The End of the Summertime Photo Scavenger Hunt

I almost did miss it - the final post for Rinda's Summertime Photo Scavenger Hunt! Hard to believe, especially since I only had four pictures left for it. So let's go ahead, shall we?

#9 A photo with someone or something that is clearly out of place or doesn't belong

That would be trash in nature for me. It simply doesn't belong, and it makes me angry whenever I see it. When I walk around my lake, I always find trash even though there are so many trash bins that everybody can easily deposit of any trash there. I have started to document the trash with my camera, and I have the feeling there is a future post in the making.

#15 A fire truck or police car

When I first read that I thought "that is easy". You know what? It was the last thing I took a picture of. Whenever I saw a police car I either didn't have a camera with me or it wasn't appropriate. So in the end I had to rely on Kaefer and her toy cars that luckily she still keeps. All the German police car you can see in this picture - and please note that there is also a horse trailer as well as a helicopter - are made by SIKU which is the biggest toy car manufacturer in Germany and is based in my hometown. I practically grew up with these toys (I had some myself) and for many of us working at SIKU was one of the first summer jobs we got. These are truly high quality toy cars and as good as undestroyable.

#17 Candle(s)

A visit to IKEA was all I needed for this photo.

#21 A photograph of you with an artistic tool or craft supply

Well, that had to be my camera!

With these four photos, I have found all 21 items - I wouldn't have thought that I ended up with that! It was fun to participate and find the items in the most unexpected places, like the dinosaur on Vancouver Island. Thank you, Rinda, for organizing this and I look forward to next year's summer scavenger hunt!

Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt Part 2

Over the past month - July - I was busy for Rinda's 2013 Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt. These are the pictures I took for part 2 - most of them during the two weeks I spent in British Columbia.

#1 Open air market

While in Summerland in the Okanagan Valley my aunt and I went to the farmers market there. It was an interesting kind of farmers market - only a few booths that sold fruits and veggies whereas the rest were artists, soap makers, cosmetics. Perhaps it's because there are so many road-side fruit stands in that area that people don't go to the farmers market to shop their own bounty. We actually went there because of the breadmobile that offered hearty whole grain bread. Even the staff spoke German!

#3 City Hall, Capitol or other similar civic building

Our City Hall is really nothing to look at, and I'm almost never there. So I opted for this government building in Vancouver - I hope that this is okay. One of the many fabulous buildings that use much glass and simply look stunning. I took this picture out of the car, I didn't even roll down the window because I had to be quick (the traffic light was changing) - you can see my camera in the photo as well.

#4 Airplane

Well, it's a seaplane. There are so many of them in Vancouver, you can watch them right from the waterfront. There is regular seaplane transportation between Vancouver and all the little islands.

#5 A sunset

The sun sets pretty late along the Sunshine Coast at this time of year. It's always stunning to witness it when the colors are reflected in the quiet waters of the straits. This is at Mermaid Cove at Saltery Bay - very close to our campground. We had "fled" down to the water to prepare our dinner here since there were too many annoying mosquitoes at our campsite. Here, at the water, there weren't hardly any, but bear warnings instead. Apparently the bear's "lust" for mermaids was very low this evening.

#6 Someone or something taking a nap

I could have taken self-portraits since I love to take naps... and I'm not alone in this! These three puppies liked each other's company while napping, and I hope they had sweet dreams. These are three of my friend's puppies that I showed you here.

#8 A tower

There really is no tower around where I live, you have to go down to the city (= San Francisco) for that. Vancouver, however, has the Harbour Centre which I think can easily count as a tower.

#11 An animal in a zoo, aquarium, nature preserve, etc

This is "etc" - in the wilderness. Sorry for the bad photo - s/he was suddenly standing there at the side of this 63 km long gravel road and ready to run into the bushes, so I had to react quickly. This photo was shot through the windshield of our already very dirty car - no, I did NOT get out to get a better shot of the bear!

#12 A cloud in the shape of something (please specify what you see)

When I saw this cloud from one of the ferries we took I thought it looks like an elephant who is jumping for joy. Admittedly an elephant with a very short trunk (in the upper right hand corner) and his hind legs are somewhere hiding... but still!

#13 A fence

Well, yeah, you know how much I like to take photos of fences. That was a no-brainer for me. This weathered fence stood along the main road through Gibsons on the Sunshine Coast.

# 14 A stained glass object or a mosaic

I had to improvise with this one. But when I looked at all the reflections in the glass of the tall buildings in Vancouver I could see art - and yes, call it stained glass. I found it very fascinating.

#16 A windmill

These windmills were just a few of hundreds we saw in the otherwise rather uninspiring landscape in Washington State right before you descend to the Columbia River. I love this way off winning electricity - we use a lot of wind powered energy in Germany.

#18 Your local pub/bar, coffee house or tea shop

We don't have a local pub (we drink our wine at home), I seldom go to a coffee house and I don't drink tea. The closest to a "local" we have had is our Jamba Juice. We went there pretty often this summer because the Geek had found some nifty coupons on the Internet which we used over and over again. All of us love their juices (I prefer the "light" version and I always substitute strawberries for raspberries and banana for mango).

#20 A dinosaur

Since I thought it very unlikely that I would meet a dinosaur this summer, I had already taken some pictures of dinosaur toys in shops. Then I came around these guys on the road to Ucluelet on Vancouver Island - two of them were hanging around there. Wow - I first couldn't believe my eyes. I don't really know why they were there - it wasn't a museum or anything like that. However, they fit perfectly the scavenger hunt!

I'm linking up to Rinda's blog where you can see what other people found for the Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt. 

2013 Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt Part 1

For this summer I've joined Rinda's Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt. Rinda has a list of 21 items we should find over the summer, photograph them and then post about them.

My start has been very slow, and I am pretty sure that I can't do all of the 21 items. However, for me it's always important to have FUN while doing things like this, and not put any kind of pressure on myself. So far I have found four of the items.

#2 Theater for performing arts (not a movie theater)

This is the outside of the auditorium at our Junior College where every summer we go to the plays of the Summer Repertory Theater. The plays these students from all over the country put on stage are quite amazing. Yesterday we went to the opening night of "Shrek - The Musical" and we thoroughly enjoyed it. There was so much energy on stage, it was contagious. This was the hottest day of the year so far (102 F), I was taking this picture against the sun which was starting to set behind the building. The sky turned out completely white, so I layered the photo with a texture and then removed the textured from the building, people and tree again.

#7 A sign that is intentionally or unintentionally funny

During one of my walks through our neighborhood I discovered this sign. There are far less cats here than in my old neighborhood. There I always had cats in my backyard (perhaps you remember Geeda and even Ginger), but not so here. Instead, the bird population has exploded, and that is really nice as well.

#10 A bench that is outside

This bench you have already seen in this post, but I had originally photographed it for the scavenger hunt - so here it is. I still love this dad and his daughter on - perhaps their first - fishing outing together.

#19 A fisherman

I could have cheated and taken the same photo as above... OR if not a fisherman, then perhaps fisherGIRLS would work as well. However, my first thought when I saw these girls was "mermaids".

If you want to see what other photographers found, you can go to Rinda's link up post and check it all out.