The World in Five Colors

Travel Supermarket is hosting a supercool photo contest. The mission is to write a blog post featuring five photos that capture five colors: Blue, green, yellow, white and red.

I’ve been scanning the latest submissions and, wow, there are SO MANY talented photographers out there. It’s pretty intimidating. The judges said they’re looking for originality, something unusual, something that tells a story, something clever. Well, I don’t know if I have succeeded, but at least I have tried.

BLUE

Wandering around the borro bajar (big market) in Jessore, Bangladesh, I was drawn to this blue wall of shoes. I motioned to the shopkeeper, who was standing in the road, and pointed to my camera — my way of asking permission to take a photo. He nodded and hurried to his chair so he could be part of the shot. Seriously, nowhere in the world do people love having their photos taken so much.

GREEN

Capturing this sweet moment on a lush, tree-lined village road might qualify as a miracle. In Bangladesh, when village children see a camera, they start running toward it. Within seconds, two children turn into twenty, all crowding around so closely you can’t fit them all in the shot. The crowd pushes and poses, poses and pushes, until the photo is taken. Then the kids rush to see the image on the LCD screen, giggle like crazy, then run back to pose again. It’s hilarious and priceless. These two girls, though, were different. They saw me and my camera, but they didn’t stop to pose. Although they did look back over their shoulders about every five seconds. Just long enough for me to snap this shot.

YELLOW

That yellow building in the background is the national symbol of Laos, Pha That Luang (a.k.a., Golden Temple). Given its important status, I imagine it’s been photographed a gazillion times. I, too, took the requisite shots of the temple in all its glory, but sometimes it’s nice to stop and focus on the overlooked details as well.

WHITE

This photo is proof that beauty is everywhere on Jeju Island. I lived on the tiny island in South Korea for two years, and every day something made me stop and think, “That’s beautiful!” Last summer, my parents came to visit. One day, we took a walk from my apartment to see the nearby waterfalls and passed a little pond along the way. When we saw the frogs and lillies doing so perfectly what frogs and lillies do, we just had to stop and snap some pics.

RED
It was a cold, cold day at Yasaka Shrine in Kyoto. Definitely not one of those days you want to be outside for a long time, but there was something in the air besides the cold that made me linger a little longer. I just had a feeling something cool was going to happen — and it did! A traditional Japanese wedding procession passed right before my eyes. What an amazing sight to see on my first day in the city. P.S I LOVE that red umbrella … almost as much as the bride’s crazy hat.

Per the rules of the contest, I must now nominate five fellow bloggers to take the challenge and share their photos by Aug. 29.

And the nominees are …

Petra365

Miljo Anne

Wind Against Current 

Cee’s Life

rfljenksy

Good luck everyone! And wish me luck, too!