Another Travel Bug (dare I Say) Whinge

[+Stuey]

Further to SenseiTSKC's recent post about people visiting a TB hotel and not taking/exchanging a TB......

 

I have a bug which is a piece of broken chair leg. It only has one mission..... to have photos taken of it with chairs/benches (the more unusal the better). It's only had a few photos uploaded, and they were by me, and the first holder of the bug (it was his chair that I broke). Since then it has just drifted aimlessly, with no photos being uploaded. How difficult could it be to take a photo and upload it?

 

Having said all that, at least it hasn't gone missing (yet). Then again, no-one is likely to want it as it is of no use to man nor beast .

[Browser]

I too have a bug whose sole purpose is to collect pictures but most seem to find that a tad difficult. I guess I should be grateful that people are still logging it - A task which seems to be beyond the capabilities of some, even though they can manage to log-on and find the cache details. How hard can it be ?

[+Bill D (wwh)]

This seems to be quite common. I've taken photos of a number of TBs, as requested on the TB page, and when I've uploaded them I've been surprised to see how few others have done the same.

 

I don't know whether people don't read the page, or forget, or just can't be bothered. Oddly, though, my one TB has had quite a few photos posted, even though I don't ask for photos on the page.

[+Another Mr Lizard]

Taking silly pictures of travel bugs is half the fun as far as I'm concerned It's true that lots of people don't bother, even if the bug explicitly asks for photos. Not everyone has the convenience of a digital camera I suppose.

 

After having a couple of bugs go missing, I'm happy that the rest are still in circulation, even if they don't get many photos.

[+dogastus]

I have a TB in circulation with the invitation to take a picture of it alongside something the cacher has made themselves. I said that it could mean anything from a cup of tea to a house. I thought this would encourage people to take a photo, maybe even something they are proud of. I have been quite pleased with the results so far, with submissions as diverse as: a Sunday roast, a greenhouse, a pond, a barbeque, a mess (after decorating!) and a fireplace.

[Leoness]

Don't most mobile 'phones have a camera nowadays?!

[nobby.nobbs]

i took the idea slightly off key and made a travel bug backpack camera! small toy rucksack with disposable camera inside. each cacher who picks up to take photo of themselves......been a little slow to start with but hopefully over the summer it'll get round a bit more.

[Team 'James W']

I liked the idea of this bug when I saw it, but 13 moves and only 3 people have taken pictures with it! Such a shame, kinda shows that it's really hard to get TB piccies no matter what you do!

 

[+sTeamTraen]

I don't think it's unreasonable for a TB finder not to comply with a request for pictures (or anything else), unless the sheet which is in the Ziploc with the TB (your TB does have one of those, doesn't it?) tells the finder that they "ought to" take pictures are part of the deal for taking the TB.

 

We already expect people who find our TBs to keep them moving, not lose them, etc; I'm pleased when they manage just that. If they can avoid placing them in caches which have been archived a few days previously (this happened to one of mine), or caches in Sardinia whice get one visitor per year (this just happened to another one of mine) then that's a nice bonus.

 

Not everyone has a camera; some people don't think their pictures would be imaginative enough; etc.

 

You can try asking the kid at the drive-in window in McDonald's to sing you a song; I'd just be happy if he could get my order right.

[+lordelph]

I enjoy taking pictures for TB missions, and it's nice to get appreciative replies from people who are getting used to the mission being ignored.

 

My one and only TB is one that requests pictures. Early days, but so far so good - whenever he is picked up I message the cacher thanking them for picking him up and that I'm looking forward to seeing a picture of his adventures.

 

I think that when you know the TB owner is taking an interest you're more likely to play along.

[markandlynn]

Time. On a dial up uploading photos for everything takes lots of time and my camera is only 1.3 MP. (only cost me £15) when i have time i do take photos of TB's monster truck bash

[+stu_and_sarah]

Since then it has just drifted aimlessly, with no photos being uploaded. How difficult could it be to take a photo and upload it?

 

I've noticed this too. Now we make a special effort to upload a picture of every TB we find.

 

Sarah

--

[Clarets0]

Now there's a coincidence...

This morning at about 07:00 I picked up <fanfare> Oops, I broke the chair! TB

 

Before I made it back home at 08:30 I'd done the deed of picture-taking the bug with an outside bench twice. Short of time at the mo but I hope to upload the pics this evening. You want to see the muggles watching me at the first bench!!!

[+kbootb]

Must admit I got a bit peeved. I picked up a TB whose final goal was to be photographed at Buckingham Palace.

 

I went a fair way out of my way to provide a nice set up pictures, including attracting police interest. Logged them, and sent a private e-mail to the owner offering full resolution files, never got a reply.

 

No idea what that TB is doing now it has finished its mission.

[+Stuey]

Now there's a coincidence...

This morning at about 07:00 I picked up <fanfare> Oops, I broke the chair! TB

 

Before I made it back home at 08:30 I'd done the deed of picture-taking the bug with an outside bench twice. Short of time at the mo but I hope to upload the pics this evening. You want to see the muggles watching me at the first bench!!!

Blimey... coincidence indeed! Cheers very much for that

 

Stuey

[+Stuey]

unless the sheet which is in the Ziploc with the TB (your TB does have one of those, doesn't it?) tells the finder that they "ought to" take pictures are part of the deal for taking the TB.

 

I think I'll adopt the 'lordelph' approach of emailing people as they pick up my bugs and ask them for photos if they possibly don't mind. Cheers!

Edited June 6, 2005 by Stuey

[Harry_Bristol_UK]

Here is another bug with a photographic mission.

 

I recently picked this one up, took pictures and posted them back to the TBs log page. It didn't take long, didn't cost me anything, was fun and made me feel I was doing my bit to keep the game (/sport) interesting. A couple of other people have taken pictures, but sadly the majority don't bother. Perhaps there aren't as many digital camera owners as I think?

[+Brenin Tegeingl]

Our trusty digital camera gave up the ghost on us, and even though 2 of us have camera phones we had no way of conecting them to the PC. It's only now that we've updated our PC for one with a card reader built in can we down load pictures from them. Others might be in a simular situation.

 

I'm waiting for BOOTS to email me when they get more stocks of Samsung Digimax 430 - 4.0 MP Digital Cameras in at £44. Bit baisic I know but if it packs in after 12 months it will still have been a better bargin than my old one.

 

Dave

[+The Roos]

We have taken a couple of pictures of TBs that have requested photos, but our digital camera packed up and it then required us saving for a new one, perhaps there are cachers out there that have families, low incomes etc etc that do not pocess a digital camera or super dooper mobile phone that takes pictures - but that should not exclude them from picking up a tb and moving it on somewhere else just because they don't have correct equipment, I know my children are always really excited when we come across a travel bug just so we can take it home and move it on.

[+Skippy and Pingu]

I like seeing photos with my TB's but I don't tend to upload any. I live in the technological dark age with a SLR camera and a functional for phone calls mobile phone. If I found a TB with a mission sheet with it saying its aim was to have photos taken I wouldn't take it because I couldn't help it with its mission.

[+t.a.folk]

Not all the T.B.s we have found have had mission labels attached to them .so when we retreive and drop on the same caching trip we can be unaware of its mission .

We have enjoyed taking photos of the ones we have known about .

[markandlynn]

We have taken a couple of pictures of TBs that have requested photos, but our digital camera packed up and it then required us saving for a new one, perhaps there are cachers out there that have families, low incomes etc etc that do not pocess a digital camera or super dooper mobile phone that takes pictures - but that should not exclude them from picking up a tb and moving it on somewhere else just because they don't have correct equipment, I know my children are always really excited when we come across a travel bug just so we can take it home and move it on.

We were in that position and wanted a camera to take photos for geocaching and ebay sales so we bought on of these cameras plus a 128K memory card from 7 day shop for more than the cost off the camera.

[+MiTuCats]

This is a favorite gripe of ours as well.

 

It's rare for us NOT to post some photos of any TB we encounter. Some we've taken to greater lengths than others, such as:Brianna's Birthday Bracelet TB

 

And:

Arielbelle

 

There have been three or four others, but these are good examples. One has completed its mission, the other is AWOL in Florida, perhaps swept away in the hurricanes last year.

 

These and similar cases have been somewhat special in that we had learned that the owners were children. They're a lot more anxious to see activity than adults.

 

In both these cases, we had been planning a trip in a few weeks and contacted the owners to see if they wanted us to take the TB along or leave it in another local cache so it might get picked up by someone else. When they've asked us to take the TBs on the trips, we've tried to give them a good photo tour. At the ends of the trips, we've made CDs with all the photos (including many we haven't posted) including both the high resolution originals and the reduced size we've created for posting. We organize the CD with a folder for each cache, and sometimes a folder for the journey between caches. Then we've offered to send the CD to the owner. So far we've had one polite rejection, the other 4 or 5 have been very happy to have the CD. Looking at the photo galleries after we've handled a TB this way, we're often appalled at how few pictures there are other than the ones we've posted.

 

Edited to add this photo. Since Arielbelle's owner was a 3 year old girl from south Texas who had never seen snow, we figured this photo would open her eyes. It's taken in Michigan's Keeweenaw Peninsula, where the average annual snow depth over the last 82 years is 187.4 inches, and the record is 390.4 inches! That's the Best Half of our team near the sign, she's 5' 2" tall to give you some perspective.

 

End of Edit

 

I have a dial-up connection at home, so I often don't post the photos from there. I'll log the TB in and out of caches to maintain the chronology, then post the photos from work during lunch, etc. On one occasion, it took me three hours to log two tbs into and back out of four caches without posting the photos. I can't imagine how long it would have taken with them. Of course, that was a Sunday afternoon.

 

On our own TB's mission tags, we ask for photos. I don't recall that anyone has posted photos for any of our five TBs so far once we've launched them.

Edited June 7, 2005 by MiTuCats

[+maxkim]

How do you get a chair leg in a cache???

[+Stuey]

How do you get a chair leg in a cache???

It's not a complete chair leg, just the removed broken section of a chair leg. I was at a geocacher friends house and managed to break the chair I was sat on. Another Geocacher friend of mine is an antique restorer, and he repaired it for me. I thought it would be fun to put it out as a TB. Here's a photo. The bug, complete with laminated mission tag is hanging from the mended chair.

 

 

Many thanks to Clarets0 for the photos that you have uploaded!

 

[+Birders]

Might as well use this thread as it's a TB whinge... Today we visited a cache and found that an expected TB was missing. This was about the 4th cache we'd done in the last couple of weeks where a TB was not there when expected. Is someone going around pinching TBs or is it just inexperienced people not logging them correctly?

[+Alibags]

Reading the previous logs for that cache, Birders, it is apparent that the TB was taken by **Andy** on 1st June. He obviously has not logged it yet. He is not a newbie, but did it on a day of 30 caches, so perhaps it got forgotten in the mass logging. Should not be too hard to track it down again.

[+aRRKS]

Here's a TB I have added to our watch list. You don't have to take a photo of the TB you have to remodel it

 

Meurph TB

[+PurplePenguin]

Not everyone owns a digital camera, which makes uploading photos more difficult. I know 'real photos' can be scanned in and uploaded but I don't have a scanner either - I have to ask nicely if I can use the one at work. By the time I've finished a film it is often months after I have dropped off the TB.

[+Birders]

Alibags... we were referring to an increasing trend in "missing" TBs. We looked at a cache this morning and the last visitor noted "no sign of the two TBs". So where are they all going, one wonders?

[+dino-irl]

Here's a photo. The bug, complete with laminated mission tag is hanging from the mended chair.

Just like to point out that you can see the tracking number in that photo. Seem to remember a previous discussion about people using those to log the TB and thereby cheat