My mate Neil at Backpacks and Bunkbeds and my buddies over at Traveling 9 to 5 have both tagged me in a capture the colour contest, an interesting initiative whereby travel bloggers like myself produce a blog post with photographs that capture five colours: blue, green, yellow, white and red.

It seemed like a bit of fun so I thought I’d give it a go – my focus being to capture colour all around the world and not just in one region…

Blue: The view from my hotel, Amalfi, Italy

The view from our room on Italy’s Amalfi Coast was spectacular – but boy did we pay for it.

An uninterrupted view of the big blue ocean, with nothing but beach below us and sky above. It set us back roughly 80 euros per night ($96US) – an absolutely mind-blowing price tag given that my fiance (pictured) and I backpacked through South East Asia on a total budget of roughly half that price per day.

But sometimes you have to live a little. It was moderately priced compared to other hotels along the Amalfi Coast and it remains one of the best places I’ve stayed after nearly five years of travel. And Amalfi is my favourite place in all of Italy.

Green: Limoges Fine Art Museum, France

There I was, stuck for a green picture to include in my Capture the Colourspost when I stumbled across the botanic gardens outside Limoges’ mighty fine Fine Arts Museum. In it, was this sort-of “walk of colour” under multi-coloured sheets of plastic.

Never one to miss an opportunity to try something a little bit different – or to mug for the camera – I climbed up the side for this photograph. I was very pleased with the effect; I look either very sick or very jealous.

Yellow: Giant Buddha in Dalat, Vietnam

Adding a touch of serenity to proceedings is this photograph of the giant golden Buddha in that sits inside Van Hanh Monastery in Dalat, Vietnam. It was one of the stops on my day trip in Dalat.

Now, I know what you’re going to say – “It’s gold not yellow!” – and to that I simply reply: “same same…”

White: The White Temple in Chiang Rai, Thailand

Rather than blind you all with a photograph of yours truly without a shirt on I’ve gone with the aptly named White Temple of Wat Rong Khun in Chiang Rai, Thailand, for my white photo of choice.

Constructed entirely out of radiant white materials and embedded with glass mosaics to reflect the sun – nothing is whiter than this temple (except maybe the sky in this picture), which is 13km south of Chiang Rai.

Red: San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, USA

I bought a new camera in San Francisco – so it was there that I tried all of it’s new-fangled features including “super vivid” function on the most photographed bridge in the world.

The Golden Gate Bridge has never looked this red before – and neither has the fence in front of it. The blues, too, are extremely vivid – making it look like a particularly lovely day in the San Francisco Bay Area. A lovely day for riding the cable cars or visiting Alcatraz.

So there you have it, folks – my attempt to capture the colours of the world in just five photographs.