Jeep Jump in Bolivia – Best Action Photos 2019

Carlos Frias’ high-flying winner, plus more shots that put you in the middle of the fun.

By Maryann Jones Thompson

When ROAM asked its 2019 Photo Contest winners to share advice for how to take better family travel photos, one of the top tips was to avoid posed shots – the best pictures come from capturing the action as its happening.

Easier said than done.

But the five photographers honored in ROAM’s Action category did it. Their shots put us right with them – in the middle of the action.

Carlos Frias of 8duffels2mutts won the ROAM 2019 best Action photo for his shot of wife Stephanie jumping over their jeep in a remote part of Southern Bolivia.

8duffels2mutts

“Our kids were gathered and waiting to catch me if I fell,” says Stephanie, originally from Iowa but traveling long term with her Ecuadoran husband Carlos and their four- and six-year-old kids.

“Carlos had this wild inspiration to put me on the top of the car for a photo and I was like, ‘Me?! The one who usually ISN’T in the photo? I’m the camera girl!’” explains Stephanie. “But, the crazy idea worked and that photo is one of our top performing Instagram shots. The most amazing part is that he got the shot on the first jump! But I couldn’t believe I was that high in the air.”

“For us, ‘family travel’ means we are together in every moment, always exploring, learning, experimenting, and growing together so the story of this photo says it all,” says Stephanie. “And it’s great that it shows our car – it is our home on wheels. We converted an old Land Cruiser to perfectly support our needs. We drive it, sleep in it, eat in, play in it…live in it.”

Four more photographers were awarded honorable mentions in the Action category for their exciting snaps:

• Karen of themomtrotter takes fantastic photos of her fellow travelers. Although it was hard to choose, judges picked her shot of kids running in the surf in Puerto Vallarta.
• The_sabbaticals are really a couple on sabbatical from working in Prague. They captured their daughter snorkeling in a cenote near Playa del Carmen.
  

   

• Valentine J. Brkich, a Pennsylvania smalltowndad took this fun shot on the request of his son, trying to deal with the 40mph winds atop Mt. Washington in New Hampshire.
• My_serendipitous_familytravel captured the joy of her toddler on the beach in Galicia, Spain, surrounded by classic family summer-vacation beach-day accouterment.
  

   

Check out all the prize-winning photos in the gallery below (turn mobile devices to “landscape” to view complete photos and caption.) See ROAM 2019’s best Action shots, learn the backstory of each one and read the judges comments in the gallery below.