Monday, 11 June 2012

{ Giveaway } No more bad photos - Sony Cyber-Shot HX20

It's been six months since we returned from our 10 week , 12000km road trip, to Western Australia .

We were blown away by the spectacular beauty of Western Australia. Moments we just couldn't possibly capture on film as stunningly as we hoped to.

Though , I took thousands of photos , lucky for you - I posted only a few hundred here on my blog, as time and as many as, a good husband wifi connection would allow.

I know for as many good shots I captured , unfortunately many more were disappointing - the dreaded bad travel photo . Yes, we enjoyed soaking in the magical moments but creating lasting memories is why I take photos.


One of my favourite destinations , undoubtedly, was the Shark Bay, World Heritage Area. I shared the best and some worse images with you in 2011 October .

It's not hard to see why it is a popular escape for tourists worldwide, located midway up West Australian Coastline , miles from anywhere.

At the heart of Shark Bay , World Heritage Area, is magical Monkey Mia , with crystal clear waters, pristine white shell beaches and daily visitations by mystical Dolphins .

It was the furthermost point north we traveled due to time constraints and the highlight of our 10wk trip.

A trip of a lifetime to witness the magical  Bottle-nose dolphins up close, under flawless blue skies, and stunning beauty everywhere you looked.

No-one is allowed to touch the dolphins, it is forbidden, even for the rangers (Department of Environment and Conservation) and volunteer workers. Nor is anyone permitted to swim with or interact with them, outside of the feeding times.

Each morning , the shoreline was fringed by dozens or maybe a hundred ,hopeful people .
Each hoping to be one of the few, chosen at whim,  for a unique dolphin interaction.

Year round , free of charge , the chosen ones are picked to hand feed one of maybe three -four wild dolphins who come into the shore for tasty snack.

Each dolphin's allowance being 4 small fish.

Slim pickings, on all counts.

It was discovered that feeding the dolphins anymore caused them to stay too long in shallows and the dolphin calves were all dying.

Dolphins are mammals who need to be in deep water to allow calves to feed properly and regularly.

Their calves got weak , sick and died waiting for the mothers to return.
So they changed the feeding regime based on the animal behaviour research conducted at Monkey Mia.

We patiently waited for the dolphins to cruise on in.
They took their time some days and frolicked with their calves, siblings or other dolphins in their pod.

My twin boys played in the shallows . I had my zoom lens on , watching, as small waves lapped the shore. I snapped away at the dolphin playing in the distant and closer waters with my zoom lens.

The volunteers entered the water and seconds later the dolphins swam in, as if on cue.
What happened next ?

Of course hands went up everywhere, a sea of waving and bouncing people  !

Even after the Ranger, with the mike, told the 4 working volunteers , holding fish buckets in knee deep waters to
ignore  -
the waving hands and eager ones.

Then the unexpected ....

My boys, Sam and Joel, on the far end - though at the front of the crowd, oblivious to all the hype ,
were chosen first up ...

Hurriedly, they stepped forward, excited without a care ... whether or not I was ready !

A rare opportunity escaped me , to capture my boys encountering the dolphins because I couldn't change the DSLR zoom lens quick enough.

My Dreaded Bad Travel Photo  OCT 2nd , 2011 - hurried and headless !
Regrettably , I chopped the tops of my boys heads off ! The colours are not as vibrant as I'd like and there is a slight blur.

As I was fumbling around trying to swap lens - I almost missed it all , save for a few bad photos.
Save , is the wrong word - I couldn't fix this, at all.

Ok , so why am I writing about the dreaded bad travel photo?

Sony launched the No more bad photos campaign - giving people a second chance to capture those missed moments, re-live the adventure and missed opportunities.

One day I would like to recapture our dolphin encounter with my boys heads intact. It was hard to chose which was my worse bad travel photo but this one I'll never forget.


With so many outstanding features - what I like most is the Superior Auto Intelligent feature - auto settings at the press of a button . It recognizes 36 different shooting scenes and automatically optimizes the shooting mode for any unique photo - it could have given me better shots many times over !
 
I'd also make the most of my second chance with the 20x Optical Zoom - which meant I would be ready to take the shot instead of fumbling for a different lens. The Optical SteadyShot™ image stabilization would have eliminated any blur too.

The sweep panoroma would be perfect to capture the unsurpassed spectacular view of entire bay too.

I been road testing the new Sony Cyber-shot HX20 and I'm so impressed with the superior image quality. I freely admit I am no expert at all, but so far my quick point and shoot snap-shots are clearer and steadier - especially with moving targets like 5 year old twin boys.

This, pocket rocket , camera is really easy to use, ready to capture any special moment at the press of  a button. It even has a GPS feature to record locations , never forget where and when you took any shot again.

My Little Drummer Boys is so excited to be giving away ONE Sony Cyber-Shot HX20 Digital Camera To One VERY Lucky Reader to celebrate the launch of Sony Cyber-shot HX20

To enter the No more bad travel photo giveaway ...


Tell me in 50 words or less why you want to re - capture one of your bad travel photos again  - unfortunately I can't wave a magic wand to make the opportunity happen - only supply the brilliant  Sony Cyber-shot HX20 camera !

Be quick
Giveaway Closes 11:59  (AEST) on 17th June, 2012  
Australia residents only 
Please leave details in the Entry form below. 

Edited to add - I wanted to clarify that you can enter more than one comment below , both as a general comment on this post or as your entry comment in 50 words or less .
Only one competition entry per day , no limit to a general comments !! 






PS - If you have ever wished you could re-live a holiday, adventure or event all over  again because you didn't get a great photo of it the first time? ...still 3-4 days (as at 13th June) to enter the Sony Cyber Shot HX 20 Facebook competition by uploading your own photo (I'm just letting you know - this competition is not related to my blog giveaway at all)

Comments (100)

Loading... Logging you in...
  • Logged in as
I would re do a photo of me that was taken up in northern Scotland, i have the snow peaked mountains behind me and me with my hands up in the air like i'm king of the world..... with my fly down on my jeans :-( its not obvious but enough for me to notice!
1 reply · active 681 weeks ago
I would love it if I could recapture the last time we went to Singapore and get to take that gorgeous family photo of me & the kids without looking double the size that I really am!!
My recent post When You Look Like You Just Threw Something Together
1 reply · active 681 weeks ago
I would love to have a chance to re-take some moments with my 2yr old - I missed a beautiful moment when he was with his great-grandfather just before he passed away - too blurry :(
2 replies · active 681 weeks ago
I have been going through my husbands travel photos from when he was little, they are all cracked and horrible, his father died when he was eight, so I'd love to get some really good photos of all of them!
1 reply · active 681 weeks ago
I met (read *stalked* the back of QPAC for hours before her concert) Cyndi Lauper after her concert in Brisbane last year. My sister took a photo of Cyndi & I and since it was only with my crappy camera phone it is dark and not sharp. So disappointing!
1 reply · active 681 weeks ago
I had my first overseas holiday last year with my daughter - we went to America together and created some great memories. (I'm now 60)
The photos of me are quite good, but the photos I took of my daughter are awful!
1 reply · active 681 weeks ago
We went to Singapore in the days of 35mm cameras, came home to find that not one of the 25 rolls worked out! Not one photo of the trip of a lifetime! I have great memories but not photo's to share :(
My recent post Baking, books & just being
1 reply · active 681 weeks ago
Sharon Fawcett's avatar

Sharon Fawcett · 681 weeks ago

We visited my husband's 90 year old grandmother with our daughter when she was a few months old and the photo's we have to show for it are fairly awful and sadly she passed away not long afterwards and we were never able to take any better ones.
1 reply · active 681 weeks ago
We love to travel as a family to the beach but out last family portrait was a disaster. We looked dull, out of focus and our eyes were squinting from the sun. Our next beachside holiday is in October! Yay for second chances!
My recent post Inspiration from the Carpenter – Fruitcakes bearing Fruit
1 reply · active 681 weeks ago
Charlotte L's avatar

Charlotte L · 681 weeks ago

Years ago we went to Fiji. I only had an old style film camera and when the pictures were printed many were blurry and the colours were wrong. Sadly one whole film for some reason didn't even come out :(
1 reply · active 681 weeks ago
Melanie Schmidt's avatar

Melanie Schmidt · 681 weeks ago

I would like to redo the impossible..... A photo of my miracle IVF son Connor, my husband and his father, all three generations. Unfortunately his connor's grandfather died before he was born. He would have been so proud to see his son had grown into such a loving husband and father himself.
1 reply · active 681 weeks ago
We don't go on many big holidays but we did manage to take the kids to Dubbo recently for a little holiday and to let them experience the awesome zoo they have there... I had really wanted a nice photo of both my little girls but every single one turned out horribly... blame it on the sun, blurriness, the horrible camera and one even had my finger over the lens!!! Argh... then to make it worse one of my little ones got to my camera and we now have a permanent smudge in every photo... you've got to laugh!
My recent post You want some more fat with that?
1 reply · active 681 weeks ago
Just realised my last comment wasn't 50 words or less.... so here is take two... sorry!

On a trip to Dubbo zoo I attempted to take a photo of the kids together without blurriness or eye squinting...no luck! Then to make it worse one of my kids got to my camera and we now have a permanent smudge in every photo... you've got to laugh!
My recent post You want some more fat with that?
1 reply · active 681 weeks ago
We travelled to Melbourne with Sienna before Aidan was born, did the zoo and aquarium all in one day before flying home. We asked another tourist to get a photo of us with the baby elephants at the zoo. Fantastic photo, everyone was smiling, big bump on display - pity my boobs were leaking. White shirt. DELETE.
What an awesome camera! We holidayed down the coast when little miss two was eight months and it was perfect, just the three of us {now four!}, the best ocean views {in winter of course!} and so much laughing - I got a few good photos in until the battery died!! Forgot the charger, and missed capturing so many precious moments :(
My recent post Go and stop. Stop and go.
1 reply · active 681 weeks ago
I would love to recapture pictures of Christmas on the Gold Coast a few years ago. I was so tired and sitting on the floor, many pictures that were blurry and unflattering, featuring giant nostrils obscuring faces.
1 reply · active 681 weeks ago
Michelle Vamvas's avatar

Michelle Vamvas · 681 weeks ago

I paid over $1000 for front row tickets to Michael Buble. Im a HUGE fan. To my amazement, half-way through the concert, he walked through our row!!! Less than half a metre away!!!!!!! The image I got was blurry, grainy, and had another fan's arm blocking his face! :(
1 reply · active 681 weeks ago
Mary Preston's avatar

Mary Preston · 681 weeks ago

It's sometimes hard to explain & share those special moments when the photographs are just plain awful.

No amount of description, emphasis, gestures, waving of arms or jumping up & down can do what a great photograph can.
1 reply · active 681 weeks ago
I took images of my youngest sons first active time on the beach recently however all i have are blurry, hard to see images that when zoomed in still don't really show anything you would want to share.
1 reply · active 681 weeks ago
I have been looking a camera like this. I have an old SLR and I was recently asked to take photos of a little fashion parade. My camera wouldn't work and I only got a few blurry and a couple of black photos. I wish I had the cyber-shot to whip out.
My recent post For the Man that has everything....
1 reply · active 681 weeks ago
It's not the holiday image for me, it's one of our family. We have just ONE and I'm not looking at the camera. The focus is on my boobs, which were bfing at the time, and huge. Noice. We also only have camera phones. Does the cyber shot focus on faces rather than breasts? If so. Yes Please!
My recent post Stress Free Chooks, from the farm to my belly.
1 reply · active 681 weeks ago
I have countless bad photos over the years, missed out on school concerts because of flat battery, birthday pics which look like they are taken in the dark, blurry wedding photos and missed opportunities of my late parents. Please help me keep my memories!
My recent post The 100 Post, A Century, The Big One Oh Oh, 10x10
1 reply · active 681 weeks ago
My daughter's birth - involved an emergency flight, so I think it counts as a holiday. She was born at 32 weeks, a camera was on our "to purchase" list, but she arrived first! Thank god phones have cameras, but I'm sad we don't have any quality photos.
1 reply · active 681 weeks ago
I would love to have more baby pictures of my youngest 2, with my 1st son I had an avelanche of photos...number 2, not so many, number 3 and 4 I have barely any :-(
1 reply · active 681 weeks ago

Post a new comment

Comments by