Ritva hosts this week’s challenge, turning our attention to dominant colors. She writes, “Share a maximum of 6 photos where your chosen color is the prominent hue, or alternatively, you may share one photo featuring each of the following captivating colors in their various shades: red, blue, green, purple, orange, and yellow.” You can read her entire challenge post here. I went with the rainbow option, which gave me room to build a balanced set across subjects and color families.

You might expect me to lead with a train, plane, or automobile—maybe even a cruise ship. Well, you’d be spot on! My opening photo features fully restored engine #5771 and its steam‑generator car, once part of the famed California Zephyr. Its black-and-yellow livery entered service in 1955 and continued as the Rio Grande Zephyr beginning in 1970, serving until its retirement in 1983.

In 2012, at the Scottsdale Barrett‑Jackson Collector Car Auction, I spotted this restored John Deere 1010—a model from Deere’s early New Generation era. Built from 1960 to 1965, the 1010 marked the company’s transition from its traditional two‑cylinder machines to more modern four‑cylinder designs. Its familiar green‑and‑yellow livery remains one of the most recognizable color schemes in American agriculture.

Moving from the industrial world to the natural world for Ritva’s challenge, we often visited Wildlife World Zoo in Litchfield Park—only about 30 minutes from our former winter home in Buckeye. While searching my archives for something blue, I found this Starry Puffer Fish from the zoo’s aquarium. The species has a natural bluish‑gray base color with a dense constellation of white spots, and the aquarium’s cool lighting only enhances those tones. It’s a striking fish up close, and in this case, a perfect representative for the blue segment of my rainbow set.

Cape Town, South Africa, boasts a world‑class botanical garden, and Kirstenbosch showcases an extraordinary range of plant life native to the region. Among the spring blooms we found in 2024 was this bush lily—Clivia miniata—a shade‑loving plant indigenous to the forested areas of South Africa and prized for its vivid clusters of trumpet‑shaped flowers. Several color variations were on display throughout the garden, but this orange variety is the classic and most widely recognized. It also serves as my entry for the color orange.

Also in Kirstenbosch Gardens, this beautiful carpet of green beneath a spray of purple with yellow accents is my choice for the color purple. The plant is a Trailing Ice Plant—a member of the Aizoaceae family known for its succulent leaves and vivid daisy‑like blooms. Several species in this group are native to South Africa’s coastal and semi‑arid regions, where they thrive in sandy soils and full sun. Their low, spreading habit makes them ideal groundcovers, and in spring they create the kind of dense, colorful mats that stop visitors in their tracks.

Ritva’s challenge sent me down a rabbit hole of colors and shades—wondering whether my yellow choice leaned too far into gold, or if my blue example might not be blue enough. In the end, here they are with no apologies for the wide variety of tones in each entry. To me, purple is purple—not magenta, mulberry, or any of the dozen names my wife could probably rattle off without hesitation. On the other hand, I know RED when I see it. >grin<

Last week’s challenge, Texture, brought out so many wonderful examples of the wide variations of textures found in the world. Thanks to Anne for her challenge, which was certainly popular among photographers worldwide. Next week, Egidio hosts the Lens‑Artists Challenge that goes live on Saturday, May 23, at noon Eastern Time. Be sure to follow him here so you don’t miss the challenge.

If you’re sharing a Lens‑Artists Challenge response for the first time, welcome—we’d love to visit your post. To participate, publish your take on this week’s theme, link back to this page, and add the Lens‑Artists tag so others can discover your work. You’ll find more details on how the challenge works here.

John Steiner