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What do you do?

What are Photo Scavenger Hunts? Well, this is a slight adjustment of the traditional scavenger hunt (otherwise known as a Treasure Trail). With a standard hunt, you start with one clue and this clue will point to where the next clue is hidden. Sometimes this is with directions and sometimes it is a riddle that points at a set area/object. When you find this area/object, you find the second card (card 2) and card 2 points to where card 3 will be hidden. This simple process is then repeated until the last card points to where the treasure is hidden.

With a photo scavenger hunt, the challenge is to get photos of all these objects/places hinted at by the clues. The clues can also be directions or riddles, but normally can be completed in any order, instead of leading the participants along a trail of cards. The race is over when one person/team manages to get pictures of all the objects and return to the start area. With mobile phones, it has now become easier to manage these events over larger areas, adding even more excitement (and exercise) to the day. Of course, modern mobiles also normally have a camera! For really large areas, GPS guidance can also prove useful.

Fun ways to play

There are many great twists to holding a scavenger hunt. Think about adding time limits, dares (not life threatening challenges, just stuff that will make people a little nervous to do), photo twists, places etc.

If you don’t have the time to create clues, you can literally write a list of things to find, such as a ‘blue light’, or photo challenges. You can also buy and download photo scavenger hunt clues online. However, to make you hunt list more interesting, you can add random little extras to it, whether you bought it or painstakingly made it yourself. By random extras, I mean some very interesting photo challenges, such as:

Take a photo of you kissing a stranger on the nose in the high street.

Take a photo of you and a yellow bucket while completing one of the challenges.

Take a photo of your foot on something alive and not human (without causing harm).

When creating these, think ‘the stranger the better’ as it all adds a real challenge and makes for a fun day.

Once you have all your clues, you should decide on a time limit. Some people like to have the whole day and just the first team to finish wins, but setting a time limit adds to the excitement. Why, because the pressure is on and anyone could be winning (remember, you are all chasing the clues randomly, so no one knows who is ahead!).

Scavenger hunts make a great day out for the family, friends, neighbors or pretty much anyone you are on speaking terms with. Photo scavenger hunts are easier to organize than traditional scavenger hunts though, and can cover a huge area with little preparation. So, next time you are stuck for something to do, consider a photo scavenger hunt for a day of exploration and adventure.