Well there has been some major debate about this contest going around the travel blog community. I might have spoke to loud on it and offended a few people but that is me, like it or leave it. Anyways, the whole argument on the contest is that to enter you have to have a blog post with a link to the company who is hosting it. That is a way for the company hosting the contest to game free links to rank higher in search results (say Google for example because the more people that link to their webpage the higher they will rank in searches, basic SEO 101). Normally the company would have to pay for these links but since they are running a cheap contest, they will be getting the links at a fraction of the price. So instead of paying bloggers $100-$250 for that link, they will get it for only $20.
Anyways, I wanted to enter but didn’t think I’d win, as to many happy people submitted already but I had the post drafted up so I thought I would share it with you and at least let you see the shots I had picked for it. I’m not linking to the contest because, basically screw them if they think they’ll get me for free! Basically the contest was to pick 5 photos, each photo for a color they picked and post it. Below are my 5 shots for: Blue, Green, Yellow, White and Red. Enjoy!
BLUE - Varanasi, India
I took this one night while waiting for the ceremony on the Ganges River to start. Half the people sit in boats and watch it from the river (you can see them in the background) while the rest sit on the bank while the priest perform it. I was messing around, getting bored so thought I would take a walk around and see if I couldn’t get some good light at the magic hour just after the sun set. This lone guy was in a boat and I almost fell into the dirty river trying to get this shot at that angle. Seriously glad I got the shot and didn’t kill my camera or even worse get a parasite for life living in my body!
GREEN - Varanasi, India
This guy is what you’d call a fake sadhu. I found it hard to get people photos in Varanasi because everyone wanted money (which is a turnoff for me) so I ended up standing back and shot from a distance while there. I knew he was a fake but still wanted his portrait somehow. Without a doubt I knew full well he’d demand money before I even lifted the camera and I didn’t want to make a scene about it, so I moved up on an overlook and was able to capture a shot of him alone like this. I loved the teal green pallet he was sitting on contrasting with the colors of his body paint and clothes. This photo says so much about India in one shot for me that it’s one of my favorites that I took while there.
YELLOW – Medellin, Colombia
One thing about Latin America is they have the best damn parades ever! This one was from a set I shot of the “Feria de Las Flores” (Flower Parade) that happens every year in Medellin. It’s a week long party and they finish with this parade on Saturday (see more photos here). This group came charging down the street in their yellow coveralls, with green shirts and flowers donned on their head dancing. Seriously, you’ll want to see the other photos of this to fully understand how fun and insane it is to watch this parade!
WHITE – Ferdonia, Colombia
Goats are officially to me, got to be the dumbest animals alive I think. The parking garage where we parked the car had this goat tied up in the corner when we arrived. I had made a mental note to see if I couldn’t get it’s photo when we came back to leave but when we got back the goat was gone. Didn’t think much of it, until we started taking a few last minute shots of the group and the owner came up and asked if we would take his photo. My friend Sebastian knew the owner and said yes. He left and I was wondering where he was going. Two minutes later he showed up with the goat and asked if we would take his picture!
We set the garage owner up on some steps with the goat next to him. The owner told us it’s name was “Nieve” which translates as snow. He started feeding the goat and this is when I realized how dumb/insane they are! Click here to see the rest of the photos of “Snow the Mad Goat”!
RED – Dharamshala, India
One of the main reasons why I went to Dharamshala was because it’s where the Dalai Lama now lives. I had two agendas, see him talk if possible and photograph as many monks as I could. Well I ended up missing the Dalai Lama by a day (this was the reason why) but I did get to photograph a LOT of monks!
This little monk was one of the best models I have ever photographed hands down. He was only about seven years old but the whole time I was photographing another monk, who was about 17, he kept telling him how to pose, where to look and was fixing his wardrobe… that I ended up just sitting back and laughing! The kid was good and when it was his turn to get photographed I didn’t even have to speak as he had studied everything I did with the monk prior and knew exactly what I wanted. Was one of the best photo shoots I did while in India and this is bar far one of my favorite shots to-date!
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