Photo Scavenger Hunt

How this thing works

Order of Things

Scoring

• The more treasures your team photographs, the higher the score (this seems obvious).
• Some treasures are harder than others--- harder treasures are worth more.
• If everybody 'finds' a treasure, it probably wasn't that hard after all. So, the more teams that find a treasure, the lower the score for it.
• To promote participation, more people means more points.
• However, we don't want to give an advantage to having multiple cameras.
• Most importantly, scoring should be complex enough so that nobody will understand it and be able to argue with the event commissioner.

So with that in mind, here are the details:

• Each treasure has a certain number of points attached to it. These points will be split among all teams pictured with the treasure. E.g., if a treasure is worth twelve points, and three teams photograph with it, it is worth four points to each of those three teams.
• Some treasures might have 'partial credit' points. E.g. if I ask you for a picture on Mars for 24 points, I might settle for a picture on the moon for half credit (this will all be designated on the treasure list). If two teams bring back a picture from the moon, and a third brings back a picture from Mars, then the three teams split the first 12 points, and the Mars team collects an additional 12 (i.e. treasure is worth 4 points to teams 1 and 2, and 16 to team 3).
• But wait ! It's not so simple ! The number of points a team gets for a treasure is multiplied by the number of team members appearing on the photograph with that treasure. So, if I ask for a picture on a sail boat worth 12 points, and get two pictures, one with five members from team A on a sail boat and the other with eight members of team B on a sail boat, than team A gets 30 points (six times five) and team B gets 48 points (six times eight).
• In addition to the per-treasure scoring, there will be a 100 point (regardless of treasure, number of people, etc) bonus in each of the following catagories:
  1. Most original picutre.
  2. Most amusing picture.
  3. Overall theme throughout all pictures (i.e. you are encouraged to have such a theme).
  4. "Iron Chef" bonus for most "Iron Chef"y picture.

Cameras

All photographs will be taken on digital cameras. Each team is responsible for making arrangements to have a camera it can use. If you have a problem getting hold of a camera, please contact me early (i.e. a few days before the event).

After you get back to the lab at 6:30PM you should download the photographs and email them to me. You shouls email me a single zip or gziped and tared file containing the jpeg pictures in files called treasureX.jpg where X is the treasure number (e.g. treasure7.jpg).One picture per treasure please !

Please make arrangements for being able to download the pictures in the lab on Friday evening. Make sure that all required equipment is available, that this can be done in the lab, and that somebody will be there to do it. It is your team's responsibility to get me all the jpegs.

If your camera can take 'mini-movies', you are encouraged to use this feature. However, this will not affect scoring.

Rules

• The 'secret ingredient' must appear in all photos. This must be the original ingredient I give you, and not a replica.
• The 'secret ingredient' must be returned to me, at 6:45PM, in the 7th floor playroom. You will lose 10% of your total points for each three minutes you are late. You can download the pictures and email them after 6:45, but please get them to me as early as possible.
• Editing/docing/fudging with the pictures is strictly prohibited.
• Nothing illegal. All photographs must be taken in a lawful way. Getting arrested is not worth points.