IFC Finals Entry - All Scavenged Out!
The IFC finals are upon us and the contestants in the Sweet 16 are geared up for battle. For this first round there will be 8 head to head battles. All rounds are single elimination and to the victor shall go the spoils. When I first heard that the first round was going to be a photo contest I thought I had a decent advantage being that I am currently living, working and playing in Yellowstone National Park.
Functional internet speeds are currently NOT a luxury that I am experiencing. Being that I am a floor supervisor at a retail store in the Canyon Village here at Yellowstone I do have access to a work computer with fairly decent internet so on Saturday 6/23 I printed off a copy of the IFC’s First Round Instruction Post to prepare myself for the scavenger hunt. Upon reading the post I let out an audible groan, it’s not a photo CONTEST but rather a photo scavenger hunt, Oy Vey!. Where was I going to find some of these items? A few of them were going to be easy but many of the others were not. On Sunday 6/24/18 I set off to the village known as Fishing Bridge here in Yellowstone to get my 2 propane tanks filled and figured I would capture as many of the items as I could. By the time I returned back to my trailer I only had 4 of the items photographed so I began to dig desperately through some of my 11 year old sons toys, books and video games where I was able to nab another 4. Luckily for me I happen to play guitar AND also have 1 tattoo so I had those covered as well. Alas it was time for me to head to work with 7 items remaining so I put on my sleuth cap and kept an eye out for opportunities to nab some photos of these highly challenging remaining items. By the end of the day on 6/24 I had all but 2 items photographed. On 6/25 I pulled my last 2 hunt items together and now only have to figure out a way to upload them into my post (typical upload time for 1 picture for me is currently 1 hour, uggghhh!). The computer at work you say? Yes, I did mention the computer in my retail shop has decent internet but being the model employee that I am I tend not to utilize work resources for personal interests except in very small doses. My plan at the time of this writing is to upload my post from the town of West Yellowstone (just outside of the park and has great cell service) on my day off.
Here is the list of items that each contestant needed to find and photograph with point values:
Clouds 1 point
Animal 1 point
Pyramid 1 point
Garden 1 point
Plush toy 1 point
Guitar 1 point
Bridge 1 point
Gold coin 2 points
Star 2 points
Tattoo 2 points
Reflection 2 points
Mask 3 points
Rainbow 3 points
Crystal 3 points
Castle 4 points
Wizard hat 4 points
Alien/UFO 5 points
Here are my photos in the order that I took them.
Oh give me a home, where the buffalo roam and the deer and the antelope play. Where seldom is heard a discouraging... OH SHIT! Look at how close that bad boy is.
Fishing Bridge your potholes suck. You're tweaking the alignment in my truck. I go real slow and hope I don't get stuck. When will they fix you, what the fuck!
Reflections of the past aren't always clear but you can't say that about this image here.
I know I could have used the last photo as a double but this scene was pretty damn cool.
Plushies, plushies everywhere, from a unicorn to a cuddly bear and everything in between, look to the right it's all Halloween.
A little GARDEN Warfare anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
Lucky for me I have a young son with video games, they came in real handy for this challenge. It might be hard to see but there's a castle above the note. The 2nd image is a zoomed in shot from the same game Lego Worlds.
These arent just pretty pieces of wood, I can bang out a song or two these thangs. Should a picture of 2 guitars garner 2 points? Hmmmm! Don't let @eaglespirit tell you any different.
This is a tattoo I got to celebrate sobriety. Serenity, Courage and Wisdom!
Definitely not as cool a mask as @apolymask but it will have to do.
The benefit of working in a store with cash registers.
Taste the RAINBOW!
Here's a crystal for your viewing pleasure.
Howdy y'all, there's a new sheriff in town (I even found one with my name on it).
The guy I borrowed this from looked at me funny when I told him I only needed it for about 10 seconds.
And finally, thankfully I did not have too book a flight to Egypt.
So that's it for the photo scavenger hunt. I had a great time finding all of these.
I wish all of my fellow contestants good luck and here's to an exciting finish!
I like the little pyramid of napkins or whatever the rolled up things are. And animal, yep he looked real real close. Good thing he had a tasty patch of grass right there.
Lol, they’re rolled up baseball caps. He was real close but not the closest we’ve been to one of those big ass beasts.
Whoaaaa gold coin! 😁👍 And that reflection pic looks awesome too! You got them all alright. Haha. Seems pretty easy when you look at it but wow it's a good challenge. Hahaha.
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Yeah I thought it was going to be a little easier but it sure was fun.
Awesome work! That lake picture is so cool. Good idea with the rolled tee/hat for the pyramid! Very clever with the skittles as well! Good Luck and I'm glad you were able to upload in time!
Thank you, I had a blast even with the challenge of uploading.
Ahh so you've set up shop in Yellowstone and working there for the summer?
I thought you were on the move the whole time but thats awesome you're hanging around YellowStone for a while!!
Nice work on getting all the item! Better get ready for your tie breaker lol!
Our plan isn't to move around constantly but to stay in some places for fairly lengthy periods of time. After Yellowstone we're going to Sidney Montana to do whats called the Sugar Beet Harvest. This is just 3 solid weeks of manual labor (7 days a week, 12 hours a day) for some decent money. After that a month in Colorado Springs to hang out with my daughter and then we're trying to figure out a winter gig either somewhere in Arizona or Florida. Won't stay in any one place too long but also won't be on the road every day.
Nice work on yours too. I've already heard it's going to be another photo challenge (ugggh!).
That sounds awesome! Would love to try something like that. Would maybe be a little difficult being Canadian though..
Would be cool especially since it's only three weeks!
That's nice though since earlier on you guys were driving so much!
Yup honestly not sure if I will be able to get many of the images lol!
You would be surprised at some of the things you can do even aving Canadian citizenship. Here in Yellowstone about a 3rd or more of the people working here are from other countries on J1 or work visas. The Beet Harvest from everything I've heard is going to kick my ass over those 3 weeks but I'll just man up and take it.
Yeah fair enough! Would be cool to check into that. I’ll youtube this beer harvest sounds pretty intense though!
How do you guys manage to have all these jobs lined up back to back?
Just planned it all out before or are you guys members of some group that helps you out?
We actually had Yellowstone and The Beet Harvest lined up almost a year ago. Now we're hustling to try and find something in Colorado Springs in November and then something for the winter. We're thinking either in FL or AZ. I think the Beet Harvest is gonna kick our asses but it'll be a good experience and decent money.
I just officially went through your entry and it looks like you got them all! Well done. :) Your wizard is a lil questionable might be a witch or a warlock, but it's close enough and two other people hat similar entries that were black witch like looking hats, so it's fine. What a beautiful buffalo! And also the reflection as well. The skittles one made me chuckle! Clever! Oh and nice mask!
Thanks for playing and good luck in the rest of the contest! I know you don't wanna do another scavenger hunt. But.. I'm not sure what else to do. So.. I have an idea to make it less photos.. But we'll see how it goes. Anyways.. Bummer it's been a problem uploading. Peace and thanks for the great entry!
I do get one day a week where I'm getting really good internet and I learned this time around to ensure I have my photos resized and saved before I go into town.
hey @apolymask i dont see the ifc in the first and second photo, just sayin! bwwhahahaah
the pyramid ... comon mannnn!! hehe
w/e the judge says @jbreheny but i dunno dooodddd ... the coin is cute is that the new gold colored coin ... you said at the register? you got a real gold coin from a register?
the buffalo is an awesome shot and i love that to bits!! apoly i thought you said jbreheny didnt get his in?
That's a good catch eagle spirit, I didn't see that. Maybe cause I was so tired last night, but.. You're right the IFC tag isn't on the first two.. However.. The date is.. I think it's close enough, if you want to make an issue of it you can, but personally it doesn't bother me. He put the date on there. I wouldn't wanna disqualify him cause of missing the IFC part on two images.
In regards to the pyramid one, yeah I think technically that's okay too. It's only a 1 point item, you should be able to find a pyramid in a lot of places.
To be straight forward there were a few questionable entries from numerous people, but.. I want to encourage people to think outside of the box, and the entries were close enough to not make an issue out of it for me.
In regards to the last part, no what I said was.. Something like.. He hadn't got his entry in yet at the time and he was running out of time, but.. Little did I know he already uploaded a day before I said that and just didn't post it in the official place like he was suppose to.
Shortly after I made that comment he posted his entry in the right place.
So.. Yeah.. Hope that helps clear things up, if you want to challenge him on the IFC in the first two you can do that and we can ask the community what they think. I personally as I said don't think it's a big deal and if you yourself or anyone else made the same mistake I would feel the same way. It's not a big mistake and I don't think he should lose for it, but if you wanna challenge it you can and we'll ask the community what they think.
gotcha, i didn't think it would be disqualifiable and i thought he had gotten them in. so glad it was cleared up! i know you LOVE people to fight it out and to get edgy so thought i'd throw some of that in there. hehe
this is supposed to be fun ...
Understood! It's hard to tell with text sometimes whether someone is joking or being serious as there's no tone of voice, and I just wanted to be clear. It is a good point and a catch and if we were to be 100% strict with our rules.. It would be fair to disqualify him for not following them to a T.
But as I mentioned, I think it's a pretty small mistake, and I don't personally think he should lose for it. BUT.. If you were serious, then we could challenge it and make an issue of it.. Though it sounds like you're sorta just playing and having a bit of fun. :)So.. Good to know. Cause I'm about to make the official post pretty soon probably, so if you do want to challenge it.. Lemme know soon, otherwise the next round will begin shortly.
yeah no worries, i've been in enough contests to know that this is primarily what the judges agree to and mostly i've only worked with one judge. i was given a pardon just yesterday for one contest winning quite a bit of SBI so i will not argue this, i know i can since technically according to the rules the ifc should be in the tag. as shown by charisma ... i'm trying to let the whole speed thing go as it is as it caused a lot of stress during my move and then the weekend but i'll meditate and let it gooo ... hehe
yeah, i'm trying to let it all go and just put some edge against @jbreheny but everyone is so sweet and it would be difficult to see anyone get taken out really. i like so many people in this group that if we can just stay sweet 16 forevvahh that would make me happy. :)
Sorry again about the speed round! That one is going to haunt me. I'm just glad we were able to come to as much of an agreement as we did and that we can move forward. And aww... Those are some really nice sentiments at the end there. I feel similar but I also wanna see the IFC grow over the years and some day be really popular with a whole "Hall of fame" sorta deal like other sports do. So as much as I'd like to keep it like it is right now forever, I also wanna see the extents that this idea and community are going to go. :) Glad you're a part of it! You've been very pleasant to get to know and have a very unique, kind and energetic spirit to you.
Also glad you feel similar in regards to not being hardcore strict against jbreheny, now I'm going to get to work on finishing the tie breaker blog post so we can continue on with the tournament. :) Talk to you later and hope you have a good rest of your day!
@apolymask hehe sorry, can i laugh? "haunt me" laughing at someone's sort of pain initially is a bad habit of mine. i get you tho. hugs. I hear you about IFC and its amazing you can see that far ahead, most people just let it take its course but this is why i feel your initiative will be very successful! you think far ahead, aside from being very smart!
this next round (tie breaker) is pretty cool. i wish we didnt have a tie breaker but oh welzzz ... and too bad the people who couldn't be in it didn't share that from the start. to make it more competitive. oh welllzz again. TTYL and hope you are all having a lovely day in AZ. its super hot here in CO. ugh