Barcelona / Canary Islands Photo Scavenger Hunt

About a thousand years ago I read a photography article about asking friends/family for a list of photos you should take on your vacation. The author was surprised at the variety of options presented to him.  He had ridiculous options, mundane options, obvious options etc.

What he ultimately found is by having this list he was constantly scanning his surroundings. He found he was more aware of things on his vacation and found that trying to find these photos made him a better photographer in many ways. The first, and biggest in my opinion, is taking photos that you might have normally missed.

This vacation I had a list of 20 items that my friends and family had given me. Facebook is a wonderful thing for this type of game too. I had done this last year for the trip to Rome but wasn't prepared enough to remember to actually write the photos down. This year I had them written down and shared them with the SIL to help keep me focused on taking them.

Here's the scavenger hunt list and photos.


1. Pickpocket

You'd think it'd be easy to get this photo in a place like Barcelona considering we had been warned and warned about the gypsies and their pickpocketing career. Still I found it was super hard to do. Instead, I took a picture of this crazy woman sitting in the square. She was talking to the birds and yelling at the seagulls when they came around. The more interesting, and frightening, part is she was literally falling out of her shirt. I put on my telephoto lens to check her out when I noticed her girls were out as well. That is not an image you want burned into your brain.


2. Selfies

I'm horrible at selfies. I have short arms and a fat face, which leaves very little room for anything in the background. My friend H is constantly posting selfies and I noticed she rarely has her entire head in the photo.  So SIL and I decided to try that in this photo. We had just scattered Dad's ashes and were walking along the water front. These sand castles had been built for Easter and some of them were pretty darn amazing. I took two photos. The second photo was so bad of both of us that it's been deleted so it never EVER falls into the wrong hands.


3. Cafes and Desserts

Lunch at Cafe Zuricj

Did someone say tapas?

Breakfast at the hotel

This was a no brainer. Although I may have misinterpreted this one. When I was thinking "cafes" I was thinking what we were eating, not the actual café. I only took one photo of a café we ate at, but have several photos of our ham and cheese sandwiches and tapas. We didn't really eat desserts, so that part I didn't even consider.


4. Nature within the city

I wasn't sure how easy or hard this one would be. Some cities don't have "nature" that's worthy.  Barcelona, and many of the places we stopped, thankfully, had some great nature (trees, flowers, mountains etc.) I couldn't originally decide which photo to use for this. But this photo is one of my favorites. SIL and I were doing the walking tour of the Gothic Quarter and this little church was on the list. Alongside the church was this little garden with beautiful orange flowers.


5. Travel companion in a compromising position
No photo for this. Though I tried. SIL made it hard. She knew about this one and I think was hyper aware of what she was doing so I wouldn't take a photo of her in a compromising position.


6. Jamon

Probably the easiest of the list and yet the one I couldn't take enough photos of. We visited La Boqueria open market in Barcelona (and ultimately found a fantastic bar inside that had the BEST ham and cheese sandwiches). The thing about the open market is everything is out in the open. We marveled at how unsanitary we American's considered it. No refrigeration for some things where we would have and all the ham, seafood, etc just sitting out in the open.  There must have been 30 stores that were selling Iberian jamon.  In all the cases, these legs were hung up and when they were slicing it, the leg of pig was attached to this crazy cuff thing.


7. Someone in a hat sipping a coca cola

I love the specific-ness of this one. And I was sure I wouldn't get a picture of this.  I chose to take some artistic liberties with this one, and took this photo on the last day we spent in Barcelona before we came home. I wouldn't have even seen it had a friend we met on the cruise hadn't pointed out another guy in a hat drinking a coke.  The other guy wasn't nearly as interesting as this character. And whether he has coke in his cup we'll never know. My "artistic liberty" is that he's drinking coke.


8. An interesting doorway

This was one I knew wouldn't be a problem either. I love taking pictures of doors. I also figured Europe and Spain in particular would have a ton of interesting doors.  While in Casablanca I tried to get some interesting door shots with the Moorish arches.  That proved harder than I expected. Then when we were in the Kasbah and we were walking out of the fortress we passed this door. I knew it would be the door for this request.


9. Picture of myself in a disco, dancing
So yah, no photo for this one either. SIL and I aren't night owl type of people and were in bed well before the discos opened.  I did have a thought of perhaps using the disco on the boat during the day, but then completely forgot about this one.


10. Picture of someone named Heather

I knew that Heather wasn't a very popular name in Spain and figured this one wouldn't happen. Then when we were in Teneriffe many of the trees up on this mountain were Heather Trees.  So I again, decided to take artistic liberties and take a photo of a Heather tree instead. Then I couldn't get any photos of these trees without them being blurry. SIL and I decided that a blurry picture of a heather tree actually fit the personality of the Heather who gave me this photograph request.


11. Starbucks sign

Barcelona, turns out, has several Starbucks.  I think I counted about 6 different ones as we walked through the city.  Taking a photo of Starbucks wherever I travel is actually something I normally do anyhow.  So this one was a breeze.


12. A Spanish version of Linus and Lucy

This one sent me in an entirely different direction. It started in Casablanca when I saw the first cat. I took a photo thinking I may not get a photo of a black/white cat.  Then as I walked a bit further into the Kasbah, this beauty was sitting there. Ahhh...a Linus/Lucy cat...granted it wasn't in Spain. But I figured that at one time this cat's family had lived in Spain and she was just visiting relatives in Casablanca. So I counted it.


Then what happened is everywhere I saw a cat, I took a photo. In fact, at one point this little brat of a boy (he really wasn't a brat he was surprisingly well behaved) called me out for taking another photo of another cat.

Cat in the Kasbah

Another cat in the Kasbah

Mr. Cat in Tenerife

This little guy was mooching food in Casablanca

Also at the Kasbah

This sweet cat was at a roadside stop we made in Malaga

13. Chains

I stumbled onto these chains on the island of Lanzarote. We had stopped for lunch and across the street was this cut little church.  Wanting to go inside the church we walked over only to find a wedding of christening was taking place and we couldn't go inside. So walking along the outside I found this old chain fence. I couldn't decide which one of these I liked best.


14. Picture of a purple flower

These beauties were in the Alhambra.  Not only are they purple flowers, but they're the MomUnit's favorite flower.  And we had been at the Alhambra in 1986 and I had been flooded with memories from that trip. It seemed like a win-win to me.


15. A noteworthy mustache

Are you kidding me? I hate taking photos of people, let alone people I don't know.  I did see a few mustaches, but none of real "noteworthy-ness".  Then SIL went into this little store in Teneriffe that had this little doll. I think a yarn mustache is noteworthy...don't you?


16. An old padlock and key

I wasn't sure about this one. Finding an old padlock AND key might prove to be challenging.  So again, I took some liberties.  Finding old locks would be easier for sure. I took a couple of photos of old locks, but liked this one the best...even though the actual lock isn't old, the hatch is.


17. A crab

Since we were bringing the crab hats with us, this one wouldn't be too hard. But beyond that, La Boqueria made taking a photo of a crab easy. There were lots of live crabs in that market.  When we visited this underground lava tube that had a lagoon in it, the lagoon has these white, blind crabs only found there. I really wanted to get a photo of those, but in a dark room with crystal clear water, there was no way without a tripod.


18. A pretty, or interesting, bug on a bridge rail

THIS one was one I also put in the "not gonna happen" file.  I did find this interesting worm thing in Teneriffe. Granted it wasn't on a rail of a bridge, but at least it's a bug.


19. An obvious American tourist

My original plan for this one was to have SIL take a photo of me with two cameras around my neck, and a map in my hand...then we found/saw this.  SIL actually saw him first and on our last day.  I had my camera in my bag and couldn't get it out quick enough. Thankfully the American tourist had to stop before crossing the tree...and since I had a telephoto lens I could capture the photo. It isn't a great photo and really was only taken to check this off my list.


20. A picture of a pregnant woman on a Vespa

When I read this one I decided my friends must hate me. What was going to be the actual possibility of this? Almost none.  When we were in Casablanca I was watching the crazy traffic for something interesting to shoot. After having been in Saudi I knew that the chances of something crazy happening in this city with regards to traffic would be a possibility.  SIL saw a cow in the back of a truck, but didn't get a photo.  As we sat at a stop light, I saw this and had to take the photo.  It's not a Vespa. And it's not a pregnant woman.  But it's close.


And so there they are. I wanted to thank everyone who gave me a photo idea. It was fun doing this and practicing my "awareness" of my surroundings.  I am trying to think of a way to do this in my everyday life. Any ideas?