequate IDs cannot be considered.

After the calendar is published in the summer of 2020, photographers will be paid $200 for each of the 12 selected monthly images ($50 more for the cover shot). Note: Often, photographs submitted but not selected for a calendar are purchased for another ATC publication.

Slides and/or disks should be sent, well-packaged, and by traceable means, to: Publisher, Appalachian Trail Conservancy, P.O. Box 807 (or 799 Washington Street), Harpers Ferry, WV 25425. Unless disqualified for one of the reasons noted above, slides will be held until the publication process is complete. The 2020 calendar, copublished with Rizzoli International, is on sale at the Ultimate A.T. Store, www.atctrailstore.org.