November Scavanging

In November, Ben and I played a game one Sunday afternoon. I wanted to do a photo scavenger hunt. But, I wanted to do it my way. Which meant this:

We each came up with four descriptive words. Then, we combined them to make a list of 8. Then, our job (since there was only two of us, we just played together) was to photograph things that illustrated those descriptions. We had the best time and met some really intriguing and engaging people.

I had to break out of my conditioning a bit in order to step outside of my comfort zone and approach strangers. Luckily, Ben was completely in his element :). Once he made the initial contact, I had no problem taking an active role and joining the fun in a lively manner. It worked out to make us a pretty rockin' team :).

So, here are some shots from the day...hopefully, we'll be doing this game again soon! We're excitedly inviting anyone else who may want to play, as well!

Of note: one of the drawbacks to waiting to post this is that I don't remember right now all of the adjectives we used. Let's see what I can remember...

This first pic is a couple of friends that were visiting from Argentina. They have traveled a lot together. They are in Salt Lake working on a translating project. They do a lot of traveling via working...and they get to travel! He is a documentary film maker and photographer. They were so interesting to visit with. They had just finished seeing the Salt Flats. I think the adjective was devoted...?

The second picture is at a new restaurant. I think the guy's name was Mark. He is the head bartender at this hip, darling restaurant on 9th & 9th. He is showcasing the drink menu with all of the drinks he created.

The third picture is of the cart pusher at the Smith's on 8th South and 9th East. He decided a good description of his job was tolerable. Which fit with one of the adjectives on our list. It was so fun to watch Ben light up as he saw him pushing the carts across the lot. Ben said, I got one. And, he sprinted across the parking lot to catch the guy.

The fourth picture is of a guy named Grunge and his friend. They are illustrating the adjective 'frustrating'. A little bit before, Grunge's friend had felt frustrated while playing Magic with another roommate. So, Grunge and 'friend' re-enacted the scene for our photo scavenger hunt :).

The fifth picture is of Grunge, his girlfriend (her name will come back to me, I swear!), and Ben with their van. They both did the artwork on it themselves. She is an artist who is looking for new things to paint on. Currently, she is interested in plyboard and different types of wood. They were a super fascinating pair and we had a really captivating conversation with them for about a half hour.

The sixth picture is of a gentleman that Ben knocked on his apartment door (definitely stretching my comfort zone! But, in a needed stretch :)!). Ben explained what we were doing and asked the guy if he felt like he illustrated any of our adjectives. He pondered a bit and decided that he could qualify for the depressed adjective because he had felt a bit depressed the day before (and didn't seem to fit with any of the other choices...). In the picture, he purposely made his depressed expression :). B/c he certainly wasn't coming across as depressed while we were visiting with him!

The seventh picture is of Ben in a meditation/yoga studio. Nobody was there and the building was just open. So, Ben took this shot to fill the adjective of unexpected.

The 8th picture is a group of friends that were happily laughing and chattering together at Starbucks. Ben asked if we could take their picture as evidence of the bounty of friendship...thus fulfilling the adjective 'bountiful'. They were pretty stoked with that idea :).

All in all, it was one of the most fun afternoons I've had. It stretched me a bit and I got to do something that had been marinating in my imagination. It was wonderfully memorable.