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Ritz Camera Geo Photo Hunt


Imajika

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Ritz Camera is having a 'geo photo hunt' contest. You can find details about the contest and prizes here.

 

I found out about this on usenet. Some people are saying that Ritz camera's coordinates are off or missing information so be warned. But if you can find a correct one in your area, you can enter. This contest is for US residents only.

 

I just posted this here because some people on the gc.com forums don't read the usenet group. The contest runs until March 29th, 2004 and the prizes look pretty cool.

 

Good luck!

Edited by Imajika
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The point behind the contest is simply to "take a picture". The coordinates in Boston mapquest to exactly where you would need to be to "take a picture" of what they describe. This is similar to the anti-scenery rule in the virtual guidelines. One picture you could send in is a skyline view of the city. Another is Gate E at Fenway Park. There's no need to get them all in an area, just take a picture, paste their entry form on the back, mail it in as a postcard and you're entered.

 

Read the rules...there's nothing in there about requiring your GPS coordinates in the shot or anything. No quality of shot. You might even be able to find a number of these pictures online (ala virtual cheating) and mail in entries. My guess is that nobody's even going to look at the photos and they go in a big bin to be selected from when it's time to pick a winner in March.

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Yes, the contest isn't for quality of photos. The photo is needed to make it a valid entry and then the names are drawn at random. So for those without coords in their area, I guess you could find some pics online? I just thought it was a pretty cool contest because the prizes are very nice.

 

I could even take pics from here in Denver and email them to people that don't have coords in their area. I don't mind.

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All the waypoints for Nevada were in Las Vegas. Guess the rest (majority) of the state wouldn't be interested in Ritz crackers. I just went back looks like there are a few in N Cal I could hit.

Thanks for the tip! Since that is your neck of the woods, are you going to check them out?

Actualy I'm a Yankee, I just fraternize with the Reb's. B)

I'm way up north in Reno, 450 miles away from Las Vegas.

 

The Sacramento waypoints look interesting. Over the river must be the big drawbridge.

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Here's an excerpt from the official rules:

To be eligible to participate, each entrant will be asked to submit a 4x6 color photograph along with an official entry form.

It doesn't mention anywhere in these rules that the picture even has to be of the area of the coordinates.

 

It also says that you can only enter once per set of coordinates and that the winner will be by random drawing.

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I just hit the 5 listed for Columbus, Ohio, and it looks like the hints were listed by the wrong coords for a few of them, and the coords may have been wrong for one of them as it put me in the front yard of someone's house. I sent an e-mail off to see if the info is incorrect.

 

Just wanted to say that so y'all might keep that in mind as you're out there hunting the locations. There may be some mistakes, like Imajika said.

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I work for Ritz Camera (Proex actually, Ritz is our parent company) and it seems strange as to the locations they have picked for waypoints. I was told that there would waypoints in every market that they're located in, but I just checked Minnesota (where I'm located along with 100+ Proex/Ritz locations) and there are no waypoints (yet). The midwest is a very large market for them. I'm in good with the "big boss" here; I'll get the lowdown and see when they plan on updating the waypoints. Too bad I can't enter :unsure: ........or CAN I????? :bad:

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I was looking at the coordinates and reading the rules for this contest. It looks like you have to take a picture of what is at the coordinates and then submit it. The one set of coords for Columbus, Ohio, I believe, is a facsimile of the Santa Maria.

 

Just wondering...

 

Thanks for the tip off on the contest...looks like fun.

 

CG

 

:o

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it would be nice if you could e-mail the picture in..

I was looking for that option myself, but the idea is to print off the entry form. Fill in the form and send along the pic of the coords. I sometimes just print on regular paper which I may do in this case...

 

Should be fun...

 

CG

 

:o

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see, the thing is, your definition of a photograph (usually a digital image) and their likely definition of a photograph (something printed on photo paper from a negative) are different. I'm concerned that if you just print out a digi-pic on a piece of bond paper, they might take issue with it. (not a photograph in their book). where's that ritz camera guy?

 

given the number of prizes and the possible low number of entries, it might be worthwhile even as a random contest, but less so if you have to get enlargements to enter.

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It's all about a bunch of "Suits" sitting around in a stuffy room throwing around "buzz" words and trying to figure out what's "now". Then, a bunch of "Yes" men try to "impliment" a new "promotion" to drive up "sales". Then us "lackeys" have to deal with a "barrage" of "questions" about why it's not going "anywhere". :D

 

Did I just "incriminate" myself?

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Not to sound of sour grapes, admittedly the nearest coordinates are all in the Chicago area half a day away, but using their words - "Ritz Camera’s Geo-Photo Hunt was created to take you to areas that you may not have known existed. "

Looking at the Chicago and St. Louis coords and clues these hardly seem like areas even an out-of-towner like me wouldn't know existed. They go on to say "The Geo-Photo Hunt gives you the opportunity to get out into nature ". The Arch, Fenway or a zoo is hardly out into nature.

 

But best of luck to anybody who enters. Seems like a fun way to get some cool stuff.

 

g

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I've checked out most of the ones in the San Jose, CA area. Most have something there that is obviously what they want. A couple have me scratching my head as to what they think is there. This could have been interesting, but with coordinates that are inaccurate, I've decided to pass. Cool prizes, but poorly excuted.

 

As a shameless plug for another type of "prize," I have just taken over the locationless cache "Cache on the Barrelhead" and posted three new targets. I have also introduced my version of bonus points, and there is a prize associated. Please look at GC4802 if you are interested in that type of cache. If it catches on I will have more targets and prizes on a regular basis. If it is nothing but a pain to run, then I'll go back to the 1/1s in the ivy.

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At first I was skeptical about this Geocaching-type of contest. As I looked through the state listings, I saw that many states did not have any waypoints. You had to manually enter the data to your GPS as there was no downloadable data file. I found several typos, including missing decimal points and even "?" question marks within the data. I was even more surprised to find Charlotte listed under *South* Carolina. It was then, I started wondering just how accurate the coordinates were.

 

Curiosity got the best of me and my son and I ventured out on a Geo-Photo Hunt last Sunday. The listings for South Carolina had five waypoints in "W. Carolina" which I recognized as downtown Greenville. As we approached the first waypoint we realized that all five were within walking distance. Each waypoint has a clue associated with it and you are supposed to go to the waypoint location and take a picture of what you think the clue refers to. When we got to the location of the first waypoint, my son was the one who spotted the weather vane atop an adjacent building as the answer to the "Which way the wind blows" clue. I was impressed that the location I was standing was the perfect spot to take a picture of the weather vane, because a few feet in any other direction and the view would be obscured by the roofline of the building. This accuracy proved true for the remaining waypoints. Each put us in perfect position to take a picture of the subject.

 

Overall it was good clean fun and it got my son and I out doing something together on a cold afternoon. Your results may differ. Especially for those of you hunting in Texas (21N Lat?) and Maryland (44W Lon?) where there are obvious errors in the specified coordinates and for those of you in California (N33 58.947 W117 22.385) and Ohio (N41 23.738 W81 51.077) where you have no clue.

 

To make it easier for you to enter the coordinates into your GPS, I have compiled all of the currently available Geo-photo Hunt waypoints in GPS eXchange (.gpx) format. I have also taken liberties to make corrections to obvious errors. The data file I have created is available at www.travelbygps.com/special/GeoPhoto/hunt.php

 

Enjoy!

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