Capture the Colour

White

At a quick glance, this might just look like any happy smiling child, but this little girl, along with her mother who is partially pictured, lives on the streets of Calcutta. I chose her as my subject for the white colour, because if you look closely at her white blouse, you start to notice that her top is quite grubby and it alludes to her difficult life. But above that, I love that she’s just like any other kid – more than happy to share a silly face with me. 

Green

I hesitated to use this picture for the colour green as it’s too obvious, but I love the dreamy affect of the rice patties blurring into the slightly overexposed background. It shows how tranquil and relaxing Ubud, Bali, really is. After I was stabbed in Lombok, almost one year ago, I decided to spend a few days in Ubud relaxing and recovering from the shock of the event. It was the perfect location and this photo symbolizes a time of healing and growth for me. 

 Blue

I chose this photo for my blue entry as obviously the girls are dressed in blue, but also because of the emotion in the girl’s eyes. One of the things I struggle with when traveling to third world countries, is seeing young children struggling or working instead of being at school learning. It is not my place to judge why they are working, because I don’t know enough about them or their situation to understand, but I do feel really sad that instead of learning and being provided with opportunities they are busy trying to sell things to tourists. Sometimes the nagging “buy from me” gets tiresome, but I always try to remember how tiresome it would be if that was your life and your livelihood, especially at such a young age. This photo was taken in Sapa, Vietnam, one of the most breathtaking places I’ve ever visited. 

Yellow

This photo is one of my favourites that I’ve ever taken, because I feel like it’s a snapshot of time. Although this was taken in 2011, if you glance at it only briefly it could have been taken twenty years earlier. There are subtle clues in the background that it’s a more recent image, but I love the timeless look it has. It’s also just a plain corner in Calcutta, India and I love that about it too. While of course I travel to see incredible sites, like Angkor Wat and the Berlin wall, sometimes it’s nice to just see where and how other people live in foreign lands. This photo is just that, a moment in an ordinary day, in an ordinary place, in Calcutta. 

 Red

This is Tom Manorat, he was my tour guide through an elephant and hill tribe trek through rural Chiang Mai. I love this picture, because it embodies his beautiful soul perfectly. I’m sure from this picture you can already tell how incredible those three days were. He was a man both so in love with his job and his country that it was absolutely infectious. I’ve been traveling for over 1.5 years now, but this photo was taken on the third week into my first solo journey in Thailand. At that stage I was still a little awkward and uncertain about traveling alone, but by the end of my three day trip I had this certainty that I’d made the right decision leaving home. I also got to cuddle some elephants after midnight, too. If you book a hotel in Chiang Mai and want to do a trek, get in touch with me and I’ll pass on his details.

As part of the contest rules, you need to nominate five other travel bloggers whom you’d love to see post their photos.

Here are my nominations: 

Roots and Wings –  Daryl is a lovely American girl living the dream in Germany with her husband, living in Europe has afforded her the luxury of many escapes to exotic places, recently including Turkey, The Czech Republic and Hungary. I’d love to see what she would come up with, although I’m sure a few of them would be food photos – haha. 

One Travels Far – Stacey is a real life friend of mine, my first blogger friend! We met in San Diego when I visited  and I love her blog as it’s a pretty honest view at life as an au pair in America and America in general. She’s leaving soon, but I’m sure she’ll have lots of new adventures to post about, including her upcoming trip to Hawaii which I am very jealous about. 

Travels of Adam – As a self proclaimed hipster, there’s little doubt in my mind that Adam would be able to provide us with an interesting and colourful entry into this competition. His blog is pretty cool too and is broad spectrum. He didn’t plan on traveling for so long, but kind of fell in love and moved to Berlin – one of my favourite cities in the world.

Flashpacker Family – Bethany is from the same home town as me, and for this reason alone I adore her! But beyond that, she’s a cool mum who’s decided with her husband to spend the majority of the year overseas, exploring the world. At the moment she’s based in Thailand and I’d love to see what kinda pictures she’d come up with for this competition. 

Nerdy Nomad – Although not a traditional travel blogger, she is very inspiring. Above all, Kirsty has spent a lot of time volunteering overseas and has even written an ebook about it, as she’s kind of an authority on the issue. She’s been living in Africa, volunteered in places such as Haiti and The Philippines, so I’m sure she’d have a great bunch of photos she could share. 

 

I would LOVE to hear what you think about my photos and my entry, so feel free to leave a comment down below. All the best luck to everyone who enters!