Scavenger hunt

The idea behind this is to get out and shoot more – and to look for subjects where perhaps you ordinarily wouldn’t.

I’m going to list five topics/subjects and over the course of the month I’ll take photographs representing each one – or at least representing my interpretation of each one. Basically, anything goes. If one of the subjects is “red” and for whatever reason that inspires me to take a photo of something yellow, I’m okay with that – just so it gets me to look for photos in places I might not ordinarily look for photos. In the past, I've found that if a word such as "red" is on the list I'll find myself looking at all things red all month long -- and that's kind of the point. I’m not sure it’s really a “competition”, other than with yourself, but I wasn’t sure where else to post this.

At the end of the month I’ll post five photos. It'll probably be one of each word, but not necessarily. I hope you’ll join me, and share your results at the end of the month. And if you do join me and share your work, perhaps you might want to volunteer to pick five words/topics for an upcoming month.

One approach I've used in the past is to take a photo of everything on the list as early in the month as I can, and then the rest of the month I'll be looking for opportunities to improve on what I already have. So I might take a crappyish snapshot of some stairs today, and then next week try to find prettier or more interesting stairs or try to get them in more interesting light, or find a whole 'nother interpretation of "stairs" altogether where I'm shooting something in nature that reminds me of stairs. Anyway, if you decide to go along you may be surprised at how much time you spend looking for something that fits your idea of "almost pretty" and how much fun you have deciding on how best to photograph it. I hope so!

MONTH-BY-MONTH TOPICS
*NOTE: I will edit this post each month to add the current month's topics. If by some chance there is a limit to how many times I can edit a post and can no longer add to this post, I will re-post this list in post #2 of this thread - the next one down. But hopefully it won't come to that!

JANUARY (picked by MichiTimm)
stairs - morning - window - circle - almost pretty

FEBRUARY (picked by Old Crow)
SOOC - Candy - Ant's Eye View - Ordinary - The Letter "K"

MARCH (picked by cubatahavana)
Red - Yellow - Blue - Black - Green

APRIL (picked by CameraMan)
Tool - Drink - Food - Landscape - Black and White

MAY (picked by EastBayGirl)
Pattern - Aged - Natural - Small - Angles

JUNE (picked by philk54)
Innocence - Magical - Extraordinary - Work - Vacation


JULY (picked by darkslinger)
Stretch - Fresh - Fail - Pathways - Chill


AUGUST (picked by Intheswamp)
Shine - Brick - Pan - Texture - Shadow


SEPTEMBER (picked by Benitoite)
Imprint - Address - Invention - String - Dusk

OCTOBER (picked by MichiTimm)
Vintage - Minimalist - Collection - Numbers - Animal

NOVEMBER (picked by Old Crow)
Old/Abandoned/Decaying - Around Town - Hands - Something Blue - Naturally B&W

DECEMBER (picked by EastBayGirl)
Lights - Seasonal - Together - Special - Golden

So.... is anyone thinking of joining me in this or am I on my own here?

My progress is pretty good so far. I have at least one of each topic, and several of most. Nothing to write home about, but a couple are pretty cool - and I have twenty days or so to take ones I like better. More importantly, I've been using my cameras quite a bit this month.

Hi Michi,

If you are still wanting to do this I'll sign on as a late starter. Not sure about your last topic though. It may be a tough one for me.

When do you propose we post our pictures?

Cheers,
OC

Great!
I'm definitely still doing it, and would love the company.

If one topic doesn't work for you, just skip it. Heck, if you want to just concentrate on one topic and post five photos of that I say go for it. Do whatever works for you and gets you shooting more. I've been treating "almost pretty" as "so ugly it's almost pretty" and just looking for ugly-ish things to photograph. But yeah, feel free to skip any that don't do anything for you.

No etched-in-stone rules about when to post either. I'll probably wait until a couple days before the end of the month, or a couple days after the start of the new one. I'd hate to post my pics on the 25th and then take a perfect "window" photo the next day, you know? But to each his own.

Same thing with posting the list for February. I'll put something up a couple days before the end of the month so anyone who wants to participate can start thinking of ideas. Or if anyone else wants to volunteer to pick five topics for February, have at it.

I too may try this. Been busy with work and the weather hasn't been all that great either. I've been toying with playing with film again too so maybe I'll add a different ambiance to this thread.

CameraMan wrote in post #17391666
I too may try this. Been busy with work and the weather hasn't been all that great either. I've been toying with playing with film again too so maybe I'll add a different ambiance to this thread.

The more the merrier! And if time or anything's an issue, feel free to just do what you can. One or two of the topics is better than none, right?

P.S. You might not be the only one putting up film shots -- I've been on a little bit of a film binge myself. As a matter of fact, in another thread you gave me some advice on what to look for when inspecting an AE-1. So I wouldn't be shocked if a couple of mine are film shots.

" I've been treating "almost pretty" as "so ugly it's almost pretty" and just looking for ugly-ish things to photograph."

This is where the right side of my brain is leading me also.

OldCrow wrote in post #17393047
" I've been treating "almost pretty" as "so ugly it's almost pretty" and just looking for ugly-ish things to photograph."

This is where the right side of my brain is leading me also.

Same here. I found something that probably used to be 'pretty' but is now ugly.

I like this idea. I might be to late for this month but look forward to next!

I might have some issues with morning. When I get up it's WAY too dark for photos before I head out for work.

wmccree wrote in post #17393347
I like this idea. I might be to late for this month but look forward to next!

You're not too late for this month! Heck, you still have ten days -- that's plenty of time to get one or two anyway. Go for it.

CameraMan wrote in post #17393364
I might have some issues with morning. When I get up it's WAY too dark for photos before I head out for work.

You could always take an indoor photo of something that represents morning -- like a cup of coffee or something. Or skip it and post two of something else.

So, when do we post these? The week before the end of the month? How is the next person selected? Do you select that person? Is there a vote? This is a cool idea but it needs a little more information to complete I think.

Can't wait to see what we all come up with.

CameraMan wrote in post #17395426
So, when do we post these? The week before the end of the month? How is the next person selected? Do you select that person? Is there a vote? This is a cool idea but it needs a little more information to complete I think.

Can't wait to see what we all come up with.

The only other time I participated in one of these it was all kept pretty informal and casual and I think it worked very well. So as far as I'm concerned we don't really need a ton of strict rules. The intent is just to give us stuff to shoot on those days when we don't really have anything else in mind but want to shoot something. Hopefully, it'll get us out more and maybe get us looking at some things we ordinarily wouldn't.

If you want to post the photos the last week of the month, that's fine. I'll probably wait until the month is actually over, and post mine the first week of February. But since it isn't really intended to be a winner/loser type contest I don't think it really matters -- it's not like you'll be "disqualified" if you post them at the wrong time.

I would love it if other people volunteered to select the topics for a month. I find it a lot more fun when I'm looking for topics picked by someone else.

So who wants to volunteer for February? All you gotta do is pick 5 topics and let us know what they are on or before February 1.

How about I make a list here and keep it updated so we can see who has picked which month and who's coming up:

JANUARY: MichiTimm
FEBRUARY: OldCrow
MARCH: cubatahavana
APRIL: CameraMan
MAY: EastBayGirl
JUNE: philk54
JULY: darkslinger
AUGUST: InTheSwamp
SEPTEMBER: Benitoite
OCTOBER: MichiTimm
NOVEMBER: OldCrow
DECEMBER:

I'll volunteer for Feb.

OldCrow wrote in post #17396030
I'll volunteer for Feb.

Cool. I penciled you in on the list.
Feel free to post the topics a few days before the end of the month if you'd like - that would give us a little time to think about what we want to do, maybe even discuss it. Also, I'm not married to 5 -- I think the rules limit us to 8 photos per post (I could be wrong about that though - someone please correct me if I am) so feel free to pick any number up to 8. I just went with 5 because it felt right to me.