The power of colour. Capture the Colour Contest

I don’t consider myself a professional photographer, but I’m a pretty damn good one nonetheless. I am utterly obsessed with taking creative pictures of places I travel to, leading to hundreds and thousands of pictures stored on my lovely MacBook Air. So, when I saw Travel Supermarket’s Capture the Colour Contest, I started going through them. It took me a whole day to decide which ones to pick, and I am still lingering on two other options … as most other bloggers have admitted, this post is a struggle with yourself. You will marinate the options for a few days, and only then post them. I decided to choose images representative of several continents/areas: Eastern Europe (Bucharest, Romania), United States (New York City), Asia (Beijing, China), Caribbean (Turks & Caicos), and a bit of the Middle East (Istanbul, Turkey – the trickiest one; located in both Europe and Asia, and yet it’s Middle Eastern).

The idea is to create a blog post with pictures showcasing your (original) take on the colours blue, green, yellow, white and red, to describe the picture, place and time it was taken, including a caption for each one. When you’ve finished writing your post, you have to nominate 5 other bloggers to take part in Capture the Colour Contest, by listing their website and letting them know as well. Here are the full terms and conditions. Be sure to participate before the deadline of August 29th.

So, without further ado, here are my entries for the contest:

BLUE:

Romanian Village Museum Bucharest

Bucharest, Romania

In the most unlikely places of them all – the Romanian Village Museum – I was able to capture blue, entrenched in this peasant house. I would have expected to see this colour in the Caribbean, not in the former gray Communist capital that I call home. The Village Museum, lying on the Herăstrău lake shore in Bucharest, is one of the biggest and the oldest outdoors museum in Europe. The museum boasts over 100,000 square metres, and contains 272 authentic peasant farms and houses from all over Romania. The uniqueness of this house, and its bright blue windows, is invigorating, given the majority of houses being built out of wood, stone and hay, consisting of a neutral earthy colour palette.

GREEN:

Turks and Caicos rock iguana

Turks and Caicos

While recently vacationing in the Turks and Caicos Islands, it was evident that not only was I in one of the worlds’s premier beach destinations, with breathtaking azure waters and clear white sands, but also close to the famous mangroves and  Iguana Island. This cute little guy is one of the 50,000 rock iguanas found on Little Water Cay, an endangered species of lizards specific to Turks and Caicos. He is friendly, and he loves fruit and cupcakes!

YELLOW:

New York City yellow cab

New York City

I have lived in New York for six years and a half, thus I instantly knew what would be my yellow entry picture. This shot was taken about two years ago, when I roamed the city to capture iconic New York moments. I really like the angle, having managed to include another landmark: The New York Times building.

WHITE:

Sultanahmet Blue Mosque Istanbul

Istanbul, Turkey

I am fascinated by all things Middle Eastern, particularly the white lavish courtyards of their mosques. While I was resting on the steps, I was lucky enough to witness a Muslim Turkish wedding and take in the chantings coming from inside. I took my camera out, and started snapping away. This represents one of the entries to the Sultanahmet Blue Mosque in Istanbul.

RED:

Forbidden City

Beijing, China

When I think of red, China instantly comes to mind. Red represents good luck, and it is seen everywhere: the Chinese flag, the good luck charms, the rich silk fabrics, their national costumes, and in The Forbidden City. The red caps seen on large groups of people were very distinguishable, moving about the vastness of the palace.

And here are my nominations:

Imperator travel: My fellow Romanian travel blogger Cezar has traveled to 88 countries so far, status I aspire to achieve someday. He has millions of juicy anecdotes, and as you may imagine, millions of pictures from the most remote places in the world.

The Everywhereist: Geraldine’s travel blog is an inspiration. She started traveling with her husband, Randy, who travels extensively for his job, after she got laid off from her copywriting position. Her travel blog is now, one of the quirkiest, most voted blogs out there.

Le Zoe Musings: Kellie’s photography is not exclusively on travel, more so on fashion, home decor, and graphic design; however I nominated her because she takes spectacular pictures!   She is extremely talented and creative, and she has a lovely daughter Zoe :)

As We Travel: Nathan & Sofia are a fun couple that have travelled to 45 countries, and are having the time of their lives while doing so.

Stop Having a Boring Life: You can tell by the name that Rob is always seeking fun adventures to fill his life with. I have only started following Rob for a short time, but his photography and travel blog are amazing.