Capture the Color Contest

This is for the TravelSupermarket Capture the Colour Competition which I heard about from Ken Kaminesky’s amazing travel photography blog. If you have a travel blog, I highly suggest you enter. With 5 new iPads and £2,000.00 worth of travel up for grabs, this photo contest is the real deal. Personally, I’m hoping for one of the iPads, but I wouldn’t say no the grand prize either.

If you’re interested in entering this competition, you can find the official content rules here.

I nominate these 5 other travel bloggers to participate!

• Y Travel Blog
• As We Travel
• Wes Nations
• Jack & Jill
• Nomadic Samuel

Green

Ohara, a less visited rural village in Kyoto, was exactly what Lori and I were hoping. With only a little research we had taken the hour-long scenic bus ride north from downtown Kyoto. After a grueling, buzzer-beater cycle to the Golden Pavilion on the previous day, our desire was for a slow-paced amble through quiet countryside. With a wealth of enchanting nature scenes and a dearth of rabid tourists, this quaint river valley town came through big time. Aside from getting lost for 20 minutes right out of the bus stop, we stayed mostly within the tranquil grounds of Sanzenin Temple, the village’s main attraction where we found this restful zen garden called Shuhekien. I took a few photos and we sat in contented silence for unhurried minutes before moving on.

Blue

Any photo hit-list for Montreal is incomplete without the lavishly decorated Notre Dame Basilica. Still a fully functioning Catholic cathedral, I have one important piece of advice for successfully photographing the gorgeous interior of this place: DON”T GO DURING SUNDAY MORNING MASS! Lori, our friend Natalie, and I thought it was our lucky day when there was no attendant at the entrance counter. As I tromped in, I recall exclaiming something enthusiastic like, “Boardwalk and Park Place guys! This usually costs like 5 buc- Wow, wait. I think they’re praying.” As silently as possible, the two ladies helped me collect my shattered dignity from the beautifully tiled floor, and we regrouped at a nearby cafe.

Since I obviously did not take pictures during the service, we returned once mass had ended, paid our $5 and shot until early afternoon.

White

After a beautiful train trip through the southern Japanese Alps, Lori and I arrived in Takayama, Japan. From there, it was a short bus ride through the switch backs of the Hida Mountains to Shirakawa Village. Well deserving of its designation as a UNESCO World Heritage site, this village provides breath-taking views of the Northern Alps and prides itself on being a time warp back to Edo period traditional Japan, complete with farm houses built with thatching. It also happens to be one of the snowiest places in Japan (measured in annual snowfall) and certainly lived up to the title.

Yellow

Inside the stunning sanctuary of the Notre Dame cathedral in Montreal, there’s a lesser known private chapel in the back right corner that I knew about from a previous visit. At the front there’s an amazing floor to ceiling sculpture. They say that even seeing just a photo of this moving work has been known to calm crying babes, warm Scroogey hearts and lower LDL cholesterol. (Scroogey: Scrooge-like. Now you know.) Unfortunately, you’ll have to wait for that revelatory moment since this post features a photo of the back of the chapel.

Red

As one of the most acclaimed locations in all Japan, Lori and made sure to stop by the red gates of the Fushimi Inari-Taisha on our tour of Kyoto by rental bike. This place easily makes it to the top echelon of my list of touring destination recommendations in Japan. A big plus of the Fushimi Inari is that admission is always free and the paths are kept open all 365 days of the year. I highly recommend bring a camera to this place. The endless tunnels of torii (red gates) lining the walkways were magical.