Photo scavenger hunt ideas for a walk on your own

How to run a photo scavenger hunt for one

Choose the list at home, not on the way; otherwise you'll pick whatever you've already walked past. Give yourself a time limit, an hour is plenty for eight items, and a rule about honesty: the thing in the photo has to actually be the thing, not something that could pass for it if you squint. Photographing strangers is off the list entirely. Nothing here needs a person in the frame.

If you finish with time to spare, take the same list to a different neighborhood next week. The same eight items look completely different two miles away.

List one: colors

1. A surface that is mostly red A wall, a door, a bench, a shutter. Mostly means more than half the frame.
2. A photo where yellow covers a third Road markings, a warning sign, a storefront. Get close enough for the yellow to dominate.
3. Something pink Rarer than you'd think outside of spring blossom. Chalk, a scarf on a railing, a store sign.
4. A sign that is mostly blue Parking, information, a street name. The blue has to be the sign itself, not the sky behind it.
5. A black door Painted black, not dark wood. Look at older streets.
6. Almost nothing but green A hedge, a mossy wall, a painted fence. The frame should read green with almost no other color.
7. An orange machine A digger, a street sweeper, a utility truck, a rental bike. Construction sites make this one easy.
8. White against the light without blowing out A white wall or sheet with the sun behind it, exposed so it stays white rather than glaring. The hardest one on the list.

List two: textures and materials

1. The grain of sawn timber A bench end, a fence post, a pallet. Fill the frame with grain.
2. A row of rivets Bridges, old lampposts, cast iron anything.
3. The frayed end of a rope Boatyards, trash cans, playground equipment, bike racks.
4. Moss growing on stone Wall tops, steps, curbstones in shade, the foot of an old tree.
5. Paint coming away from what it covers The older and more layered, the better.
6. A wall of stacked stones without mortar Common in the countryside, surprising when you find one in town.
7. Something woven from willow or cane A basket outside a store, a garden screen, a fence panel.
8. Three materials meeting at one point Brick, metal and wood in a single corner. Stand close.

List three: odd and out of place

1. A door that opens onto nothing Bricked-up stairways, loading doors on an upper floor, gates in a wall with no path behind.
2. A row of similar things where one differs Bollards, windows, chimneys, parked bikes.
3. Something repaired with the wrong material A gate hinged with wire, a downpipe patched with tape, a fence panel made from a bedframe.
4. A plant growing in something never meant for it A boot, a sink, a drainpipe, a tire.
5. A door far too small for a person Utility boxes, coal chutes, gnome-sized gates in old walls.
6. A plant growing where nobody planted it A sapling in a gutter, grass through asphalt, a butterfly bush on a roof.
7. A bicycle that clearly hasn't moved in months Look for flat tires, cobwebs and a saddle full of leaves.
8. A sign where part of the text has worn away Bonus points if the remaining letters spell a new word.

List four: light and shadow

This list works best in the two hours after sunrise or before sunset, when the light is low and the shadows are long.

1. A shadow longer than the thing casting it A lamppost, a bollard, a person you know who's agreed to stand still.
2. Light coming through a small hole A knothole in a fence, a gap in a shutter, a drilled sign.
3. The sky reflected in water A puddle will do. Get low.
4. Your subject seen through an arch or opening Gateways, tunnels, the space between two buildings.
5. Something translucent with light behind it A leaf, a frosted window, a plastic bag caught in a tree.
6. Objects photographed straight down from above Your own feet on a manhole cover, leaves on a grate, a drain.

List five: one find per season

What a photo scavenger hunt app should do

If you search for a photo scavenger hunt app, most of what comes back is built for events: a host uploads a list, a team submits photos, a judge scores them. That's a different tool from what a solo walker needs. On your own, what you want is a fresh list every day, tasks that fit where you are and what the weather is doing, and something that looks at the photo so you're not grading your own homework.

That is a fair description of the photo quests in RLQuest. Each morning it picks three to ten quests from a library of more than 2,700, and the photo ones read much like the lists above; a photo of a red door is the classic example. The app checks the photo against the task and gives you an honest no if it doesn't match. Photos are checked and then discarded; they never sit on a server. Alongside the photo quests there are walking quests, quests tied to the time of day, and quests to real places like castles and viewpoints, and every walk fills in a hexagon map of where you've been.

It isn't a party tool. There's no host, no team and no judge. RLQuest is free to download for iPhone and Android, and a Premium subscription adds more quests per day.