Update 17 November 2013:

Results are in

This was a very difficult decision. So many remarkable trees from around the world. To help decide the winner, I enlisted the help of my daughters. Not that it helped much. We picked three different winners. Honourable mentions therefore go to Alexandra‘s favourite, Divergent travelers‘ sunlight through the branches in Brussels, and Catarina‘s favourite, Round the World with Deb‘s trees as seen from 5 metres underwater.

However, I’m da boss. The winner of Travel Photo Roulette 69 is this photo:
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I really like the gliding transitions here. Where does reality end and the mirror image begin…? Mystical – and a bit dangerous. All with that melancholic late autumn mood.

Congratulations to Lydian at Shoutography! Look forward to seeing what you come up with for round 70.

Travel Photo Roulette 69

Heard of the blogger game known as Travel Photo Roulette? I hadn’t until last week. Travel Photo Roulette was started by Jeremy at Living the Dream as a way for travel bloggers to showcase their photography. Fun stuff, folks, so read on.

Last round of photo roulette was all about weird foods and hosted by the fabulous GypsyNesters. This photo won me the honour of hosting round 69 of this friendly game:

Smalahove

Torched lamb’s head, a Christmas speciality in Western Norway

Now, on to travel photo roulette 69. The theme:

TREES

In this somewhat dreary month I love snapping photos of trees. November trees are frequently naked and skeletal, and I particularly like to shoot them in black and white. But sometimes winter comes late, even in these northerly parts, and trees may still look like this:

 

Now I want to see your trees. And just for fun, let’s keep interpretation of the theme wide open.

Wanna play travel photo roulette 69?

Here’s the skinny: Winner of the last round of Travel Photo Roulette (let’s call him/her X) hosts the next round on their blog. X picks a theme and invites players to submit photos over the course of one week. At the end of the week, X decides the winning entry. Repeat! Couldn’t be easier.

Rules

  1. One submission per blog
  2. Post processing, cropping, correcting for red eyes and other flaws is fine for this round.
  3. Abstract submissions are welcome. But if you want to win, it’s probably best that the judge understands your interpretation.
  4. Hosts should keep themes general so all bloggers can participate. Avoid specifics like ‘Eiffel Tower’; instead choose a more open theme, like ‘monuments’ or ‘monuments at night’.
  5. Abstract thoughts can be fun, as long as everyone can understand. ‘Overlooking creation’ is good, ‘Kafkaesque’ is not.
  6. No obscene photos or themes allowed. Suggestive themes and photography might be accepted, but be careful. Remember, the host is all-powerful.
  7. Themes may be reused after a period of time; however new photos must be submitted. Keep it fresh!
  8. You do not have to take the photo within the week of the contest period to submit it.
  9. Most importantly: ALL PHOTOS MUST BE YOUR OWN.
  10. Spread the word about Travel Photo Roulette and use the hashtag #PhotoRoulette.
  11. Last, but not least: It’s a game, so have fun with it.

How to submit

Entering is easy. Just leave a comment below with a link to the image you’d like to submit and a caption or description. We’ll then add the image to the submissions. Images may be reduced in size to fit the site layout of Sophie’s World.

Do come back during the week to have a look at the competition and join in the conversation.

The contest begins today and ends in one week, i.e. you can submit until 15 November is over, wherever in the world you are. The winner will be announced shortly thereafter and they will host Travel Photo Roulette round 70.

Past winners and hosts

As you can see, this game has been going on for a while. Here are all the rounds so far. The list is a winners’ table as well, as each topic host won the preceding round. Click the host’s link to go directly to that entry to see fab photos of the chosen theme.

1. Nov 2010 – Living the Dream – Animals 2. Nov 2010 – Skinny Backpacker – Road Signs
3. Nov 2010 – Dream a Little Dream – Street Art 4. Nov 2010 – Flashpacker HQ – Festival
5. Dec 2010 – Over Yonderlust – Landmarks 6. Jan 2011 – Don’t Ever Look Back – Beaches
7. Jan 2011 – ThePlanetD – Portraits 8. Jan 2011 – Travel with a Mate – Motion
9. Feb 2011 – Johnny Vagabond – Water 10. Feb 2011 – Ken Kaminesky – Urban
11. Feb 2011 – Travels of Adam – Friday Night 12. Mar 2011 – Itchy Feet Chronicles – The Journey
13. Mar 2011 – Brendan’s Adventures – Changing Seasons 14. Apr 2011 – Shutterfeet – Storytelling
15. Apr 2011 – 10 Times One – Piousness 16. Apr 2011 – Beached Eskimo – Learning
17. May 2011 – Travel Junkies – Architecture 18. Jun 2011 – Destination World – Transportation
19. Jun 2011 – Living the Dream – Paradise 20. Jun 2011 – Vagabond Quest – Clothes
21. Jul 2011 – The Unframed World – Symmetry 22. Jul 2011 – Beached Eskimo – Home
23. Jul 2011 – BackPackerBanter – Inspiration 24. Aug 2011 – WanderingTrader – Darkness
25. Aug 2011 – Finding the Universe – Tranquillity 26. Sep 2011 – Fearful Adventurer – Food
27. Sep 2011 – Adventures of a Good Man – City 28. Oct 2011 – Globe-Trekking.com – Reflections
29. Oct 2011 – Scene With A Hart – Framing 30. Nov 2011 – Vagabond Quest – Silhouettes
31. Nov 2011 – Hecktic Travels – Music 32. Dec 2011 – Globetrotter Girls – Love
33. Jan 2012– Man on the lam – Humor 34. Jan 2012 – My Walkabout – Winter
35. Jan 2012 – The Art of Slow Travel – Blue 36. Feb 2012 – Ten Times One – Depth of Field
37. Feb – Runaway Juno – My Digital Nomad Moment 38. Mar 2012 – Nomadbiba – Sunshine
39. Mar 2012 – Travel With Kat – Local Character 40. Apr 2012 – The Travel Bunny – Street Scene
41. Apr – Adventure Crow – Spirit of the Country 42. May 2012 – Food Travel Bliss – Evening
43. May 2012 – Matt Gibson – Adventure 44. June 2012 – Flashpacker HQ – Once In A Lifetime
45. July 2012 – Skinny Backpacker – Surreal 46. August 2012 – 2away – Smile
47. Aug – Bridges & Balloons – Splendour of the Universe 48. Sept 2012 – The GypsyNester – What the ?!
49. Oct 2012 – Runaway Juno – Sweet 50. Nov 2012 – GQ Trippin – Play
51. Dec 2012 – Breakaway Backpacker – Face 52. Jan 2013 – Fly, Icarus, Fly – Serendipity
53. Feb – Travel Transmissions – Lost in Thought 54. Feb 2013 – Wanderlusters – The Natural World
55. Mar 2013 – Travel Junkies – Patterns 56. April 2013 – Living the Dream – Your First Time
57. May 2013 – Getting Stamped – As The Sun Goes Down 58. Jun 2013 – The GypsyNester – Cheesy Tourist Diversions
60. June 2013 – Boomeresque – Revolution 61. July 2013 – Breakaway Backpacker – Colorful
62. Aug 2013 – Around This World – Mountains 63. Aug 2013 –Passports & Pamplemousse – Hands at Work
64. Sept 2013 – TurtlesTravel – Dance 65. Sept 2013 – Keep calm and travel – The sea
66. Sept 2013 – Travel Photo Discovery – The Market 67. Oct 2013 – Am I Nearly There Yet? – Travel Fails
68. Oct 2013 – The GypsyNester – Weird Regional Foods 69. Nov 2013 – Sophie’s World – Trees

All righty then, let’s get the show on the road! Looking forward to seeing everyone’s submissions.

The Entries

#1 from Tash of Jouljet:

The Buddha in the Bodhi Tree, in Ayutthaya in Thailand – so amazing! This buddha was part of the ancient temple that was looted – and this head was dropped as the thieves made their departure, so the story goes. The head landed here, and in all the years that have passed, the Bodhi tree has grown up and around it….

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#2 from Bob of Piran Cafe:

The Arbol bandera, or flag tree, a name stemming from the shape it’s given by the relentless pounding of ceaseless wind. Near the Estancia Harberton on the Beagle Channel, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. About 85 km east of Ushuaia.

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# 3 from Jeremy of Living the Dream:

This was by far my favorite tree in Thailand. How can you say no to such a great bend and a beautiful backdrop every single day?

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# 4 from Veronika of the GypsyNesters:

White Sands National Monument is a blinding alien landscape with giant shifting dunes of pure white gypsum sand. I became obsessed with this lone tree, I’m always amazed when life finds a way to flourish.

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# 5 from Dan of This World Rocks:

While traveling through Northern Myanmar we came across thousands of temples. While in the mountain town of Hsipaw, we came across a temple that had accidentally been built on the top of a small tree hundreds of years ago. Fast forward to today, and the tree has now over-taken the temple and sprouted through the top for the world to see. The temple is known now to locals simply as, The Tree Temple.

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# 6 from Adam of Getting Stamped:

Just outside the beautiful town of Salento, Colombia lies the Cocora Valley, which is filled with the other worldly wax palm trees. Nestled in the bright green valleys, standing over 30m (100ft) tall, and surrounded by the clouds, they make hiking through this valley worth the trip to Colombia alone! One of my favorite shots from the hike catches the true perspective of these massive trees.

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# 7 from Anwar of Beyond My Front Door:

I love trees, and I thought about these unlikely trees out in the deserts of california.

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# 8 from Rachel of TheCareerBreakSite.com:

Although I’ve travelled around the world, I took this picture practically on my own doorstep!

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# 9 from Lina of Divergent Travelers:

This was taken at the Bruparkc near the Atomium in Brussels, Belgium. The sun was shining through the trees just perfectly that day.

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# 10 from Brandon of The Yoga Nomads:

During a back-country camping trip in the Rocky Mountains – we came across this beautiful lake at about 10,000ft above sea level. Paused our hike to enjoy the view and for some quick yoga. Doing “Tree Pose” (Vrksasana) amongst the giant pine Trees.

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# 11 from Jeff of Boots and Backpacks:

Kahikatea trees at sunset with Southern Alps in background, West Coast, Sth Island, NZ.

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# 12 from Bianca of NomadBiba:

I took it in Sintra, Portugal. The trees there are very special as years ago, the royalty brought many species from other continents and now there’s a great variety of exotic trees growing there. It’s a very green place!

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# 13 from Natasha of World Wandering Kiwi:

I love trees too. Was particularly struck by an ancient Lime Tree in the courtyard of the Hohenzollern fortress in Salzburg a couple of weeks back, particularly dressed in autumn splendour

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# 14 from Debbie of Round the World with Deb:

This was taken from 5 meters below the surface at an amazing dive site called the Passage in Raja Ampat, Indonesia, which is a river-like sea fjord between 2 small islands, where the tree canopies from the limestone karsts above often close above it, with gigantic sea fans almost reaching over the surface.

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# 15 from Lydian of Shoutography:

This picture was taken while I was hiking through Huerquehue National Park near Pucon, Chile, where we came across ‘Lago Chico’, a little lake at the end of our route. The locals also refer to the lake as ‘the place of the messenger’. The image of the reflection of the trees in the water somehow matched the mystical name the locals give the lake.

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# 16 from Kris of The World is Our District:

This was a tough one to narrow down, but ultimately I have to go with one of my favorite shots in Sequoia National Park…driving back to my campsite on a crystal clear night the stars were peeking through the canopy of the largest living organisms on the planet and I took this photo through my sunroof.

trees

# 17 from Marysia of My Travel Affairs:

I love tress to the point that I took study of a tree outside of my parents kitchen window. It is a pear tree, there is something magical about this tree and I take picture of it for past 3 year every single time i think it looks beautiful, this one has been taken two winters ago.

tree