Color plays a big role in travel photography. It makes the image stand out and look alive!

Color also affects my mood when I travel. Red excites me or tells me to be cautious. Blue calms me down, relaxes me. Yellow makes me feel all smiley inside. White gives me peace and space to think. Green makes me think of nature and everything that has life.

Here are some photos from our travels in Myanmar last year that represent all 5:

Red


This is one of the most serendipitous shots I've taken in my life.

We had been visiting some white stupas in Mandalay when we saw this group of children. They were playing and took an interest in our group. I had a 50mm lens on my camera that couldn't auto focus so I let everyone else take pictures. As I turned back to leave, this child monk jumped out of nowhere. I couldn't help but aim and shoot, thinking it would be a blurred shot anyway. He was simply too fast!

We were already back at our homestay when I reviewed the image on my camera: a crisp, clean shot of this wide-eyed smiling boy in a red robe against the background of the white stupa!

Travel always throws the best surprises.

Green


The Burmese people can be shy especially on camera. We were on a 3 day trek from Kalaw to Inle Lake when we passed these women farmers. I wanted to take photos of them but they refused to look at me. I must have been standing patiently for a few minutes, when this young girl slowly tilted her head to see if I was still there. I clicked the shutter at the perfect time to get this shot.

Patience can be very rewarding!

Blue


The Shwe Dagon Pagoda is one of the highlights of our trip to Myanmar. I have seen many photos of this place before our visit and I was impressed. But when we arrived, I was a bit disappointed. The sky was overcast and my photos looked dull. I set my camera aside and observed the people and made small talk with the locals.

As night descended, the sky grew brighter and turned into a deep shade of blue. That's when I saw the perfect background for this stunning golden pagoda. Beauty often takes time.

Yellow

This door greeted us when we reached the summit of Mt. Popa in Old Bagan, Myanmar. It was decorated with intricate glass designs and I kept on wondering what was inside. It was so tempting to peek but the place was off limits.

The door of possibility must look exactly like this!

White


This is a shaman or a village doctor that we met on our trek to Inle Lake. He was smoking one cigar after the other when we saw him and he was nearly 100 years old! He had herbs and medicinal plants all over his house and we were curious which maladies he could cure.

Then a Swede from our group asked: "Can you fix a broken heart?"

The shaman looked perplexed for a minute then laughed. "The doctor will have to stitch it up!", he told our guide who translated for him.

This post is an entry to the Capture the Colour Contest of Travel Supermarket. It's a challenge to travel bloggers to define what it is to "capture the colour" by posting five of their most stunning travel photos. Each colour is a category and each of the winners in the five colour categories gets an iPad as prize. As for the grand prize, it's a whopping 2,000 British pounds!

Wish me luck!

I'm nominating other travel bloggers:

Jen of Nomadic Manager
Paul of Walk Fly Pinoy
Nina of JustWandering
Ed of Soloflighted
Gay of Pinay Travel Junkie

Main photo credit: shewatchedthesky