Flower seller in Durbar Square, Kathmandu
Why do I spend irresponsibly on travel when I’m so responsible in every other facet of my life? One week only sale to Nepal? Book it! Last minute 14-day cruise for $499? I’m there! Go camping for two months straight? Sure!
Why do I love getting lost in travel blogs and fancy magazines showing unattainable photos of places I’ll probably never go?
I think I do it because I want to feel.
A friend once told me, “I’m glad you’re religious because otherwise, I think you’d be on drugs.”
What he meant (I hope!) was that my personality type is always looking for the next new thing to experience. A new food to try. A new person who shares no common language with me to interact with. When we travel, we force ourselves to step out of our comfort zones, and in so doing, experience everything through new eyes.
So I’m happy to enter this year’s Capture the Color Photo Contest, a celebration of travel photographs which best capture these five colors: red, blue, green, yellow and white.
Red
These women are from the Himba tribe in northern Namibia. Living in simple huts, they remain close to the earth. In fact, they glow a slightly reddish color because of otjize, a ground up paste made from butter, fat and red ochre which they smear onto their skin and hair. Spending a night in their village was an unforgettable experience, and not just because our overland truck got hopelessly mired in the mud so central to their lives.
Blue
Twenty kilometers north of Nha Trang, Vietnam’s premier beach resort, and across the water lies a peninsula known as Ninh Van Bay. Because it requires either a long, windy drive or a speedboat, few ever make it there. Those who do are rewarded with supreme tranquility. I took this shot as the sun was setting, casting a blueish hue over water, mountains and sky, melding them into one.
Green
I love riding through the countryside of SE Asia during the rainy season. Yes, the rain can be a real pain sometimes, leaving you exposed, rain pelting against your face, ruining your clothes, but without, we wouldn’t have the every-shade-of-green of the rice fields that carpet the land. This photo was taken along a random stretch of road in Cambodia.
Yellow
I’ve had the fortune to visit the Okavango Delta in Botswana twice now. During the rainy season, this 15,000km2 area floods, creating small islands everywhere. The most common way to get around is via mokoro, little boats poled along the shallow waterways, often with just the thwack-thwack of the tall reeds snapping back in place the only sound that breaks the deafening silence.
White
One of the most beautiful places I’ve ever had the good grace to go to is the island of Zanzibar, off the Tanzanian coast in East Africa. Known as the Spice Island, it’s been used as a trading base by the Persians, Arabs, Indians, Portuguese and British before finally coming a semi-autonomous region. The crystalline monotony of the electric blue water surrounding the island is broken up by the billowing white sails of dhows that navigate the island. As if that scene weren’t beautiful enough, a pair of dolphins just had to put in an appearance.
Capture the Colour 2013 information
To enter is simple, you write a post with your five best photos from these color categories: RED, BLUE, GREEN, YELLOW and WHITE. Be sure to nominate five other bloggers and tweet it with the hashtag #CTC13.
There will be a winner from each color category who will get: an 128GB iPad, a Fuji camera or £750 worth of Arc’teryx clothing and equipment (you choose). Then from the five winners, an overall winner will be chosen to win: £3,000 travel fund (worth about $4633 USD).
For the full contest rules go here.
To follow the entries watch the contest’s pinterest boards.
Or follow the Facebook page.
Anyone with a travel blog can enter but to keep things going, I nominate these five travel bloggers to join:
- Heather Hall of Ferreting Out the Fun
- Colleen Khachatourians of Colleen Gets Lost
- JR Riel of The Drifter’s Blog
- Jessica Hill of Miss Adventure Travel
- Casey and Dan of A Cruising Couple
Great shots James! The green one is my favorite. I’m just starting to go through my archives now. Thanks for nominating me!!
Heather recently posted..5 Must See Attractions in Budapest
Can’t wait to see what you come up with! Part of the fun of these contests is going through old photos and looking for something specific (and getting lost along the way!)
Cool idea. The red and blue are by far my favourites.
Jura Cullen recently posted..Turtle watching at Hoan Kiem Lake
Thanks, Jura! With your photography, you should definitely enter this and blow the rest of us away!
Thanks so much for nominating us!! We love this idea and will be sharing our photos later today. I love the blue photo. Perhaps we’ll be able to make it there while in Vietnam!! Gorgeous photos and best of luck!
Casey @ A Cruising Couple recently posted..Sunday Snapshot | My Little Pony | Vietnam
Thanks, Casey! Looking forward to your entry!
Wow, James, your photos are absolutely stunning. They really are captivating and make me want to visit the places you’ve been fortunate to.
Thanks so much for nominating me for this fabulous contest. I’ll definitely enter!
Jessica J. Hill recently posted..Yellowstone National Park in Pictures
Thanks, Jessica. You’ve been to some pretty amazing places yourself. Can’t wait to see your photos!
Beautiful shots, James. I really loved your yellow picture—so atmospheric and truly stunning! This is such a fun contest and it’s always so nice to see what photos travelers come up with for each category.
Steph (@ 20 Years Hence) recently posted..What We Ate: Hualien
Thanks, Steph! Africa is kind of a cop out because it’s almost idiot-proof. With the diversity in landscape, people and animals, it was hard NOT to take a good shot, although this one is one of my favorites, I must say. With Tony’s background, you guys should totally enter!
Wow, beautiful captures, all the colors are amazing, but the red is totally stunning and the portrait you’ve captured is priceless…I would love to go see some of these exotic places you’ve captured.
noel recently posted..A quirky and fun garden in Mendocino
Stunning James… that red… OMG!!!! Awesome. Yep, travel is my drug too, I got a little high looking at these images from far-flung lands 🙂
Sarah Somewhere recently posted..Living like the Kardashians
Thanks, Sarah! I blame travel photos for a full 50% of my unproductivity.
Oh man, I was looking through my analytics and noticed a traffic spike coming from your site. I checked it out and found this post.
Sorry to have missed it up until now. I’m truly honored you nominated me, Jimmy!
I’m not the most avid of photographers, but I’m gonna have to try and dig some pictures up if possible. I actually don’t have a legitimate camera. I know, a true blogger sin. But I’ll see what I can do.
By the way, I really loved your pics! They’re all great, but there’s something about your ‘yellow’ shot that really grabs me.
JR Riel recently posted..Reflections of a Drifter’s Mom – Molokai, Hawaii
Awesome pictures. Do you come to all this place and take all these pictures. That amazing.
Jose Allen recently posted..Top Things to Do in Laos
Yep! Thanks for reading!