If you’ve been following the Scavenger Hunt at all, you’d notice that 1) I haven’t posted any photos this week and 2) Barely anyone has been posting for the last few weeks.

I’ve decided to change the format of the Hunt from three a week — which seems awfully difficult for almost all the participants — to three a month. If you can’t — or don’t want to — take three photos a month, you shouldn’t be in the group and you shouldn’t have bought a fancy camera to begin with.

We’ll do this for the next few months to see whether it should be changed, or whether it’s worth bothering with the Scavenger Hunt group at all. I have put roughly an hour in a week (not including taking the photos, processing them and uploading them) to keep the group running, but in recent weeks the participation has been so low it’s not been worth it.

Since Dad made the effort to take three photos this week, I’ll talk about them (instead of mine). The Architecture shot is nothing to write home about. The Ride shot shot I like, and wonder how you got such a short depth of field — did you buy some sort of camera attachment? The Letters shot though, I really like. I think in regards to the placement of the blocks the ‘R’ should have been a bit more to the right, but otherwise, I like everything else about it. Well done.

Now, I’m not going to bother posting any topics for the remainder of this month, I’m going to use the three already posted.

So, the three topics for April are:

• Letters
• Ride
• Architecture

Enjoy (and if you aren’t participating, shame on you).

Oh dear. I’m not sure what happened this week. Five photos from two people. Tsk tsk, what a poor turnout! There will be no “picks” from me this week since there’s really no competition.

My bridge shot turned out alright, though a little blurry. The bridge and point of view are interesting, but my positioning was not that great. Just an average shot, I’d say.

Jump was a fun topic to do, but my legs hated me for it the next day (I climbed up and jumped down those stairs onto concrete for a good half hour). The sense of movement are interesting but in the end I gave up trying to get a “perfect” shot because my feet hurt!

The shot I took for framing was not intended as a “framing” shot, and it didn’t really turn out to be a proper one either. I quite like it, even though it’s not particularly fantastic, because it gives a view of before entering a bustling, busy, excited stadium so shows off anticipation. Plus, I never crop shots square so it was fun to do.

Socrates Smith’s framing shot is a much better example, and I quite like the shot. It’s a bit of a pity that the flash went off which makes the tower difficult to see, but I know how hard it is to do a night shot with an IXUS 55 and no tripod.

We’re into the eighteenth week now, and the topics are:

• Letters (suggested by innercreation)
• Ride
• Architecture

I really hope that people put in a bit of effort this week; it really doesn’t take that long to take a photo and upload it. I know a lot of people say that “don’t have time”, but to be honest, if you really wanted to do it, you’d make the time.

Ten photos added this week, from four different members. There were a few varied shots this week and participation seems to be going strong — it’s just not always the same people week-to-week!

My sign shot turned out a bit more bland than I had envisaged. I think the grass in the foreground works alright but I had trouble with where to actually fit the sign in the background. I had a few other ideas but couldn’t find signs in a suitable spot. This was actually the first topic I thought up for the group!

The play topic was a tougher topic than it initially seemed. I expected to see shots of people holding guitars, or sports teams. I am happy with the my shot, though it’s not “excellent”, just “good”. I’m not sure how it could be improved

On to my motion shot now, and these sorts of shots are quite difficult without a tripod. I’ve managed to capture the runner’s number and lower torso in good focus but I would have liked to see the upper body and head in sharp focus too. Overall I’m pretty happy with it, though. The effect works well.

My picks are:

• Sign: Doggy Don’t by mrdehoot
  Wins by default. It’s definitely a shot of a sign, but it could have been a lot better.

• Play: Play by Socrates Smith
  Not sure why, but I quite like this shot. I think it might be because of the low angle and the muted colours.
• Motion: InMotion by theblueboy
  Great shot! I like the colours, angle and the idea presented. Unfortunately, the left-most swing is moving and there’s a little bit too much noise due to the high ISO speed. I think I would have preferred the red line to be on the closer swing, but I like it anyway!

We’re into the seventeenth week now, and the topics, as chosen are:

• Bridge [2 votes]
• Jump [1 vote]
• Framing [2 votes]

Please note that I chose Jump over the other voted-for Ride for two reasons. One: The coin came up tails twice in a row (best 2/3) and; Two: I was able to think up more ideas for Jump photos. Dark was not valid as it was chosen as well as Framing by one voter.

Well, we’re fifteen weeks in now and participation is about the same this week as last week. I think it’s one down, which is not too bad since one person left the group and the other was kicked due to never commenting or participating.

Pretty happy overall with my pics this week. My Black photo came out quite well but I found it surprisingly difficult to actually take a detailed photo of such a dark subject — it all came down to the poor lighting; and I was unable to use the flash because of the extension tubes poking out. Quite a good macro in the end, I think.

My Numbers shot was inspired by our recent poker game, and I’m pretty pleased with the results. The shot conveys the feeling of trying to hide your cards while playing Texas Hold’em. Probably my second-best of the week.

Although the Spin photo is a great technical accomplishment, the photo is pretty boring. It took about 30 minutes to get this shot, and it’s not impressive at all. The coin was frozen in time from the flash, and the “ghosting” that goes to the upper-left of the shot is actually where the coin went after the flash went off. It looks fake but isn’t. Still unexciting.

My picks:

• Black: Chip by stardust96
  This and the Black Knight photo by mrdehoot were both pretty good, but I think the depth of field is great on Chip. I didn’t initially like the thing in the background but I think it really helps — it would be great if it were a deck of cards or something else but it’s good as-is.
• Numbers: Numbers by stardust96
  I’ll be blunt, I don’t think the numbers photos were that good, so I chose this one because it’s the one I dislike least. It is 42 though, so let’s use that as my excuse.
• Spin: Spinning Top by mrdehoot
  I really liked Poi #2 as well but I think Spinning Top is a better photo compositionally. It might not be as exciting as it doesn’t have the flashy colours of Poi #2 but I still think it’s the better shot — they’re both more interesting than mine, anyway.

So, we’re up to the sixteenth week now. Topics for the next week are:

• Sign [2 votes]
• Play [0 votes!] (suggested by stardust96)
• Motion [1 vote]

Ever since the inappropriately-named Scavenger Hunt began, the emphasis has been on quality and I think that most of the regular participants have been growing artistically. I personally think I have; one of the best ways to improve at photography is to take a lot of photos, and fairly critique them yourself and the group’s been good for me.

Another week, another eleven photos to add to the pool. Our theoretical maximum is thirty-six in any given week with our twelve members, but I don’t think we’ve even hit half that in the fourteen weeks the group’s been around.

My tear photo was actually a lot more difficult to get than I initially thought. I wanted to get some paper being ripped with a nice motion blur, and though there’s some blur on this photo, it doesn’t really work. It still came out “just OK” though in the end.

The photo I took for emotion was unplanned and I don’t really think it came out very well. I tried to “black and white” it to make it more impressive but that didn’t really work either. Oh well, maybe next time. It was a very tough topic. And I don’ t think I look sad, do I?

I am quite impressed with my symmetry photo. It’s not totally symmetrical but it’s close; the main veins of the leaf are what to look for if you can’t see what I was trying to do. I like the outcome in any case.

This week, I liked:

• Tear: Tearing off the days by mrdehoot
  I think the idea here is better than in my tearing photo. Perhaps a slightly tighter cropping may have improved it — we don’t need to see the whole calendar.

• Emotion: Happiness by innercreation
  Wins by default, the subject is cute but the photo isn’t that exciting. Nice colours.
• Symmetry: Go to bread by stardust96
  Since the only other symmetry photo was doctored I choose this one. I like it better anyway; the colour is great and the lines draw the eye well.

We’re into the fifteenth week now, and the topics, as chosen are:

• Black [1 vote]
• Numbers [2 votes] (suggested by innercreation)
• Spin [2 votes]

C’mon, we can get eighteen shots this week, can’t we? With the possible exception of Spin those topics ought to be easy

Things were looking particularly bleak up until “Scavenger Hunt Tuesday” when most of the photos rolled in. One participant had maxxed out their flickr account usage and wasn’t able to upload it in time, but it will still be included as it has been made available on the web.

Of my photos, I think my pink photo is by far the best of my three this week. The other two were a little rushed whereas with this one I took my time. I really like the colours and the angle on this one, and the depth of field is great. I’m pretty impressed with the results.

My shadow photo looks — to me — like a bird, but it seems like others can’t even tell what it’s meant to be. A bit of a disappointing photo, really; it was a hard topic, though.

Lastly, my lock photo was done with three extension tubes totalling 68mm, and a 50mm lens. I’ve no idea what the ratio is but it turned tiny little padlocks into huge pictures. This one was not cropped. It came out quite well but isn’t really exciting.

My picks:

• Pink: Pretty flower by stardust96
  It’s interesting that the subject of this shot looks so fake, since I know first-hand that it’s not. I suspect it was because of the flash.
• Lock: Lock by mrdehoot
  The framing could have been a bit more exciting but I like the subject and the colours.
• Shadow: Shadow me by innercreation
  A tough topic, and the photos proved it. I don’t think any of the three efforts were particularly good but since this one’s different to the other two, I chose it.

The topics for the next week are:

• Tear [2 votes]
• Emotion [1 vote] (suggested by theblueboy)
• Symmetry [1 vote]

Obviously there’s not much interest in choosing your own topics. Suggest better topics, pick the ones you want to see! Look what happened this week, no one was interested and the chosen topics reflect that. Or, would people rather to be told what topics to do?

More photos this week than last week’s effort, but from fewer people so, as usual, one thing slightly improves but others degrade. At least there is a reasonable amount of activity still; even if most of it occurs in the last two days!

My soft photo was the result of not being able to think of a good or interesting shot for the topic. The photo is interesting with the way that the layers of paper are shown, but not particularly exciting.

The idea I came up with for my fire photo was a good one, and the results were alright, but not excellent. It took about ten attempts but I finally managed to capture the lighter as it burned off the excess gas when it initially lit.

Lastly, my Dutch camera angle shot is of a pretty dull subject. That said, I like the way that the path and house’s roof interact with one another to draw the eye around the scene.

My pics for this week are:

• Soft: Soft by jestavalon
  Probably the most interesting “soft” shot and the one that portrays the topic best to me. Not a bad shot, either.
• Fire: Fire & Ice by neofitou
  Easily the best “fire” shot. I would have liked to see more detail in the match and the ice, though.
• Dutch Camera Angle: DCA by mrdehoot
  The most exciting shot of the lot, as the topics for most were pretty ordinary.

After some late voting, the topics for this week are:

• Pink [2 votes]
• Lock [2 votes]
• Shadow(s) [2 votes] (suggested by mrdehoot)

Let’s get shooting!