Congratulations to this year’s winners!

First off, many thanks to all of our contestants! It was a super close race — you all had some incredible entries, many of you nearly completing the list. We hope that you had fun with the photo hunt this year and that you’ll participate next year as well. And if you have ideas/suggestions for next year’s list, please send them our way!

Another big thanks to ThinkGeek.com for providing us with such awesome prizes (and for loaning us Timmy)!

And for those of you who enjoyed learning about new areas of fandom through the photo hunt, check out the podcast The More You Nerd, expanding nerd horizons through weekly challenges. It’s co-hosted by one of the 4 photo hunt organizers, whom you might recognize as the guy who carried Timmy on his shoulder around Dragon*Con this year.

And now I bring you the …

Dragon*Con 2011 Photo Hunt Winners

Champion: Star Wars Fever (@JesseWade)

Runner-up: ShelWel Illustrations (@leia709)

Runner-up: Werewulfmom (@werewulfmom)

Again, thanks to all who participated in 2011! We hope to see you again next year!

**By the way, the three winners just so happened to have all met Timmy! It was not a deciding factor in whether they won.

Judging is Underway…

The deadline for the Dragon*Con 2011 Photo Scavenger Hunt has passed, and we are currently reviewing the entries. We’ll announce the winners as soon as possible. Keep an eye on the blog and Twitter for updates on our progress.

Looks like we have some great contestants this year — be sure to check out some of the great shots people got!

Here’s one of the most impressive shots I’ve come across so far. Magneto with Gandalf, spotted by Star Wars Fever! Nicely done!

Goodbye, Dragon*Con 2011!

We just got home after a fantastic weekend at Dragon*Con! We enjoyed meeting many of you — and I think Timmy had a blast!

I hope you all enjoyed con as much as we did — and that you had fun taking part in this year’s photo hunt. It’s all about having fun and maybe finding a few things that you may have missed otherwise. And if you like learning about new areas of fandom, I suggest checking out The More You Nerd Podcast — expanding nerd horizons through weekly challenges.

Just a reminder that you have until 11:59 pm, Monday, September 12, 2011, to get your submissions turned in to our Flickr group. Be sure to tag your photos correctly, and review the rules and FAQs. If you have additional questions, send us an email or tweet us @DC2011PhotoHunt.

We’re hoping to be able to announce the winner within one week of the deadline, but that may depend on how many people end up participating… (We’re just 4 random con-goers with jobs and stuff… so cut us some slack. ^^;;)

Please feel free to send us feedback and ideas for next year’s list via email.

We look forward to seeing all your photos!

Dragon*Con 2011 Is Almost Here! (9 Days to Go!)

I hope you’re looking forward to the photo hunt (and Dragon*Con in general) as much as we are. It’s going to be a blast!

The 2011 Photo Hunt List has been posted! Study up and make sure you’ll be able to spot all the items on this year’s list. Printed copies of the list and photo hunt rules will also be available on flyer tables throughout the con. We’ll also have them with us, so if you find us (and Timmy the ThinkGeek Monkey), be sure to ask for one.

We have some awesome prizes this year, brought to you by our new sponsor, ThinkGeek.com!

2 Runners-up will each receive a $35 gift card to ThinkGeek.com

The GRAND PRIZE winner will receive a Tauntaun sleeping bag!

Be sure to join our 2011 Flickr group, follow us on Twitter, and review the rules before con gets here.

If you have questions, send us a tweet @dc2011photohunt or an email, and we’ll get back to you!

Winner of the 2010 Photo Hunt

Congratulations to Vatavian, the winner of the 2010 Dragon*Con Photo Hunt!

It was a really close race this year — lots of really great contestants and submissions! We hope that you all enjoyed it as much as we did and that you’ll plan to participate again next year. Be sure to send us your ideas and suggestions so we can make next year even more of a success!

Remember that this contest is ultimately about having fun at the convention, and maybe even seeing it in a new light. Vatavian himself* noted on our Flickr page, ”I had given up taking photos at D*C because all the possible photos to take were just too overwhelming. This list gave me a reason to try bringing a camera again, this time with a more focused mission than the impossible ‘take a picture of everything interesting.’…I [also] learned more about several aspects of D*C and fandom as I tried to track down photos.”

Here is one of Vatavian’s most impressive finds — a character from Avatar: The Last Airbender with a character from James Cameron’s Avatar!

Congratulations again to all the contestants, and see you again next year!

*This played no part in making him the winner. Sucking up will do you no good.

It’s a-me, little Mario!

Such a cute little one! He probably grew up with the Wii Mario, not the good stuff from back in the day… but we’ll cut him some slack because he’s so full of adorableness! Submitted by lianat.

Complete with themed lunchboxes!

Love this picture! It was Vatavian‘s submission for #13: People eating in costume at a local restaurant. I love that Daphne and Velma have their handy-dandy Scooby Doo themed lunchboxes with them!

Scoring!

Sorry for the lack of blog posts lately! We’re currently in the process of scoring… Don’t worry — we have specific scoring guidelines and a spreadsheet organized for maximum fairness.

I’m having SO much fun going through all the submissions. Y’all got some great photos!

Here’s one of my favorite pictures so far…

Captured by RoxyRady — VERY impressive! I kept seeing Halo Spartans on one side of the Marriott lobby and 300 Spartans on the other side… but never together. Great shot, too! They even match — lol!

We’ll keep highlighting our favorites as we come across them. Have you looked through your fellow contestants’ photos yet? Have any favorites from the contest? Tell us in the comments!

First (actual) day of con!

Well, we’re checked in and have our badges in hand (did you get a pic of yourself receiving it??) and ready for Friday at con! The four of us will be around, heading to various panels (we’ll be pretty well-spread between tracks), so if you see one of us, stop us so you can get a printed copy of the photohunt list! I’ll post our photos on twitter once we’re all showered and dressed.

Last night, the party started, and we’ve already met lots of cool people and seen some really cool costumes (and checked a few things off our photo hunt lists!)

Can’t wait to see what’s in store today at the con!

5 Days to Dragon*Con!

Chibi Cthulhu by silverking

Only 5 days left! My weekend will be filled with Buffy-watching and packing to get ready for Dragon*con. How about you?

Make sure that if you plan to participate in the Photo Hunt that you prepare for that, too! You’ll have until 11:59 pm EST on September 13, 2010, to get your photos posted, tagged, and submitted to the Flickr group, but if you submit them during the con, we’ll be featuring a few of our favorites each day on the blog. (So keep an eye on this webspace, too! You can also subscribe to our RSS.) And I don’t personally even care if they’re photos from the hunt or not — you can submit any pictures from Dragon*Con to the group that you want… Just make sure to tag the ones you want to count toward your contest entry with the number of the item on the list that each photo satisfies. Remember that the whole point of this photo hunt is to get pictures from ALL areas of the con — to capture the essence of Dragon*Con, if you will. So if you see something that “defines” Dragon*Con (or is just awesome, funny, cool, interesting, etc.) for you, submit it to the group and maybe it’ll get featured on the blog and/or Twitter.

Here’s what I’ll be doing to get ready to participate in the Photo Hunt during the con*:

• Join the Flickr Group
• Review the instructions for adding photos to the Photo Hunt group
• Download Mobile Fotos for my iPhone (it’s the only one we can find that allows you to submit photos to a group)
• Subscribe to the blog’s RSS and follow @dc2010photohunt on Twitter

Also — a note about the list… If you’re not sure about some of the items on the list, that’s OKAY! It’s to be expected. We tried our best to cover as many of the various areas of geekdom represented at Dragon*Con… We’re not experts on all of this stuff, either. If you’re not sure about an item on the list, you can either do a little research beforehand (if you’re OCD like me) and/or you can ask some fellow con-goers once you get there. I guarantee that even if you don’t know what a D20 roll is or the difference between Silver Age and Golden Age comics, there will be thousands of people in downtown Atlanta for 5 days who can help you out — and would probably be THRILLED to teach someone who wants to know!

So is there anything I missed? Any other tips you’d like to give your fellow contestants?

* No, I will not be buying myself a $20 thinkgeek.com gift card.