Capture the Colour 2013

Colourful Island of Burano, Italy
The colourful homes on Burano, Italy.

This year marks the second year the Capture the Colour Photo Contest is running and I’m excited to be participating this time! Bloggers have been challenged to showcase five travel photos that best represent the colours of these five categories: red, blue, green, yellow, and white. Of course these categories can be interpreted in any way or form and some of the photos coming in are really creative.

The hardest part of this challenge was picking just one photo for each category. I poured over thousands of images spanning over 7 years of travel. The result was a trip down memory lane as each photo represents more than just a colour but a personal travel story.

Red

Temples and Shrines in Japan

It was January, 2010, and Tristan and I were on our first winter vacation from teaching English in South Korea. Naturally, we chose to spend our 2 weeks away from school in nearby Japan. We spent 5 days in Tokyo, traveled south to Mt Fuji and then hopped on a bullet train down to Kyoto. We instantly fell in love with Japan the minute our plan landed in the country. Our favourite time during our trip was visiting Fushimi Inari Shrine in Kyoto. Built up along the side of a mountain, visitors meander their way along the hiking paths walking underneath brightly coloured red tori, a traditional gate found at every shrine. Fushimi Inari Shrine has over 1000 of them all donated by people and organizations. Some of them are so tightly packed that they create a tunnel affect as pictured above.

 

Blue

Greek Islands

This was a tricky image to select. I didn’t want to go the obvious route with a blue sky or blue water shot, lord knows I have a ton of those! But when I came across the above shot, I immediately said yes. This was taken in the summer of 2008 on a family trip to Europe. It was the big family trip my parents had been dreaming and saving up for for years. In fact, it was so important and had been planned so far in advance that I lost out on a job because they wouldn’t give me the time off for it. There was no question I was going on this trip. Starting in Italy, we took a 14-day Mediterranean cruise stopping in Croatia, Turkey and Greece. A lot of places and experiences stood out for me, but when I think of my time in Greece, I always picture the whitewashed buildings and blue capped church domes from the island of Santorini.

 

Green

Kampot, Cambodia

While traveling through Cambodia in 2011, as part of a long backpacking trip, Tristan and I made our way down to Kampot, a charming little sleepy town on the country’s southern coast. The region is known for their pepper and salt farms, so one day Tristan and I rented a scooter and spent an afternoon driving out to the nearby town of Kep. On our journey back to Kampot we stopped in at Phnom Voul Natural Pepper Plantation to get an idea of how pepper is grown and processed. It was free for us to enter and the owners even gave us a quick tour showing off the growth of their peppercorns at various stages. Above is a shot of black pepper growing on the vine before it is picked and dried in the sun. We left the farm 2 bags of black peppercorn heavier and have been cooking with it ever since.

 

Yellow

Toronto Public Transportation

Toronto isn’t known for its public transportation. In fact, it’s pretty dire especially when compared to other big cities including Seoul, London, and even New York City. The busiest hub is at Yonge and Bloor where the Bloor and Yonge/University/Spadina lines meet. Every morning between 8 and 9am, the southbound platform on the Yonge line is crowded with people jostling their way to get on a train, which always arrives quite full coming down from uptown Toronto. It’s not uncommon to wait for three or four trains to go by before you’re able to even get on one, and when you do, leave your personal bubble space at the door. Speakers ring with announcements reminding passengers to stay back from the yellow warning line but many find themselves standing precariously close to the edge hoping to get on the next train.

 

White

Cao Dai Temple, Vietnam

Also part of the big 8-month backpacking trip, this picture was taken during a day tour in Tay Ninh, Vietnam of the Cu Chi Tunnels and Cao Dai Temple. The ornately and colourfully decorated temple is the centre of the Cao Dai religion which was only recently established in 1926. I was standing up on the balcony that wraps around the temple when I noticed this women praying on her own. There was a lot of activity happening in the temple, as the next service was getting ready to begin. But I watched how intensely focused she was, as if nothing else was going on around her. This remains one of my favourite pictures to date.

Now it’s time to pass the torch and nominate 5 other bloggers to capture the colour. I can’t wait to see what they come up with! I nominate:

And a special thanks to Karen from K and K Adventures for nominating me!

To see all the other entries, follow #CTC13 on Twitter.

 

 

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