DSLR Photography Forum

Sy Parrish: According to The Oxford English Dictionary, the word "snapshot" was originally a hunting term.
- Mark Romanek, "One Hour Photo"

Assignment #43 comes from Rene, who suggested a Scavenger Hunt. He writes:

Pick twelve different items or situations and you must go find, stage, whatever it takes to come up with five images, one each of a different item or situation listed. The items/situations should be prominently evident in the image and the image must be taken after the start of the challenge. The entrant is encouraged to be creative so as to add interest, for instance a shoe is the item.... don't just take a picture of a shoe you are encouraged to add interest, creativity to your image, maybe a dog chewing up a shoe??? Your imagination is unlimited.

Wind
Tools
Food
Birds
Electric Images
Flowers
Landscape
Single Color
"What?"
The Passage of Time
Jeans
Money

In the interest of fair play, let's use new images only, please.

And I'm always interested in getting new ideas for assignments -- I can't promise I'll use them, but I'd love to hear them.

Hey this should be awesome Matthew... we've had a couple of scavenger hunts in the past and they've been fun!

Hi Matthew - sounds like a lot of fun, however what happened to the assignment 'Energy' only about 3 submissions and no comments, appears to have sunk without trace
Seems to me only about 8-10 people actively making comments on photographs submitted to the forum and some who only submit and never comment on other peoples work. Maybe we can have a poll at the end of the assignment for the best shot

Sometimes assignments hit a spark, and produce results that I would never have expected -- the Product assignment comes to mind. Other times... well, sometimes the spark just isn't there. Energy seems to be the latter. Perhaps someone will rediscover it in the future.

I do have a couple of photos for the scavenger hunt, but I won't have time to get them off of the camera for another night or two. I'm interested in seeing what else people come up with, too.

Here are a few from last week:

The Passage of Time: an abandoned truck slowly decaying.



Tools: promotional material from other photographers, courtesy of my business class.



"What?": classmates from my photography class, when being told to look at the front element of my lens to see how much flare-inducing light was hitting it during a studio portrait lesson.



...more to come, just as soon as I take them!

Excellent photos on their own, and they hit the targets well, Matthew.

I got my food on Friday, birds on Saturday, and my wind photo a few hours ago.

Food:


please click on it to enlarge


Birds:


please click to enlarge


Wind:

Good shots -- I've been following your bird saga, but the "food" image was a surprise. Effective and unexpected. The "wind" one is effective, as well. Wind is probably the least-captured common weather condition, and it's really hard to show.

(Bitter cold is also hard to show, which is why I have so few new photos these days.)

Thanks.
Here's a tip for wind that I've had success with:
Tripod
Lowest iso your camera has
Smallest aperture
Add neutral density filters (and a polarizer too--you're looking for a lot of filtration)

This will let you use a long shutter speed in daylight, so a tree or tall grasses blowing around will look like it is, while tree trunks and other stationary objects will remain sharp.

Awesome "the Birds" photo, Keith!

Thanks, Toad. We have a strange situation where northern birds fly south for the winter and decide that our nearest main road is far enough. Every winter a few hundred thousand (maybe millions) infest my neighborhood. Luckily, they don't venture closer than a half mile from my house so I'm not bothered until I go somewhere.
Noisy and poopy and kind of spooky.


Looking at my sycamore tree today, the bark is certainly one color: gray.

Combined with late afternoon's golden light and a low angle (I was shooting straight up the tree with the camera resting on the trunk) the bland grayness was transformed into something more interesting, I hope.

One Color:

click to enlarge, please

I like my jeans warm, fresh from the dryer.

click to enlarge, please

Wind: Following Keith's example.



Wind: Flags on the side of an office building.



Landscape: As close to nature as I get.



Money: A trade show.

Landscape or should it be seascape?


Money - fake


What?


Windpower

Thanks Matt for the assignment,

All inspiring and creative pictures....

Here is my addition.

Landscape:




The Passage of Time:




Wind:




Birds:




Wood:

WOW! I like the innovation here, the best so far of all the scavenger hunts I've witnessed. I haven't been able to get out but I hope to soon so I can also participate.

Great shots, everyone -- and Pat, I really like your "What?" shot. That's exactly what I was thinking when I looked at it... and I keep going back to it.

So far, nobody has done Electric Images or Flowers. I wonder if it's possible to combine them?

And I have another idea for The Passage of Time, but ironically, I haven't had time to shoot it.

Single color:







I have this picture that caught my eye because of the color and funny shape. I tried to arrange my setup to take the picture again as this one was taken before the assignment was opened, but it was not possible. I have lots of work at the moment, and Lucky has torn up the carton boxes, It would be lovely if you could consider my picture as if I had taken it today.

Food of sorts.


Pancake Tuesday

Matthew - I love that ultrawide landscape shot. You have used the lens to very good effect.

I think you could also claim "The Passage of Time" and "What???" for that one, too.

What! Passage of time? You have my humour but I thought it a bit cheeky.

I keep seeing 'Ghostbusters' in the background.