this is so cool!!

Q: What would make these photos that my friend I took when we were out sightseeing WAY better?

Original Photos in this mosaic can be found here: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

A: An XShot.

If we had had an XShot, we could have not only gotten more of us in the photos (you can hardly see Mio at all in pictures 5 and 6), the cool landscapes would have been much more visible too (in picture number 3 you can't even see the twin hearts behind us)!

Ok, so what exactly is an XShot and why do I think it is so cool?  An XShot
is a small extendable contraption that allows individuals to take
self-portraits at lengths much further than arm's length.  It compacts
to nine inches, yet expands up to thirty-seven inches. 

Like a tripod it safely holds onto your camera; unlike a tripod
there is no running to get back into place before the timer goes off
(and no worries that a perfect stranger is going to walk off with your
camera and tripod in tow).

As a single gal living overseas, having one of these would be so
much fun and enable me to capture many more great pictures of life
here in Taiwan!

At first I wasn't going to enter the contest, I was just going to go order one of these really cool photo-taking tools (because I can use the coupon code SparkRocks to save $5.50 off of this nifty thing till tomorrow)--but the company doesn't ship internationally, yet the contest holder does. 

So . . . here I am attempting to win an XShot from BenSpark instead.  (You can enter the contest too if you want--entries are being taken till Sunday at noon.)

See the photos on this page or check out this video to see exactly how the really cool XShot works:

(Disclaimer: This post is as close to an ad as you'll ever find on my blog.)