Capture The Colour and Win £2,000 to Spend on Travel

There’s nothing like a deadline to get your creative juices working.

Capturing The Colour

To be in with a chance of a nice two grand (English money) to spend on travel, you need to submit a blog post with five awesome photographs that say something special about the colours blue, green, yellow, white and red – by Midnight on 29th August, 2012 (UK Time).

If you you don’t have five photos that illustrate these colours in some special way, you could still win an iPad 3 in one of the individual categories.

More specifically, you will need to link to your blog post from your Facebook wall, mentioning ‘Capture The Colour‘ and tagging the Travel Supermarket Facebook page; or include @travelsupermkt and #capturethecolour in a tweet that links to your blog post via Twitter.

If you’re not broadcasting on Social Media, you could always quietly send an e-mail including your name, e-mail address, phone number and all important link to your Capture The Colour blog post.

Official Terms and Conditions.

Impressing The Judges

Your capture of colour will need to appeal to five different judges, who all have their own tastes and interpretations of what they’re looking for in their particular choice of colour. You might want to find out more about what could appeal to them.

Alternatively, just give it your best shot and snap them out of a trance with something they didn’t know they were looking for.

Blue
Judged by Ken Kaminesky (@KenKaminesky)

If you’ve seen some of Ken’s photography you’ll know that he’s a talented guy and tough to match. But you don’t have to beat him, just appeal to his taste.

Ken would like to see some clever use of blue in a photograph and is probably looking for your special interpretation of the colour. The key here is to try and be original.

When thinking about blue; sky and sea, lakes and Santorini are all images that come to mind. So maybe we should forget about them.

Blue is also something of a reflective, calming colour; a favourite colour of many.

Blue is often associated with architecture; blue glass was manufactured in Mesopotamia and Egypt as early as 2500 BC and there are a number of Blue Mosques around the world.

Just something to think about.

Reflection in Toronto
When out and about with my camera, I like to find a different angle to a much photographed subject, like the CN Tower in Toronto.

Reflections often catch my eye and I must look awfully strange wriggling around trying to get the key elements to line up just where I need them. I like to think that I’m working to compose an image that nobody else has thought about; while trying to forget about what passers-by might be thinking, as my body contorts towards and away from the glass.

Green
Judged by Abigail King (@insidetravellab)

Abigail King ‘swapped a career as a doctor for a life on the road’.

As Abi likes to explore the world, ask questions and feel alive, it’s fitting that in your interpretation of green she’s looking for something unusual: an image from a place that makes her think of it in a whole new light.

To be in with a chance to win here, you may need to show Abi something she’s never seen before; tell her about how the place relates to its people, their attitudes and their history.

Above all, I hope you had fun taking the snap; because when you show it to Abi, she’ll know.

When thinking about green, it comes natural to focus on nature; the grass, the leaves and feeling the breeze.

Being a picture editor is not always easy, especially when you’re also the photographer and very attached to your creation.

Some of my favourite ‘green’ photos were from Plitvice Lakes in Croatia; where despite dripping with sweat in the summer heat, I really did have a lot of fun playing around with images of nature while trying not to get any tourists in the way.

I’ve never really thought of myself as a ‘landscape photographer’ but sometimes nature really is so beautiful that it’s hard not to take a ‘pretty picture’.

Girl in Green at Taj Mahal
There is so much beauty and colour in India that it’s often thought of as a photographer’s paradise.

While once again looking for different angles on a much photographed subject, I was struck by the natural beauty of this girl in green.

The flowing lines played so elegantly with the Taj Mahal and I even managed to catch the girl’s eye; just for good measure. I think I was almost lying around on the floor at the time, so that’s not surprising.

Yellow
Judged by Dave & Deb (@theplanetd)

Although the adventurous travel duo from Canada are both listed, I believe it’s Dave who’s going to be doing the judging here.

If you look at the photography used to illustrate some of the blog posts on The Planet D, you will surely be in awe at the awesomeness. You can tell that a lot of time is spent looking at the work of other great photographers.

I think you’re really going to need to impress here. Think of the clichés, then put them to the back of your mind.

You’ll need a very arty interpretation to win with yellow bananas. Did I hear you say lemons? I’m sure that will leave a sour taste in Dave’s mouth. Daffodils? Get away!

In the examples I looked at, in Let your Travel Photos Shine and Capture the Colour, something struck me like a bolt of clichéd, cartoon-yellow, lightning. Where were the people?

These photographs were all in landscape format, around 1034 x 683 in size (too big for most blog posts), and would make an excellent wall calendar.

This troubled me. Do we offer something the judge might wish he took himself, or an image with people; in portrait format, going totally against what seems like good advice.

The problem with people photos in professional travel photography, is that you might need a signed, model release to publish the images; especially if syndicating them through a picture agency or stock library. News images are different.

Enlightenment in Jaisalmer
It is said that yellow shines with optimism, enlightenment, and happiness; and I feel that this picture captures some of these elements.

One can sometimes feel strange wondering around the back-streets alone in a place like Jaisalmer, Rajasthan; very awkward even. Having a notebook and camera often gives me something of a shield, then all of sudden a little smile opens all sorts of doors.

This young woman was out collecting water and at the sight of my camera smiled with genuine happiness through her veil. I was then invited into her humble abode for a cup of tea.

Optimism, enlightenment, and happiness; we felt it all, in our strange moment of oneness.

Sometimes that’s the beauty of travel photography; meeting the people and sharing some happiness together.

White
Judged by Christine Gilbert (@almostfearless)

It’s hard to colour text white, unless you have a coloured background, so I’ll have to go with a whiter shade of grey.

I’m sure, that if she wasn’t the white judge in the Capture the Colour contest, Christine – or Almost Fearless as she’s almost always known – would be one of the first people’s blogs you’d turn to; especially if you’d like to know how Cole has fun with colour.

Christine is a real people’s person and a great story-teller; both with images and the written word.

If your photo can tell a story and make Christine want to go there – although I personally think it wouldn’t take much to tempt her – then you could be on to a winner.

The problem is, white isn’t really a colour that many people think of; unless you’re a wedding photographer or are a fan of winter sports.

Of course that’s the easy way of thinking.

Dai Girls in Xishuangbanna
White projects purity, cleanliness, and neutrality.

‘Six hours after we left Simao, the muddy Lancangjiang river appeared like a shadow at a lighted window. Another couple of bends and the curtains were flung wide open: Jinghong, the naked lady, lay there on her bed of green’. That’s pretty much how I introduce the reader to Xishuangbanna, in Nomadic Gatherings.

This area in the deep south of Yunan province, bordering Burma and Laos, is inhabited by a dozen of the minority tribes; namely the Dai, Han, Hanni, Bulang, Lagu, Wa, Yao, Jinuo, Zhuang, Yi, Hui, and Miao. Affected by the monsoon from the Indian Ocean, the region has a climate of high temperature and high rainfall and is mild throughout the year. There are no season distinctions; only wet and dry.

The rich forest is said to be roamed by herds of wild elephants, buffaloes, rhinoceroses, tigers, and gibbons. I only had time for a stroll to Chuan Huan Park and the surrounding Dai minority villages. Chickens and pigs roamed freely around the bamboo fenced territories of the raised wooden cottages.

The Dai are a colourful and friendly people and the region is celebrated for its annual water-splashing festival in April. I had a tourist meal of shredded pork, fried bananas, and sautéed rice at one of the minority guest house restaurants all for 7 Yuan (60p); and that included the Pi Jiu (beer).

Red
Judged by Daniel Nahabedian (@Eloren)

If you’d like to know more about what Daniel is about, take a look at his Canvas of Light portfolio.

Daniel says that colour in photography should be used not only to make an image pleasing, but to also direct the viewer to the main subject, grab his attention and tell a story. He especially likes ‘the use of complementary colours to create a harmonious balance in a shot’.

Oh, well that’s easy then. Think about the rule of thirds, forget them for a moment and then return with colours that work together to create the whole.

Interesting. Red is quite a striking colour but it really plays well with blue, white and yellow.

Lady in Red
Sometimes you don’t see the photo coming but it’s the preparation that can make or break the split-second shot.

I travelled to the Ski World Championships in Crans-Montana, Switzerland and was blessed with a beautiful blue sky and crisp white snow. I had skied the course previously and knew where a couple of jumps might be, to get a good view of the downhill skiers taking to the air.

Luckily there were a few agency photographers close to me and one of them had a friend on the brow of the hill raise a ski pole when a racer was about to come into view. The Austrian, Sylvia Eder, was then greeted by a whir of motor-drives; and was gone.

Nominations

At this late stage in the game, it’s difficult to find five bloggers who might not have already entered the Capture The Colour contest but I’ll go ahead and nominate Gary Arndt (Everything Everywhere); Edith Levy (Edith Levy Photography); Tricia A. Mitchell (Tricia A. Mitchell); Marie (mariesophoto); and Kalpana Kartik (Travel Photo Media).

You don’t need to be nominated to enter, so if you didn’t get a mention anywhere and you haven’t already heard about the Capture The Colour contest by Travelsupermarket, there’s still time (just) to submit your entry.

Enjoying The Colours

While it’s an awesome prize to win, the beauty is in the taking part; or at least looking around at some of the other quality photographs on display.

To see other last-minute entries and find out what you’re up against, be sure to check out the Travel Supermarket Facebook page and the #capturethecolour tag on Twitter.

You may also want to browse the Travelsupermarket Pinterest Boards: Blue, Green, Yellow, White, and Red.

There’s some stiff competition out there, but don’t let that put you off.

Short URL: http://tnot.es/Colour

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