The IFC finals are upon us and the contestants in the Sweet 16 are geared up for battle. For this first round there will be 8 head to head battles. All rounds are single elimination and to the victor shall go the spoils. When I first heard that the first round was going to be a photo contest I thought I had a decent advantage being that I am currently living, working and playing in Yellowstone National Park.
Functional internet speeds are currently NOT a luxury that I am experiencing. Being that I am a floor supervisor at a retail store in the Canyon Village here at Yellowstone I do have access to a work computer with fairly decent internet so on Saturday 6/23 I printed off a copy of the IFC’s First Round Instruction Post to prepare myself for the scavenger hunt. Upon reading the post I let out an audible groan, it’s not a photo CONTEST but rather a photo scavenger hunt, Oy Vey!. Where was I going to find some of these items? A few of them were going to be easy but many of the others were not. On Sunday 6/24/18 I set off to the village known as Fishing Bridge here in Yellowstone to get my 2 propane tanks filled and figured I would capture as many of the items as I could. By the time I returned back to my trailer I only had 4 of the items photographed so I began to dig desperately through some of my 11 year old sons toys, books and video games where I was able to nab another 4. Luckily for me I happen to play guitar AND also have 1 tattoo so I had those covered as well. Alas it was time for me to head to work with 7 items remaining so I put on my sleuth cap and kept an eye out for opportunities to nab some photos of these highly challenging remaining items. By the end of the day on 6/24 I had all but 2 items photographed. On 6/25 I pulled my last 2 hunt items together and now only have to figure out a way to upload them into my post (typical upload time for 1 picture for me is currently 1 hour, uggghhh!). The computer at work you say? Yes, I did mention the computer in my retail shop has decent internet but being the model employee that I am I tend not to utilize work resources for personal interests except in very small doses. My plan at the time of this writing is to upload my post from the town of West Yellowstone (just outside of the park and has great cell service) on my day off.
Here is the list of items that each contestant needed to find and photograph with point values:
Clouds 1 point
Animal 1 point
Pyramid 1 point
Garden 1 point
Plush toy 1 point
Guitar 1 point
Bridge 1 point
Gold coin 2 points
Star 2 points
Tattoo 2 points
Reflection 2 points
Mask 3 points
Rainbow 3 points
Crystal 3 points
Castle 4 points
Wizard hat 4 points
Alien/UFO 5 points
Here are my photos in the order that I took them.
Oh give me a home, where the buffalo roam and the deer and the antelope play. Where seldom is heard a discouraging... OH SHIT! Look at how close that bad boy is.
Fishing Bridge your potholes suck. You're tweaking the alignment in my truck. I go real slow and hope I don't get stuck. When will they fix you, what the fuck!
Reflections of the past aren't always clear but you can't say that about this image here.
I know I could have used the last photo as a double but this scene was pretty damn cool.
Plushies, plushies everywhere, from a unicorn to a cuddly bear and everything in between, look to the right it's all Halloween.
A little GARDEN Warfare anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
Lucky for me I have a young son with video games, they came in real handy for this challenge. It might be hard to see but there's a castle above the note. The 2nd image is a zoomed in shot from the same game Lego Worlds.
These arent just pretty pieces of wood, I can bang out a song or two these thangs. Should a picture of 2 guitars garner 2 points? Hmmmm! Don't let 
This is a tattoo I got to celebrate sobriety. Serenity, Courage and Wisdom!
Definitely not as cool a mask as 
The benefit of working in a store with cash registers.
Taste the RAINBOW!
Here's a crystal for your viewing pleasure.
Howdy y'all, there's a new sheriff in town (I even found one with my name on it).
The guy I borrowed this from looked at me funny when I told him I only needed it for about 10 seconds.
And finally, thankfully I did not have too book a flight to Egypt.
So that's it for the photo scavenger hunt. I had a great time finding all of these.
I wish all of my fellow contestants good luck and here's to an exciting finish!