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Youth Group Games: Photo Scavenger Hunt

Russell Martin — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 05:27:08 +0000

We did this photo scavenger hunt with 200 Sr. High youth at our last camp. Here’s how it works.

We made sure each group had a cell phone that could take photos and email them. I made sure they all had my email address.

I gave each of them two sheets of paper. The first had a contact photo sheet with photos of objects around the camp ground. They might be of a fire hydrant, a corner of a sign, or a side of a building. The second sheet had a list of items, poses, and people.

We assigned points. 200 points for each item from the contact sheet they could find and take a photo with their group in front of. 50 points for each item from the list they could include in the photo.

Each team could submit only 15 photos to be judged. They figured out the best way was to combine as many objects in the photo as they could. For instance get a photo of everyone behind the fire hydrant, sitting on yellow chairs, with a musician. 200+50+50=300 pts.

We also told them that there was a bonus for the team who came back at the designated time. We told them the time was somewhere between 7:00 and 7:30 p.m. This eliminated the need to finish first, and run all over camp, with some fast runners ahead, and leaving others in the group behind.

The Good: When I have done scavenger hunts in the past, the problem usually comes as groups try to race from one clue to the next. Half the group runs ahead, the rest lag behind. By making a designated time to aim for, and weighting it heavy with points, most of our groups returned in that 30 minute window.

The Bad: Though cell phones were not prohibited, some felt that using them for a game encouraged their use more than should be.

How to make the contact sheet: I took about 30 minutes and rode around camp taking photos. I then came back and loaded them into picasa and printed a contact sheet for each group.

How to make the list: Well I have listed our extra items list below. Sort it and edit it to fit the needs of your camp, retreat or youth meeting.

(I created this while at Methodist District Camp at Lakeview in Palestine. If you would like the photos and items selected specifically for this camp just leave a comment and let me know.)

Extra Items List

Your group …

charlies angel pose

laying in a circle with your heads together

set up like opposing football teams

riding imaginary bikes

Spell out “prayer” with your bodies

With a pastor

With someone wearing a green shirt

re-enacting a scene in a disney movie

blowing bubbles

re-enacting a famous painting

standing on one leg

with a watermelon

with a musician (musician must have instrument)

in front of a chapel

On a pier

on the prayer trail

With a live fish

with a live bug

Playing ships and sailors

Playing duck duck goose

in a road

on a sign

Writing your name

With a cafeteria person

Photo with camp staff person

pretend like eating a worm

lined up

photo of a bird

With a gift shop stuffed animal

With a (select a christian artist) CD

All wearing hats

More than 3 people doing hand stands

Make ATT bars logo

sitting in chairs

with a watermelon

sitting in pews

around a musical instrument

under a cross

with destruction behind you

over water

in front rocks

With Camp director

All wearing same colored shirt

All wearing sports team hats

in the woods

in a field

in a four square court

building a pyramid

With a name of a church

sitting in yellow chairs

wearing name tags

with a letter

with a softdrink

reinacting a famous point in history

everyone with a bible

Your group on one facebook photo

Photo of a song

48 Free iPhone Camera Background Textures

Russell Martin — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 04:40:31 +0000

I have really begun to enjoy taking photos with my iPhone. I recently started using the instagram app for my iPhone and that has challenged me to take more and more creative pictures. One thing I have begun is to take photos of textures that could be used as iPhone backgrounds, or textures for web and other projects. I thought I’d share some with you.

Go to Free iPhone Texture Dropbox Folder

These textures hosed on Dropbox. Find out how you can your own free 2g Drobpox.

Do you use instagram? Add “rgmmusic” as a friend.

50 Free Neon Backgrounds

Russell Martin — Mon, 02 May 2011 04:04:14 +0000

Looking for some different backgrounds to use with your worship songs, or presentations. What about something on the neon side. At one mission trip I attended last year, one night we had a glow in the dark dance. Participants painted their own glow in the dark shirts, we got a few hundred glow sticks, turned out the lights and turned up the music.

As always I wanted to get photos of the event, so I set out on the dance floor. Every time I tried to take a photo it ended up being blurry. After a while I decided just to go with it, set the shutter to a slow exposure and see what happened.

Here are the results. 50 free backgrounds for you to use.

While you are at it you might want to check out some of these posts…

1. 50 Free Worship Backgrounds

2. Flowers and Plants- 61 Nature themed photos

3. Water- 14 water themed photos

Caption Please

Russell Martin — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:50:03 +0000

Kind of afraid to ask but… Do you have a caption for this photo?

Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from Russell’s Mobile Blog

Searching

Russell Martin — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:37:18 +0000

In one of the boxes pictured… There is coffee.

Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from Russell’s Mobile Blog

Veterans Day

Russell Martin — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 03:23:40 +0000

Here are some photos from a Veteran’s day celebration held at our church.

Before You Create Your Webpage

Russell Martin — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:24:05 +0000

“Do you want people to spend time visiting your church website or visiting your church?” This is the question a wise person asked me when I was talking about upgrading our church website. The question caused me to rethink some of the things I was planning for our site. I am not arguing against having a quality website, however I think there are some questions to be asked, and things to seriously be considered when you are starting a website for your church or non profit organization. Here is a list of questions I came up with:

1. What is your goal? You need to decide what your website will provide. Maybe it will have basic information like dates, times and forms. What ever your reason make sure that you are using the appropriate tool, or site, for the job.

2. How much are you going to spend- You can easily spend $2500 or more to have a beautiful website designed for your group or church. You need to ask yourself whether that money should be spent on your web presence or if it could be put to use in your organization in a better way.

3. What do you need to get your message across? Wait.. first figure out what your message is. Then what do you need to get that message out. Will flash slideshow with pictures be the best format? Would video updates be effective? Do you need to be able to create podcasts?

4. Who is your audience and how do they like to be reached? Don’t just think about who you are communicating with but also consider what ways they communicate. I recently had a member of our church tell me she does not go to our website. When I asked why, she said that she gets our email updates and facebook messages and they all came to her phone. She has no idea what the website looks like, how many hours I spent choosing the right photo or how much money we spent designing it. She gets the information she wants in the best format for her. That’s what’s important.

5. Consider other forms of communication- In this artcile by Fred Zimny he proposes that with services like facebook and twitter, that websites are becoming less important and are being forced to change:

“Over the next few years, we’re going to see official institutional websites become less important. They will cease functioning as the only point of web interaction between businesses and customers and will become merely the official storefront. The main “conversion goal” of these retooled portal sites will be to drive interactions onto the third-party social networking sites.”

It used to be that your goal was to get people to come to your website for interaction with your company. It seems more and more that websites are directing their visitors to their presence on social networking sites like facebook and twitter. Consider the thought that a website cannot be the only online presence your organization has.

6. Will your web presence be mobile?- Look at the number of iphones, blackberry’s, droids and other smartphones that are out there. More and more we access the web on the go. Are you considering how your site will be accessed by these devices?

What questions do you think should be considered before starting a website for your organization?

My Daily Photo 8/20/09

Russell Martin — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 02:42:19 +0000

Today’s photo was actually taken this past week when I led worship at St Marks UMC in Houston. It is of their chancel area.

My Dropbox – Something Free for You and Me!

Russell Martin — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 15:23:38 +0000

For about a year now I have been using Dropbox as a way to share files between my various computers. It simply works like this. Install dropbox on whatever computers you want and folder called “My Dropbox” is put into My Documents. Whenever you add or take away files from that “My Dropbox” folder, it is syncronized on each computer on which it is installed. I use this often to put files I am working on so I can open them at home and work, such as publications for church, or photos for this blog.

My dropbox is making an offer for more free space. For everyone one of you who sign up for My Dropbox, I get ~~250~~ 500 mb of more space, up to 3 8 gig. But wait there is more. If you sign up you also get not only the 1G 2G of space that comes with the free version, but an additional 250 mb also.So I would like to ask for you to try My Dropbox. Just click “Get My Dropbox” below and it will take you through the short sign up process. I would not ask, or support this if I had not used it myself. I hope you enjoy.

(Update 9/20- Verify an .edu student address and double your referral space to 500 mb per referral)

Get My Dropbox

I found “My Dropbox” because someone else suggested it to me. What other cool, useful web tools would you suggest?

My Daily Photo 07/23/09

Russell Martin — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 06:22:03 +0000

This past summer I spent 3 weeks leading worship at Lakeview Methodist Conference Center in Palestine Tx. I have done this for about 12 years now. This sign is in front of the camp where I started.
– Post From My iPhone