How does the Photography Scavenger Hunt Work?

You’ve come to the right place. First and foremost, this is all for FUN (and a bit of glory). We are a group of photographers who believe in supporting each other’s growth, experimentation and expanding our comfort zones. We do have a few rules, just to keep things focused and organized:

How it Works

1. You sign up for the hunt – there are roughly 4 per year. Please subscribe to be notified of the next round.

2. You’ll be invited to a private community where the List and other Round Specific details will be revealed. The general rules are listed below.

3. Go out and find and/or create photographs that relate to items on the List. You can be literal, figurative, whimsical, the only limit is your imagination.

4. Upload your photos by the due date.

5. The photos will be sent to judges.

6. After judging, the reveal albums will be released, followed by category winners, judges individual winners and finally the Overall Winner.

Any round specific Rules or Special twist will be posted in the private community.

 

Hunt Rules

1. Most rounds have 10 words. But no matter how many words there are, you are NOT required to do all 10. If you only do one, that’s perfectly fine! We all get busy and pulled in all sorts of directions. The important part is to PARTICIPATE. Join our private community and get inspired!

2. The actual List of words is like Fight Club. It is not to be spoken of with people not in the Hunt – this is to prevent gate crashers at the end.

3. This is a place for positivism. No inappropriate behavior will be tolerated. Period.

4. Feel free to use any editing tools you wish.

5. All photos must be taken after the announcement of The List.

6. Please do not share your photos publicly, or within the Community until after we’ve publicly revealed the albums.

7. NO Watermarks.

8. Each category’s photo must by unique. For example if “blue” and “box” were each words, you cannot take a photo of a blue box and submit to each category.

9. You may use yourself as a model.

10. Your photos will be posted in the group albums on our website, and the albums shared around social media and email. It is up to YOU to ensure you have the proper releases when using photos of people, buildings or other inanimate objects.

Judging & Scoring

We have a panel of 4 judges for each round. One judge is the previous round’s winner, one Judge is Robin Griggs Wood, a talented mentor and instructor. The other 2 judges rotate each round. Each judge selects a 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 5 Honorable Mentions which are awarded points:

1st = 3 points

2nd = 2 points

3rrd = 1 point

HM – 0.5 points.

Each judge’s choices are fed into a magical spreadsheet created by Dream Team member Alan Bland. Thank you soooo much Alan! This spreadsheet is what calculates the each judge’s individual winner and then the Overall Round winner.

What criteria do the judges use?

The only criteria they are supplied with is the word the album characterizes. The judges are free to use their experience and judgement in art, photography and life to choose their winners. Art is subjective of course, which is why some albums have different winners picked by each judge! Other albums are more unanimous.

Gear does not matter. We have had winners who use cell phones, we have had winners with high end equipment. It’s what you do with the tools at hand that matter.

You can be literal, you can be imaginative.  A strong story and composition is what matters most.