Blue, green, yellow, red and white…
Author :
sudhagee
Blog :My Favourite Things...
Date: 8/4/2012 4:47:01 PM
Recently, Anu Shankar of A Wandering Mind tagged me in the Capture the Colour contest organised by TravelSupermarket.com. The contest brief is, well, quite brief and simple:
… to publish a blog post with a photo that captures the following 5 colours – Blue, Green, Yellow, White and Red.
Hmmm… till about 4 years back I didn’t even give colours a second thought or glance. I took it for granted as growing up in India, they were always around me. But a year’s stay in London showed me how much colours mattered to me, and changed my very perception and understanding of colours.
I arrived in London at the onset of winter and its (in)famous winter weather. But the grey and damp weather did not bother me; neither did the sunless days affect me. But a monochromatic London of black and grey coats, hats, scarves, gloves and boots drove me crazy. That’s when I started noticing colours in the world around me, rather than only on people. Colourful shop fronts, buildings, pub exteriors, cars, tube stations, a stained glass window … took on a whole new meaning. I learnt to look at, appreciate and enjoy colours in a very different way.
I don’t consider myself as a photographer, so it took a little convincing myself to participate in this contest. So here are 5 of my photographs which I think have captured the contest colours, as well as my take on them.
For me, Blue is a colour and a mood. That afternoon, when I alighted from the train at North Greenwich Tube Station in London, there was nobody on this platform, except for this woman and me. Though her blue jeans and red jacket mirrored the eye-catching colour scheme of the station, it was her slumped posture that caught my attention, plus the fact that she never looked up from the floor. Her body language communicated introspection, and perhaps inner angst as well.
Feeling blue…
And at that moment, I understood what “feeling blue” was all about. Here was a classic example of not only the physical manifestation of the colour, but also a mood.
Where there is Green, there is a new beginning. To me, green not only symbolises a new beginning, it also denotes life. Nowhere is this more evident than in a church graveyard, where life thrives among the those laid to rest.
Life in the midst of the dead…
On a visit to Tintern Abbey, I was told about the ruins of the chapel of St.Mary-on-the Hill some distance away. A 15-minute walk up a steep path and I was there, all alone among the chapel ruins and the surrounding graveyard. Alone, but for the company of bird song and the buzz of insects and the calming and soothing greenery all around. I should have been spooked, but I came away felling refreshed and rejuvenated.
Yellow is my colour and I absolutely love it in all its forms. It’s a colour that always makes me warm and fuzzy and happy and alive. On a visit to the New Cathedral at Coventry, I saw the colour used in a very dramatic way.
When one enters the Cathedral, the eyes are drawn not to the altar in the front, but to the magnificent Baptistry Window to the right, which comprises 200 coloured glass panels. The designer of the window, John Piper, perceived his multi-coloured creation as “the light of truth breaking through darkness and confusion”.
The yellow light of truth shines through
As I stood in the dim and cool interiors of the Cathedral and saw the yellow light shining through, it looked like the sun that dispels darkness and brings forth the truth, and indeed life.
Red may be associated with danger, but for me it always means drama and spice. It is a colour with an attitude—a splash or a streak of red in a frame is enough to spice up a photograph. Take a look at the photograph below.
The spicy red train
I was walking along the Thames at Richmond near London idly clicking photographs of the passing barges and boats, when I heard a distant rumble. And in a matter of seconds this gorgeous red train went by, brightening the rather dull and rainy day, not to mention my photograph as well.
Maybe it is a hangover of a lifetime of white school uniforms, and of white salwars getting spoiled in the Mumbai monsoons… but I don’t really like White. Or I didn’t like it till I saw a dramatically different avatar of white and was forced to change my opinion.
It was a regular, rainy day in London in July 2009, and I was out on one of my long walks, thinking about my dissertation and worried that it was not falling into place. The rain, sun and clouds played musical chairs, but I was so preoccupied that I barely noticed my surroundings. Till I saw this row of houses which shook me out of my reverie.
Freshly laundered whites…
The sun had come out after a brief, but sharp downpour. The houses looked so dazzlingly brilliant that they appeared to have been freshly washed and laundered, making everything else fade in comparison—the green of the leaves, the pretty flowers, and the red of the chimneys. The contrasting dark grey clouds only enhanced the brilliance of the white.
These days I will still not wear white, but am now seriously considering painting the walls of my house white. 
So, what do you think about my colour captures? Tell, tell…
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Capture the Colour Contest
One of the rules for participating in this contest is to nominate 5 bloggers to participate in this contest.
This contest is open for all bloggers till August 29, 2012. So even if I have not nominated you, and you have something to say about the colours you have captured, you can participate. But do let me know so that I can come over and see your colour captures and comment on them.
Filed under: Contests, That & This, Travel, United Kingdom Tagged: Baptistry Window of the Coventry Cathedral, Blue, Capture the Colour Contest, colour contest, Colours of London, Coventry Cathedral, Green, London, Red, Red TRain, Richmond, St.Mary-on-the-Hill, Stained Glass window, Tintern, Travel, Travelsupermarket.com, Understanding and appreciating colour, White, Yellow 
