Summer's Coming . . .an announcement

Summer's on its way, and that means it will soon be time for the Second Annual Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt!  Last summer, I hosted a photography scavenger hunt, in which people hunted for this list of items.  It was such a success that I plan to do another one.  On June 20 (the first day of summer), I will post a list of 21 items which you will need to search out and photograph by September 21.  Participants are encouraged to periodically post their finds on their blog, but you don't need a blog to participate.  On September 21, I will survey the participants and choose a winner, based on the number of items found.  If more than one person finds all the items, a random draw will determine the winner.  I will also draw a random winner from all the participants.  Winners will receive a photography-related prize (either a photography book or entrance into an online photography class).  
Last year, 23 people participated.  You can check out some of the photographs from last summer in this post.  Did you participate?  Are you planning to participate this year?  Got any questions?

A Last Taste of Summer (Scavenger Hunt Winners)

Thanks for everyone's patience in waiting for the winners of the Summertime Scavenger Hunt. All-in-all, there were 23 people who participated.  Here are some of people's favorites:
Amy's Rain

Sian's graffiti:

Yvonne's Castle:

Helena's Political Protest:

Karen's Someone Sketching:

Deb's Decorated Mailbox (A party inside):

Alison's Self Portrait (because she looks so fabulous!):

Mel's Wooden Bridges:

Jacky's graffiti:

An assortment from Debs (including a museum, cemetery, rooster and building made of glass):

Karen's Rain:

Jo's Stitched Together Forest:

The Mann Castle:

Ginger's montage (including her favorite, the flag):

Fiona's Building made of Metal:

Cindy's Hand Lettered Sign Giving Directions:

Irene's roadside memorial:

Miriam's fair (her whole flicker stream, here, is worth checking out):

Mary's Unicycle:

And, finally, my pirate:

Thank you to everyone who participated! I was thrilled by the response, and I will definitely do another one in January (but shorter and smaller) and a similar one next summer.
Now, on to the winners:
The Overachiever Category Prize goes to Mel! I'll be gifting her a Shimelle class.
The Snapshot/Team Category Winner is The Mann Family! They got all 21 pictures.  I'll be sending her a gift card to get her photos developed and an album in which to put them.
There were three people in the photography category who got all 21 items: Yvonne; Jo and Marian.  Alison found 20 and several people came in at 19.  After a random draw from the top 3, the winner is:  Yvonne!  I'll be sending her a gift card to choose her favorite photo and have it enlarged onto an 8x8 "standout" from MPIX. 
Finally, I put everyone else's name into a hat (Amy; Helena; Jo; Sian; Karen; Deb; Alison; Jacky; Ginger; Stacey; Fiona; Irene; Mariana; Laurie; Debs; Cindy; Mary B; and Karen) and pulled a random winner.  The lucky girl is Stacey! I'll send you a gift certificate for some large format prints as well.
Winners, please email me at rinda1961@yahoo.com, so that I have your correct email address. Also, please include your mailing address. Thanks again to everyone for playing along!

Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt: The End

It was a beautiful day in San Francisco:

I followed some bees:

Until I found their hive:

Which meant that I have completed the summertime photography scavenger hunt!  All 21 items!  What about you?  Did you play along? How many did you find?
If you played along this summer, please add a comment below.  Let me know how many you found and what category you competed in (photography only, snapshot- photograph with team member, or overachiever - both categories).  If you played along at all, please leave a comment even if you didn't find all (or even most) of the items, as I'll be drawing a random winner from all contestants.  In addition, there will be at least one winner in each of the other categories. The winner will be the person who found and photographed the most items on the list.  In the case of a tie, I'll flip a coin.  Also, if you get a chance, please leave a link to your favorite photograph from the scavenger hunt list (or email me your favorite, if you don't have a blog).  I'll create and post a list, so everyone can take a look. 
I think that's it! I'll leave this post up all weekend, so you have time to finish up your posting and leave me a comment.  If you have any questions, email me at rinda1961@yahoo.com
And a huge thanks to everyone for making this such a success!

Finishing the Summertime Photo Scavenger Hunt

Summer is officially over in one week, and the start of autumn will also signal the end of the Summertime Photo Scavenger Hunt. I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed finding items on the list and how thrilled I have been to see so many people participating!
Here are instructions for finishing up.  If you would like to be considered for fabulous prizes, this is what you need to do.  On Friday, Sept. 23, I will put up a post asking you to tell me:
1. that you participated;
2. the category in which you participated (photography, snapshots with team member, or overachiever/both); and
3. the number of items which you found.
I will leave the post up all weekend. If you have not emailed me your photographs, please don't do it until I ask you to (as I'm trying to figure out the best way to handle them). If you have posted your photographs to your blog or placed them in a an online album, please do let me know where they are located. On Monday morning, California time, I will sort through the responses and figure out who the likely contenders are for the win and contact them to verify the number of their entries. 
Prizes, prizes, prizes! A wonderful prize will be awarded to the person (or team) in each category who has found and photographed the most items on the list. If there is a tie, I will draw a random winner.  In addition, I will draw a random prize from all participants, so please respond to the concluding post, even if you haven't found all the items on the list.
Questions? Let me know. 
Also, if you happen to know of a bee hive in my vicinity, please let me know!

Deb & Carrie Visit plus Summer Photography Scavenger Hunt

Today I had the great good fortune to spend the day with Deb of the Paper Turtle blog and her daughter Carrie from Rosalind Revival.  

We started the day with a stop by a decorated mailbox, featuring turtles of course!  

We visited my studio and a very fun shop called "Half to Have It," which has all manners of fun and funky stuff.

After a yummy lunch, we strolled around on Main Street and visited a nursery. Carrie wanted to see the ocean, and Deb wanted to take a picture of a forest, so we headed over to the "Enchanted Forest" above the Fitzegerald Marine Reserve in Moss Beach, Ca.

Deb and Carrie are a very special mother-daughter pair, and I loved spending the day with them! They have such a strong, loving and easy bond between them:

And, believe it or not, as we were stepping out of the car at the parking lot for the Marine Reserve, Deb turned to me and said "Oh my gosh, Rinda, look!  It's a unicycle!"

We about fell over each other grabbing our cameras and going to ask this nice gentlemen from Cambridge, England if we could take his picture.  How's that for an unbelievable ending to a truly fantastic day?!?

Yo Ho Ho! My Vacation in Scavenger Hunt Photographs

I just returned from a week's vacation in the Pacific Northwest, and I found lots of items for the Summer Photograph Scavenger Hunt. We started in Seattle, Washington. We stayed downtown across the street from the library (a building made of glass):

We also visited the famous Pike Place Market, where I found a sketch artist at work (drawing outside):

After a few days, we boarded a ferry to go to the San Juan Islands where we camped. We saw lots of forests:

We had a campfire every night, which was very nice after hiking and kayaking:

Of course, my best capture was a real pirate! I spied the buccaneer at the top of today's post while waiting for the ferry to take us back to the mainland.  He walked off the ferry, and I asked him if I could take his picture.  I'll post a few more pictures of our adventure later this week, but I wanted to get these scavenger hunt finds up. It makes me so happy to see so many scavenger hunt posts in blogland! Remember, there's still a month left. I only have three items left to find - the unicycle and bee hive will be the hard ones. Luckily, I know where lots of decorated mailboxes are located. How many items do you have left to find?

Cotswolds Vacation Highlights

Although we spent the least amount of time in the Cotswolds during our recent vacation, I took three times as many pictures there as any place else!  In an attempt not to bore you too much, I've tried to be selective. If you want more, come back tomorrow when my "Ten on the  Tenth" post will feature more Cotswold beauty AND a blog give-away.

In the Cotswolds, we stayed in Chipping Campden, a beautiful little town with quaint scenery, wonderful pubs and some decent restaurants.

The highlight of the Cotswolds was hiking about along the various trails.  Some were well marked thoroughfares; others required us to follow cryptic signs and climb over fences:

Along the way, we found sheep and flowers and wheat:

Our five mile hike (roundtrip) to Hidcote Gardens ended up being over seven miles because we got lost, but we did find some beautiful sites there

The next day we took a car ride over to Sudley Castle, where we found beautiful gardens and grounds and even a wooden bridge (for the scavenger hunt):

I could go on forever with pictures like these (but I won't - LOL!). Suffice it to say, we enjoyed our time wandering around the Cotswolds - a place so quaint and beautiful that Paul said "You expect to see Miss Marple walking out of a house at any minute."

Got any favorites in today's post?