I was traveling out of town when my sister texted me asking if I ordered a Canon camera. Confused, I asked her why, as I never did buy one. She said that a camera had been delivered at our house and it was addressed to me. Opening the parcel, it turned out my photo was picked as one of the monthly winners for Living Asia Channel’s photo contest.

Living Asia Channel is a local travel station on cable TV; actually one of the five channels I’m usually tuned into besides NatGeo, Discovery, TLC and History Channel--whenever I have the rare chance of watching TV that is.  

Along with Canon, they are currently running a photo contest with the theme one-shot moments; seize life with Canon. Anyone with a Canon point & shoot camera (sorry no DSLR’s allowed) can submit their travel-related photographs; four photos are then chosen from the pool every month and each winner given a Canon Powershot A490 camera as prize.

My winning photograph was taken at the Bangaan Rice Terraces in Sagada on a scorching trek down Bomod-Ok Waterfalls during a solo trip I had last year at Sagada. This was shot from a very high vantage point, me still up the terraces and the old man tending to his crops way down below.

The award might be a bit small compared with other photography contests going around, but I was actually looking for a compact camera to bring around with me everyday and this suited my need perfectly.

This is the second time I won a camera from Canon this year, the first one a Canon 1000D DSLR, for bagging the first place for the Point & Shoot division at the annual Canon Photomarathon contest, so a big big thank you to Canon.

For those who want to join the contest, just click on the Canon banner below this post for the mechanics.