While I was in Playa del Carmen, in Mexico, I went to an eco-park nearby called Xcaret. I brought along a camera to place there, hoping that someone there would find it and decide to take pics of their holiday.

When I first got there, I was all like – okay, gotta find a good place for this. And then I instantly forgot and walked around in the hot sun, checking everything out, including a couple of Jaguars that decided to get amorous just as I arrived.

By the time I finally remembered that I had the camera, it was pretty late in the day, and there weren’t many places to put it. In the evening, everyone goes to a large theatre to watch a two hour show about Mexican culture. Perfect – That’s where everyone was going to be! Unfortunately, I didn’t arrive until shortly before the show started, but, I was able to find time to put Camera #180 on the counter in the men’s washroom.

Near the beginning of my trip to Mexico, I started receiving a bunch of comments and requests to Help Spread the Project [more on that to come!] – more than the usual amount. Usually this means that someone’s posted a link to the project. And, after checking out my stats, this was indeed the case.

The number one culprit was A Cup of Jo, a blog on art, photography and more – if you look closely in the link, you’ll see the link to The Anonymous Photo Project – trust me.

Also, there was a glowing post on Take Nothing But Polaroids. My favorite lines:

If this were the Olympics and freak’n awesome social experiments was a event. These guys would win gold!

The Project was also mention on a Norwegian blog, The Keep. The link is “steder” in the line “I etterkant har det litt gjentatt andre steder!” Which, run through Google Translate, translates as “Following are some repeated elsewhere!”

Also, Friends with Benefits,  and my first Tumbl.

Thanks everyone!

So, I’ve been really bad at updating the blog with all of the new things that have been happening, but, this post will be the beginning of fixing that. I know, I’ve been bad, please forgive me!

While I was in Mexico, I went to Playa del Carmen, a resorty beach city, near Cancun, but smaller. The day before leaving, I realized that I had yet to place a camera in the city I spent a week in… whoops!

The busiest area, with the most foot traffic, and hopefully the most success of getting someone to pick up the camera and do something with it, is Avenida 5, the main tourist drag. There a bunch of benches along the avenida, so, I walked up and down, trying to find the right one. It had to be in an area with enough people walking by that someone would notice it, and, also not already occupied. I finally resorted on placing Camera #179 on a bench near Calle 6 Sur.

Well, I’ve been on my vacation in Mexico for almost two weeks now, and I’ve only placed one camera! I decided to get the letter translated into Spanish to, hopefully, help the success rate. And, I also had some internet issues, which caused some additional delays. But, on Wednesday, I finally got a chance to place one.

Camera #178 was placed in Cancun, on a bench in the Plaza La Isla – a large outdoor mall, on the ocean with its own Aquarium, complete with dolphin shows.

My plan is to place another 4 cameras while I’m here. Hopefully that means that I’ll get at least one of those back.

Valerie Thai & Roger Allen went to Vietnam on vacation last month, and they did the Project a big favour by taking Camera #30 – an old camera that hadn’t been placed yet! They left it at the Virgin Mary statue in front of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon).

Here’s to hoping that this one makes it’s way back!

Back in October, I placed Camera #129 in the Foot Passenger Lounge for the Gabriola Island Ferry in Nanaimo, BC. I had started to lose hope that it would come back, but, lo and behold, a few days ago, it did!

There are quite a bit of sailing shots – it looks like the camera sailed to Vancouver, and made it’s way, with a chicken, to the chopping block.

I’m heading off to Mexico for a holiday in a couple of days, but don’t worry – I’ll be taking some cameras along with me. And, I’ll have some assistance in translating the letter into Spanish. So, hopefully, I’ll get at least one camera back from Mexico. If nothing else, I’ll at least be hitting another country with The Anonymous Photo Project!

This morning, I was interviewed by Brady Strachan, of Evolution 107.9, about The Anonymous Photo Project. The interview will air one day this week – I’m not sure the day – at about 1:20 pm or so. If you want to check it out, you can listen to it online on Evolution’s website.

Hopefully I can sound somewhat intelligent!

Update: I just got an email, from Brady Strachan, letting me know that it will be playing today at 1:15 pm or 1:20pm. I know it’s short notice, but, you can do it!

Just a reminder that The Anonymous Photo Project will be on Shaw TV today on a show called The Express. It’s on at 6pm, but, if you miss it, it airs a whole bunch of times over the weekend. You can read about the taping here, and the camera that gets dropped off during the segment has already been returned!

So, you know how I told you about placing a camera outside Chapters while being filmed by Shaw TV? Well, after I posted, I moseyed on down to my Post Office box, and, lo and behold, it was already there! This was three days after the shoot, which means, not only did the people who found it do their work pretty much immediately, but, the Post Office can actually work sometimes. This is definitely the quickest a camera has every made it back, and, it’s probably going to remain the quickest [especially since I don’t check my mailbox everyday… shhhhhh….].

So, enough with my facination with how quick it came back. How about we talk about and look at the pictures instead?

The first picture from Camera #130, above, is just down the street from where the camera was left. In fact, a lot of the pictures – at least at the beginning – are of Christmas shopping on Granville. Oh yeah, and if you are in need of a little Twelve Step help, look no further.

Happy Holidays everyone!

A couple of updates for you. On December 26 [Boxing Day here in Canada], Emmi Jormalainen left Camera #125 where Santa lives! She left the camera Under the Christmas tree on Santa Claus Village, in Rovaniemi, Finland, in the Arctic Circle. According to Wikipedia, the Santa Claus Village is claimed to be where Santa lives, and Rovaniemi is home to the world’s most northerly McDonald’s.

According to Google Maps, the Santa Claus Village is further north than McDonald’s, which means that the camera was placed further North than any McDonald’s.  In your face Micky D’s!

Hopefully, someone will find the camera under the tree and make sure it makes it’s way back! Camera #85, was placed at the entrance to Santa House in North Pole, Alaska in September of 2007, but never made it back. I have a feeling that Santa is hoarding cameras from The Project, and, obviously houses!

And, unrelatedly, recently, Barbie Hauzinger came across The Anonymous Photo Project and has decided to Help Spread the Project. Thanks Barbie!