Photo scavenger hunt: 36 tasks you can print
A photo task is a small order: take a picture of the oldest and the youngest guest together. It does two things at once. The guests get something to do during the empty quarter of an hour between the food and the dancing, and the host gets photos of everything she otherwise never sees, because she was in the kitchen.
Pick the tasks that suit your party below and print them as cards. It needs no account, and the cards work whether the photos end up in Snaplet or in a group chat.
Free to print · Works without an account · Ready in two minutes
Pick the tasks and print them
All 36 are selected to start with. Remove the ones that do not fit, choose how many cards per sheet, and print. The cards have room to be cut out and put on the tables.
Printed from your browser. Nothing is stored, and no account is needed.
Here is how they will look
PHOTO TASK
The first guest who arrived
PHOTO TASK
Your own table, before anyone has touched it
PHOTO TASK
Someone laughing with their eyes shut
PHOTO TASK
Two guests who had not met before today
PHOTO TASK
A pair of shoes you would not wear yourself
PHOTO TASK
The best-looking plate, just before it gets eaten
PHOTO TASK
Catch another guest in the act of taking a photo
PHOTO TASK
A selfie with someone you have not spoken to yet
PHOTO TASK
Hands only. No faces
PHOTO TASK
The oldest and the youngest guest in one picture
PHOTO TASK
Something red
PHOTO TASK
An empty chair in the middle of the party
PHOTO TASK
The view from exactly where you are sitting
PHOTO TASK
The people in the kitchen
PHOTO TASK
Someone dancing without knowing you are shooting
PHOTO TASK
The host, while she is working
PHOTO TASK
Three generations in one photo
PHOTO TASK
Someone who has fallen asleep, or is trying to hide it
PHOTO TASK
The most pointless piece of decoration
PHOTO TASK
The people standing outside
PHOTO TASK
A photo that is completely dark except for one thing
PHOTO TASK
Someone who has taken their shoes off
PHOTO TASK
The last bite of the cake
PHOTO TASK
At least five people, and none of them looking at the camera
PHOTO TASK
The worst photo of yourself you dare to upload
PHOTO TASK
Two guests wearing the same colour
PHOTO TASK
The bar, shot from below
PHOTO TASK
Borrow something from a guest and take a photo wearing it
PHOTO TASK
Something that has broken
PHOTO TASK
The people leaving first, right before they go
PHOTO TASK
A photo taken with the phone flat on the floor
PHOTO TASK
Someone on the phone in the middle of the party
PHOTO TASK
Everyone who shares a first name
PHOTO TASK
The music: the speaker, the band or the playlist
PHOTO TASK
Your own place card
PHOTO TASK
The very last photo of the night, whatever it turns out to be
Why they work
It is not photos a party lacks. It is photos of something other than the table and a speech. Without a task people shoot the same things: the food, whoever is sitting next to them, and one group photo where everybody looks at the camera.
A task moves the camera. Whoever has to find “two guests who had not met before today” gets up, talks to someone, and comes back with a photo nobody else would have taken. That is why the tasks have to be concrete: “take some fun photos” gets nobody out of their chair.
And the part that matters most
Several of the tasks are about the host, the kitchen and the people who left first. Those are exactly the people who are never in any photos, because they were working or went home early. A task is the only way to get them in.
Getting them actually used
Put one card at every setting
Not a stack on the bar. A card by the plate gets read, because the guest sits looking at it while she waits for the starter. A stack somewhere in the room gets touched by the three keenest people.
Give them a deadline
“Before the coffee” works better than “during the evening”. Without a deadline the tasks sit untouched until after dessert, and by then half the guests are no longer in the mood.
Mix the easy ones with the bold ones
“Something red” can be done by anyone straight away, and that gets people started. “The worst photo of yourself you dare to upload” is the one that gets talked about. Both kinds belong, and the easy ones go first.
Show the photos as they come in
If the photos appear on a screen while the party runs, more guests do the tasks. They can see it comes to something, and they can see what the others came up with.
Tasks written for one particular day
The 36 above suit a party in general. A wedding, a baby shower and a family reunion each have other things worth catching, and those pages have their own tasks. Not a selection from the list above, but new ones.
See also
Common questions about photo scavenger hunts
Do I need Snaplet to print the cards?
No. Pick the tasks, press print, and you have the cards. Nothing is created and you do not have to give an email address. If you also want the photos collected in one place you can create a gallery, but the cards work without it.
How many tasks should we use?
For a party of 30-50 guests, 10-15 tasks is plenty. More than that and nobody does them all, but there need to be enough that two neighbours do not get the same card. Deselect them above, so you only print the ones you want.
What paper should I use?
Ordinary paper is fine, because the cards only need to lie on the table. If they are to stand up by the setting, use card stock of 200-250 gsm. Print on A4 and cut along the dashed lines.
Does it work at a party with children?
Yes, and the children are often the best at it. Pick the concrete ones: something red, hands only, the oldest and the youngest together. Leave out the ones about the bar and late in the evening.
Can we write our own tasks?
Not in this tool, which has the 36 fixed ones. But the list is there to read out from, and a task written for your party, about something only you know, is almost always the one that turns out best.
What do we do with the photos afterwards?
That is where the tasks can be lost: they get taken, and then they sit on twenty phones. With a QR code on the table guests upload straight away, and everything lands in one gallery the host gets afterwards. No app, no account.
The cards are half of it. The photos are the rest
Put a QR code next to the task cards, so the photos land in one place instead of on twenty phones.