Capture the Colour: A Photo Essay in Colours

When I was asked to take part in TravelSupermarket’s Capture the Colour competition, I knew it was exactly the competition for me. Not only do I get to share 5 of my favourite images from my travels, it also inspired me to get creative.

The idea was to choose 5 photos, each one representing a colour – Blue, Green, Yellow, White and Red. Nominated by Mallory On Travel made my task that little bit more daunting, since his photos are out of this world.

Long-term readers of Starry-Eyed Travels will be all to well-aware of my love affair with South America (yes, here we go again) and as my South America archives have such a dazzling array of colours, it seemed like the logical place to start.

It’s funny: I had literally thousands of photos to choose from, but these five, chosen for their colour, more or less sum up South America to me. There is an accidental focus on Peru, but that’s where I spent the most time, and there is a mixture of wide open landscapes, vibrant cities, nature and people. So, in a rainbow nutshell, here is the essence of a continent.

 

Blue

The Atacama Desert in Chile was a life-changing place for me; I will never, ever forget it. I never knew such spectacular landscapes could exist on earth. Every day there was enchanting, but the salt lakes were a complete surprise: warm, inviting pools of water – in the middle of a desert. It was just before the sun began to set when I took this photo, with the Atacama looking very unlike a desert.

Green

Hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu is undoubtedly one of my travel highlights. Even before arriving at Machu Picchu, we had four days of mind-blowing landscapes, leg-aching climbs, and moments of pure wonder. Spotting this deer in the lush valley was one of those moments; a second later, she disappeared into the forest.

Yellow

The centre of Lima is striking, with bright yellow buildings which are the centre of power in Peru. Surrounding the square are drab, grey buildings, but here, it’s like a lightbulb going on and everything is a dazzling yellow.

White

I wasn’t expecting much from Pastoruri. The travel agent at one of the small agencies in the town of Huaraz had told me that it wasn’t a brilliant glacier, as they go. Now, as this is the only glacier I have ever seen, I really have no right to comment, but this looked pretty brilliant to me. The pure, blinding white of the glacier imprinted itself on my memory and the whole experience – lack of oxygen, high-altitude horse-riding, and finally, this view, is simply unforgettable.

Red

I love Bolivia with a deep, aching longing – it was a country that immediately assailed me, took me by surprise and then wouldn’t let me go. Bolivian people are some of the most kind, generous, spirited people I have met, which sounds like such a travel cliche, but it’s true. This photo captures a moment of calm on that shy boy’s face in what was otherwise a completely crazy parade in the centre of La Paz.

So there you have it, a whistlestop tour of South America in full techinicolour glory! Now all that remains for me to do is nominate 5 bloggers to complete their own colourful photo essays:

Rambling Tart

A Brit Abroad

Beyond Blighty (who is at this moment in South America, the lucky thing!)

Stay Adventurous

Butterfly Diary

I can’t wait to see what they come up with!