Pexels

As you may have noticed, I sometimes use photos from the website pexels.com when I want to illustrate posts which are about more general topics rather than specific destinations, and also to depict destinations I haven't been to yet, or that I went to before I had a phone with a camera. It's a really good website for finding stock photos that you can use for free.

You can also upload your own photography onto the website for other users to download, which is something I've been doing over the last few months. Pexels also regularly run challenges based on a particular theme, offering cash prizes for the best photos! Recent challenges that I've entered are the Passport to the United Kingdom challenge and the Year in Review: Your Passport challenge (in fact, I was able to submit some photos in both categories, given that I haven't been able to leave the country this year!). 

Uploading my photography was something I was just doing for fun, but I was very happy to receive an email this week telling me that one of my pictures has been featured on the website! 

By the way, it's this one I took of the Neptune Fountain in Cheltenham.

Photography is a hobby I've grown more and more interested in since I first started travel blogging back in 2017 with very few camera skills whatsoever. I've always just used my smartphone to take my photos for this blog, as it's the easiest option when travelling around, but I'd like to learn how to use a proper camera, and would definitely consider taking some photography lessons in the future.

It was a nice surprise to be featured by Pexels, especially just a week after being featured in Jack's Flight Club: The Detour. This year been quite disappointing for me overall, both in terms of travelling and life in general, but these two little achievements are something positive that I can take away from 2021. ☺

Finally, if you're interested, you can check out my Pexels profile here!

Update: 30/12/2021

I'm very happy to say that I've now had a second picture featured on Pexels! It's this one I took of Parroquia San Francisco de Asís in Montevideo, Uruguay.

I'll continue to update if more of my photos are featured in the future!

Update: 20/01/2022

Now I've had a third photo featured! It's this summery one of a palm tree in Colonia del Sacramento, also in Uruguay.

I hope to update again soon!

Update: 28/01/2022

I've just had a fourth photo featured, and it's this one I took of Laguna Tebinquinche in the Atacama Desert!

I feel like I'm on a bit of a roll with these photos now, and I'm looking forward to getting stuck into some more photography on my travels this year!

Update: 02/04/2022

The fifth photo I've had featured on Pexels is this one that I took in La Laguna, during me and Claudio's recent trip to the beach.

I hope to be featured again soon!

Update: 14/05/2022

Sixth photo featured! It's this one I took in Iquique. 

Iquique was a really great destination for photography. I'm looking forward to visiting some other exciting places soon, and taking more photos!

Update: 17/11/2022

It had been a long time since I'd had a photo featured on Pexels, and I was beginning to wonder if I'd lost my touch! But then today I found out that one of my recent photos has been featured: it's this one of Machu Picchu in Peru.

I'm really happy to have had a photo featured from this trip of a lifetime!

Update: 05/04/2023

My latest featured photo is this one of Paseo La Villa, here in Santiago.

This picturesque little area is a great place for taking photos!

Update: 06/04/2023

I certainly didn't expect to have two photos featured in two days, but that's exactly what's just happened! I'm very happy that this photo from our recent trip to Valparaíso has now been featured too.

 

Let's see how long it takes for me to get another one featured!

Update: 29/05/2025

I can't quite believe it was actually over two years ago that I last had a photo featured on Pexels - it almost feels like yesterday that I wrote my last update here, even though so much has happened since then. To be honest, there have been many months that I've gone without using the site at all, just because so much was going on in my life in general, and I only uploaded a handful of photos throughout the whole of 2024. I also really neglected my Instagram and Pinterest pages at times, and even stepped back from this blog for a while, partly due to time constraints and partly due to a lack of motivation.

But in recent weeks and months, the excitement to create content has come back, and a few big life events that needed a lot of my time and attention have now been completed, so I've been active on all my platforms lately and having fun with it. I uploaded a few pictures to Pexels from our recent honeymoon in Thailand and got an email a couple of days ago letting me know that this one had been featured:

It's great to be recognised for this photo of a very happy memory!