[silverknight]

found this in a blog from last years winner - pentax should put this on their front page

"The weather proved a tad too much for my equipment, and almost too much for me! Rain combined with strong winds meant that the waves were constantly crashing over our zodiac, drenching all on board. I’m not sure what the temperature was, but because of the wet, I was absolutely freezing. Thank goodness my Columbia clothing kept my torso nice and dry, but ice water seeped it’s down the top of my pants, and my hands were frozen claws. My Canon camera was worse off than me – it simply died.

I was devastated for a little while, as I was silly enough to not bring a backup kit, but Jason later produced a Pentax body and lens kit for me to use. Phew! Pentax has invested a lot in weather sealing their cameras, and it obviously makes a huge difference. All the passengers I know who had their cameras out today experienced some sort of fault, only Jason’s gear kept going.

I had made the very silly choice this morning of bringing only my Canon body and lens with me. Though they had been damaged the day before in the rain, it seemed to come back to life this morning. I thought that it must have fully dried inside and therefore back to normal. Boy was I wrong.

Within half and hour of landing, my Canon body stopped responding, not even powering on. I had left the Pentax Jason loaned me on the ship, not thinking that I needed it. Now I’m kicking myself, devastated that I wouldn’t be able to photograph the rest of the island despite the perfect light, and angry with myself for not being better prepared. Yet again.
That’s how Jason found me – dull-eyed and feeling sorry for myself. He tsked me for leaving behind a working body and magically produced yet another spare from his backpack. What a lifesaver! "

btw, the canon camera that died was a 5d mk2
____
oh and for pentax sponsoring this - I think the mentor jason edwards might have something to do with that - think he uses pentax gear. michaels which is also one of the sponsors might actually be putting up the $2k worth of gear (they are a shop)

[CWyatt]

The tog in that prize package is Melbourne born Jason Edwards who is a long time Pentax shooter and the only Australian photographer employed by Nat Geo.

bazz.

Thanks, info I didn't know.

[sjwaldron]

found this in a blog from last years winner - pentax should put this on their front page

What was the blog link? That was a really neat quote.

[Adam]

Would be great if they started sponsoring more just to get the name out there. I was thinking of getting more events going here on the site, in the footsteps of our k-x giveaway, but obviously of a different nature, since that one didn't go over well.

Adam
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[sjwaldron]

Would be great if they started sponsoring more just to get the name out there. I was thinking of getting more events going here on the site, in the footsteps of our k-x giveaway, but obviously of a different nature, since that one didn't go over well.

Something to do with the Grand Canyon and Pentax?

I have family that live down there (in the winter ) and visited them once. Loved the weather (in October 2008) and change of scenery.

[sjwaldron]

I submitted an entry to that contest about my "expedition" eariler this month with friends:
Photo Gallery - My Photo scholarship 2010 entry - Hunting for the photo - WorldNomads Adventures

However I pretty much broke the rules by expanding my 300 word entry to include a link to this rant about their contest:
Hunting for photos with the Pentax K-7 and DA* 300mm (photo taken by a friend). | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
(I'm sure a lot of people already saw the photo here, but I added rant text to the description below the picture.) As I didn't like their idea of some super ridged old school idea of what photography should be.