Wednesday, July 25, 2012

TPThursday: Do you ‘Capture the Colours’ or Clichés?

We’ve sometimes overlooked the ‘colors of  travel’. So often, I am trying to capture the memory of a particular travel moment, that I don’t notice the colors that contributed to it.

I traveled down a number of Memory Lanes to find photos that express each of the world’s primary colors: blue, yellow, red, green, and white for today’s post. I did so after Cathy Sweeney of Traveling with Sweeney and Vi at Short Travel Tips  tapped me for participation in a contest being sponsored by TravelSupermarket.  (I never win contests, but this was a great exercise - you should try it.)

DSCF0617The contest judges don’t want photo clichés: a blue sky, a red sunset or a yellow flower (like the sunflower photo here that I took in Stehekin, WA. It’s a great memory but cliché).

They want color in photos that give a sense of place, perhaps even ‘a splash’ of color.  Something that ‘captures a place so well that even if I’ve been there before, I think to myself, ‘Wow, I have to go there', ” says one judge.
 
With that in mind, here’s the travel palette of colors I chose:

White:

It was simply, a fairy tale. One of the most stunning road trips we’ve ever taken was high up into Spain’s Andalucian hillsides.  We lost track of the number of small hamlets – the famous White Towns – as we followed the winding road on that magical journey.

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Red:

Sometimes the ambiance and charm are so intense that a place seems unreal, almost as if it were a movie set; one in which we are lucky enough to be among the cast members.  That was Gibraltar.  This pair of street musicians provided the movie’s soundtrack. Their melodies followed us for blocks in this little bit of England on the Iberian Peninsula.

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Yellow:

Greek ferries. They come in every size, shape and color creating a rainbow in the harbor at Piraeus, the port city serving Athens. If I were recommending travel experiences you must have before you die; sailing a Greek ferry from this harbor is at the top of the list.

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Green: 

I called it the Emerald Empire in an earlier post; The Palouse, that agricultural land that makes up the Eastern part of Washington State.

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Blue: 


My take on blue is probably as cliché as it gets, but after years of dreaming about visiting Greece and then finally getting there, I couldn’t believe it was as picture perfect as we found it. And this time I did notice the colors because it made the travel moment unforgettable.

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Have you been capturing the color or clichés?  On your next trip keep those primary colors in mind when you take aim with the camera – I will.

That’s it for this week’s Travel Photo Thursday. Hope you’ll head over to Budget Travelers Sandbox for more photos.

I’d also like to tap the following fellow bloggers to join in the Capture the Colour contest:
Dick’s Travel Tales from the Road
Keryn’s Walking on Travels
Heather’s Lost in Arles
Andi’s The Particular Traveler
Five American guys’  Travel Philosophy

41 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Thanks Nancie. Looking forward to your selection of photos for the contest.

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  2. I'm enjoying seeing everyone's entries for the photo competition. Your photos are fabulous.I love the Greek blue photo but my favourite is the shot of the white villages in Spain. I have to go there!! Good luck!

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    1. Blue and white do seem the dominant colors in my travel photos; but I suspect that is because I so loved Greece and Spain.

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  3. You have a great selection for the contest- i really love the red phone booths off to the side but they totally steal the show! Good luck!

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    1. Thanks Jade! I had been so taken with the two musicians that I didn't notice their instruments were also red until I selected the photo for this post. The phone booths catch the eye, don't they?

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  4. Wonderful selections! I love the blue in your Greek photo and those white houses in Spain. Good luck with the contest.

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    1. Thank you Mary! There really is something about the blue and white with a background of blue sea and sky on a Greek island. . .it certainly makes ME want to go back.

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  5. Good morning! And thank you for tapping me. :) I think that all of my colors are definitely in the cliché category but it will be fun to take a look and see what I can come up with...

    Your photos are all so lovely and make me dream! They definitely make ME want to go to all of these amazing spots. Good Luck!

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    1. Hi Heather, I thought of your photos when I tapped you because they not only capture the color, they capture emotion as well. Good luck to you if you choose to participate.

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  6. It may be cliche but I love your sunflower photo - and when I was looking for white photos the villages of Andalucia totally slipped my mind. It's a fun exercise and you did it justice. Good luck.

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  7. Leigh, I loved your photos of the White Towns when you first posted them and wrote of your trip through there last year. And thanks - I love that sunflower! Good luck in the contest to you. It was fun wasn't it?

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  8. All nice photos, Jackie. Strangely, I've never seen a yellow ferry in Piraeus. But then it's been years... Really like the unexpectedness of that photo.

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    1. I was startled when seeking yellow and finally 'saw' the yellow ferry among my photos; I don't recall that many yellow ferries either. Red, blue and black were predominant.

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  9. Great photos! My favorite is the blue one from Greece. Call it cliche if you want, but it is still beautifully captured.

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    1. Thanks Jessica! I really do think nothing says Greece more than a shot of white and blue buildings. Hope to see you back again soon.

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  10. It's kind of like taking time to smell the roses! Loved all your pictures especially the blue roofs of Greece. That is a classic look but it is still wonderful.

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    1. I like that image of time to smell the roses. I need to set aside some time just to look at travel photos and remember all those wonderful places and people.

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  11. I love your red photo! Those phone booths always remind me of travels to England:-)

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    1. Thanks Jess for commenting. I am the same way about those English phone booths.

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  12. Cliched or not, I love the blues of Greece. I can't wait to go there!

    PS, Jackie. My original comment was taking so long to post, I'm reposting. Feel free to delete if there's a dupe. Thx!

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    1. It didn't post, so thanks for doing a second one! You will love Greece - hope you get there soon!

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  13. I really like the picture taken of Washington. It reminds me of Ireland or New Zealand--I wouldn't have guessed WA!

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    1. I've yet to see Ireland or New Zealand, but since you say they look like my Emerald Empire, I think I need to get there one of these days in the near future.

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  14. The shot taken in Greece is well done, although the one shot in the Palouse is a sentimental favorite because I spent so much time there as a kid.

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    1. Funny how sentimentality and childhood memories play into one's favorites isn't it?

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  15. Great shots! I think, maybe like you, I focus on the travel memories and sometimes just a pretty picture. I rarely think about the colors, or at least not enough really, until I see them on the computer. Gotta get better at that!

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    1. I think I'll - at least, for a while - pay attention to color but I suspect I will continue trying to hold onto that moment through photos.

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  16. Thanks for the tap, Jackie! I'm going to have a difficult time choosing photos as beautiful as yours. That photo of Spain's White Towns took my breath away. Lovely, all of them.

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  17. I think you did a great job capturing the color! Love them all, but particularly drawn to RED -- how cool to find that bit of England on the Iberian Peninsula. Good luck in the competition!

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    1. Again, thanks Cathy for tapping me. . .I wouldn't have entered without your nudge of encouragement.

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  18. Love those white towns in Spain. I have got to get to them one day very soon. Beautiful examples of red and yellow too!

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    1. Keryn, Hope you take my tap and run with it and enter the contest as well.

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  19. Gorgeous photos! I love this contest - so many pretty pics!!

    Thanks for linking up!

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    1. I hope you'll follow the link to the contest and enter as well if you haven't already done so!

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  20. Beautiful photos! I had the same reaction when we were walking around Oia on Santorini - just felt like I needed to pinch myself to make sure that I wasn't dreaming the beautiful blue and white that I had seen in magazines so many times.

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    1. Thanks for visiting Lisa. Yes, there is that feeling of disbelief (at my good fortune, the beauty of the place) when looking at the striking scenes of the Greek islands.

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  21. Very nice photos! I like how the colors aren't SO obvious but definitely play a big role in defining the photo. Good luck!

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    1. Thanks On Board for the visit! Hope you'll be a regular at TravelnWrite. And thanks for your nice observation of the use of color.

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  22. Great shots! I still have to do my entry for this contest. I keep postponing it as I keep coming up with cliches rather than anything creative.

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