What you are about to see are the results from the HRSFA 2008 Photo Scavenger Hunt. The rules were simple: find as many items from the list as possible, and photograph them, with at least two team members in the picture. Eight team competed, for points and glory.

The full list of photographs sought by our intrepid crew. By the end, few things would remain unfound...

Team Awesome!

Some of the items on the list were references, such as an albino

Or a person dressed entirely in black (no one, sadly, found anyone with six fingers)

Some were references to local culture, like a picture of someone being in the sculpture garden fountain

Some were references to people and things we like, such as pikachu...

Frida Kahlo...

Rene Magritte...

Or comic books

(bonus for any comic book by Brian Michael Bendis)

Some were just fun, like a picture with a statue, with bonus points for making out with the statue. This is the sailor just outside the start point, the Archives/Navy Memorial. This won't be the only time we see him.

There were many attempts to achieve a picture not just of "someone in uniform", but also to receive the bonus points for being chased. And by this I mainly mean, "many posed shots"

This is a non-team-member's bra...as it turns out, this is a member of Team Conquering Puppies.

One of the items I put on the scavenger hunt was an elevator with no 13th floor. [pause] This turned out to be easier to find than I'd expected.

I also asked people to seek out a specific number, on a label or print...

Team Awesome was the only one to actually find one.

Anything on fire. This is on fire.

One of the competitive photo challenges was to find the license plate from the state furthest away from DC, measured by driving distance from the state capitol to DC. No one found Alaska...or Hawaii...but Washington didn't win.

Another competition was to be awarded to the team with the highest human pyramid. Team Awesome shared this honor with two other teams.

This picture is not worth any additional points...but it's a good picture.

Another item was a same-sex kiss...

...some people got more into it than others.

Team Sexy Weasels!

Two of the most risque items on the list were the same sex kiss and people pantsless on the metro. Team Sexy Weasels got the fan favorite for their photograph which combined both of these...sadly, this picture was so hot that we cannot show it here.

Did I mention the ease of finding an elevator with no 13th floor?

This is a game of twister (or at least a reasonable facsimile thereof)

This is something from Korea

This is someone drinking something from a bottle in a paper bag

And this is the winner for furthest license plate: it turns out that Salem is actually the furthest state capitol in the continental U.S.--unlike Washington, it doesn't have access to a good Northern East-West highway system, so has to take an extra bend going along 84.

This team found not just one statue of Lincoln, but several.

Another item on the scavenger hunt was two team members in a restroom for the opposite sex. I'll admit that on first glance, my thought was, "You can't see the door--how do you know that this is...oh. Right." I really like the excitement levels in this picture.

Every time I see this photo, I smile. It's definitely my favorite posed chase photo.

A crayola crayon, plus someone to trade it to, in fond memory of last year's Bigger, Better, or More Bizarre

This is my favorite sculpture garden fountain picture.

Another human pyramid

I told you you'd see more of that sailor.

Another person wearing all black

Something else on fire

A cute baby!

And another competitive win--the largest restaurant or bar bill, for a hundred and twenty seven dollar

Team Tea+1

In retrospect, it's possible that I should have required that the elevator have a 14th floor...

The team also mimicked the Beatles famous Abbey Road crosswalk picture

A cute baby

In the fountain!

We already had the baby picture...this is points for walking a dog.

This is Lincoln and posing like Lincoln

The sailor...

...hello, sailor!

A crayola crayon

Someone with a painted face

Something from Sweden (it turns out that H+M is from Sweden)

Rene Magritte

Brian Michael Bendis

and Frida Kahlo

Pikachu

A Sparrow

And an excellent twister facsimile

Team Missing a person started off one person down, and was going to be dissolved until someone from another team volunteered to join them.

They also found a painted face

When I questioned whether or not they were making out with this statue, the response was, "I'm pretty sure getting his tongue any further down that fish's throat would result in permanent facial damage."

That is, in fact, the same dog-in-a-baby-carriage as before

Someone in the fountain

This is someone with a z in their name, with their signature. Because anyone with a z in their name can't be all bad.

Team missing a person gets extra points for not just finding a print of a picture by Magritte, but going and finding the single actual Magritte on display in the National Gallery, inconveniently located on the exact opposite side of the building and on the top floor from the entrance

This...is an elevator with no 13th floor.

Another Beatles Abbey ROad shot

A same-sex kiss

You can see the Swedish flag up there

This is, in fact, a bra which does not belong to a team member

The most compelling chase picture; the fact that it looks like the man in uniform is actually moving, or at least leaning /forward/, helps.

A stolen twister photo

Drinking from a bottle in a paper bag

Nanashi, which in Japanese means, "no name"

A man in black. Apparently his wife was also dressed in black, but declined to be photographed. She also insisted that his back be turned in the photograph.

People in uniform

Nanashi was the only team to find a street performer, and to achieve the bonus points for dancing along (in this case, a waltz)

They found a fire truck and got on board

Imitated the ducks in front of the Korea display

Found someone walking a dog

...and, you may note, in the upper right corner, floor labels for the elevator. These labels do not include the number 13.

Nanashi not only found a game of soccer, but enthusiastically took part

This picture is of a local celebrity, the channel 7 newscaster...of course, it would help if we knew his name

Making out with a statue and standing demurely

And finally, a sculpture from the sculpture garden

Philosophers and Amanuensis; amanuensis essentially means "servant", philosopher means "one who can analyze [their] delusion better than most lunatics" (Ambrose Bierce)

This team was the only one to actually find a sparkler in use; I should perhaps have realized that any such photo would also count as something on fire

This...is an elevator with no 13th floor.

A team member in black

Someone in the fountain

A crayola crayon

The return of the sailor!

Mextly Mendoza

(Menddoza, you will note, has a 'z' in it)

And a drink from a bottle in a paper bag

The penultimate team, Team!

Finds an adorable baby

A dog

Abbey Road (with shoes removed for verisimilitude)

Sitting on the fire engine (the same fire engine, in fact!)

An excellent statue picture

An excellent sparrow picture

0...1...2...3...4...nope, no 13!

Something from Korea

You'll notice on the left, a non-team-member's bra

And the channel 7 newsman again!

I originally disputed this Lincoln picture, but then realized that I had in fact specifically included the Lincoln memorial

Over the corner there is another sculpture from the sculpture garden

And a game of twister, with that back bend really selling the game

And finally, last but not least, team Conquering Puppies!

Lincoln got some same-sex kiss action...

...from both genders.

The team found people in uniform

Frida Kahlo

and Rene Magritte

They had another barefoot-realism Abbey road picture

Found someone in all black

And got the high-five from a baby

I think this is one of my favorite paper bag drinking photos

Now, I mentioned earlier that '1337' was an item on the scavenger hunt; and if you look at this in just the right way...

Yeah. I think you all know what this is.

A cute puppy for team conquering puppies

A three-person pyramid

A comic book (though the team was unsure, I am fairly confident that this one was not by Brian Michael Bendis)

Team Conquering Puppies not only found a baby, but was the only team to get bonus points for finding twins!

They found a restroom of the opposite gender

Sweden

This blurry shot is an attempt to get a clear picture of this woman's exposed bra , without letting her know that there was a team of scavenger hunt people after her...

They never got one; but they did get a picture of her mother.

In this picture, there is almost certainly a sparrow. However, it is also almost certainly underneath one of those hands.

This picture is not worth any points--but it is a picture of a squirrel eating candy.

Whew! That's a lot! Take a little intermission here before the big finish--run to the bathroom, fix yourself a quick sandwich, whatever you need to do. This last section has some great photos, and I want to make sure you're ready. There were five required pictures for the competition; for each of these, I awarded 25 additional points for judges favorites. Besides these five, there were several other categories which produced a number of really good pictures, so I thought I'd collect them at the end here. Without further ado...

The first competition picture required teams to take pictures of non-team members spelling "HRSFA" with their bodies. This took a number of forms...

From the traditional,

Spelling HRSFA

With posed bodies.

(Notice they all also include two team members)

This one is great--notice that the team members are forming the quotation marks on either side.

But many other bodies were also used, from sour patch kids...

to gummi bears...

...even stuffed animals. But I have to admit, I thought the cleverest idea...

...was to use sign language.

And sign language with kids? Win!

unfortunately, the place of business competition wasn't as interesting.

yup

yup

yup

yup

Yup

Buying pig ears was kind of interesting,

and I thought this guy's expression was great,

but I had to give the win to buying a free hug.

The "Black and white" category produced the largest variety of pictures

police officers

panda bears

the giant white obelisk

the back and front, black and white

black and white ice cream

white surf over the black fountain

and the scales of justice.

But the win had to go here--it's just such a compelling photo--i absolutely buy the sadness, reading the prison legal news. the painful truth is there in black and white.

The corner of Pennsylvania and 10th is a good place to take a photo, as it has the capitol in the backgounrd

There were a number of direct shots

Nice group photos of the team and the capitol

Sometimes with interesting people in the background

And sometimes just adorable

Some groups went for the action shot

Some the interesting juxtapose

And there's nothing wrong with getting a new angle on things

But for the win, this shot just captured so much in one--a neat idea, nice composition, and a provocative message.

Some categories weren't explicitly competitions, but just inspired some nice shots. I should have realized that gummi bears would have been one of these

There was some nomming of gummis

And some use of gummis for political purpose

The gummis also took quite the tour of DC, from Lincoln

To the navy

Even to the capitol

And the white house

But for the death-defying pyramid over fire, this had to be the winner

I also asked the teams to take a picture of everyone, reflected in something

Most picked glass

Which has an interesting effect

Almost ghostly, really

I was sure this said SF0 when I first saw it

And even though you can't see the reflection, I thought this was a neat shot

Oh, and as a side note: to anyone planning an event where rain is a concern? I have one word for you: ponchos.

It's surprising what will turn out well, sometimes

one last bonus before the final competition

I think that all of the photos that required the whole team to be in them were interesting

There was definitely a good bit of variety in hat styles, from caps,

To floppy hats

to miner's helmets!

Even to traffic cones!!

...but yeah, fedoras are just too cool. Fedoras in the Spy Museum? Even better.

And now, the final category, and the hardest to judge--I asked each team to make a team portrait, expressing their team identity. And I really felt like every team did an amazing job.

This is team tea-plus-one

Team Awesome.

Team!

Philosophers and Amanuensis

Team Missing a person

Team Sexy Weasels

Nanashi

And Team Conquering Puppies.

The Final Scores. Congratulations to all! This was a tremendous amount of fun. Thanks for playing!