RAW aficionado Rob Verger of Boxborough sent along some photos of a recent trip to Bogotá along with these thoughts:

"I spent a week in Bogotá visiting my girlfriend (she lives in São Paulo, Brazil, but was in Colombia for work). It was my first time in Bogotá, and I was excited to take photos; I kept my Canon G10 close at hand the entire time.

"I love shooting street scenes with that camera - it's discreet and takes luminous, sharp photos when the light is good. I felt excited at the variety of images that the city presented: I loved taking photographs of umbrellas on gray, rainy days, serendipitously encountering dance performances in a public square, or trying to capture the militaristic drama of the changing of the presidential guard on a Friday afternoon. Other moments, too, caught my eye: the dark silhouettes of two girls in the famous Gold Museum (Museo del Oro), or a boy blowing bubbles from atop the Monserrate overlook, with the city and its green mountains expansive in the background.

"Traveling to a new place can be provocative, artistically and photographically, not just because you might feel compelled to document it for your own memories, but more importantly, I think, because being in a foreign place heightens your senses. I find that it sharpens my eye for details, lines, and colors. It provokes me to start thinking more photographically, and once I'm in that mindset, I start taking more sensitive photos. The result can be images that capture some sense of the place, but also convey the subjective mood the place gave you."

Here's a full-screen gallery of Rob's images.

Hot Air Balloon Festival by Chris Wraight

Hot air balloon festivals are ripe subjects for colorful photos. Chris Wraight of Southborough made sure to bring his Nikon D300 when he attended the 4th Annual Hudson Elks Hot Air Balloon Festival Aug. 9-10 in Hudson, MA.

An early morning ground fog delayed the launch because of a concern about visibility, both while traveling and landing, but eventually the balloons got airborne ...