Skip to main content

In Australia this Labor Day weekend? Flash a smile in the world’s largest selfie

worlds largest selfie australia labor day screen shot 2015 09 06 at 11 30 18 am
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Nothing screams Labor Day like a beaming selfie, and if you’re lucky enough to be in Australia for the long weekend, you may want to consider participating in what is being called the world’s biggest selfie. Tapping into our gratuitous need for self documentation, Tourism Australia, the organization behind the record setting concept, is looking to attract a younger, more media-savvy demographic to the beautiful shores of Australia’s Gold Coast. Specifically, the agency hopes to bring a greater number of Japanese tourists to the continent, many of whom are known for their love of social media and their very active digital presence.

GIGA Selfie −The world's biggest selfie service by Tourism Australia− |あなた史上最大画素数の"自撮り"サービス

Powered by the “Giga Selfie” app, on Sept. 5 and 6 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., tourists (and locals, of course), will be able to “trigger a distant camera which captures them and the surrounding landscape.” No need for a super-sized selfie stick, folks — rather, the high powered camera located around 364 feet away will snap a memory that you and everyone in your vicinity (whether they know it or not) can treasure for a lifetime.

Recommended Videos

In a statement, Tourism Australia managing director John O’Sullivan noted that this latest campaign will capitalize on the existing interests of its Japanese tourists, who clearly contribute significantly to the industry. Said O’Sullivan, “Japan has long been an important tourism market for Australia, with more than 320,000 Japanese visitors traveling here in the past year alone and contributing more than $1.4 billion in visitor spend. With new air services coming online this year there is a real opportunity to further grow travel from Japan and capture the renewed interest in Australia as a travel destination.”

Please enable Javascript to view this content

And what better way to renew interest than allow for current visitors to send family members back home a giant selfie on the Gold Coast? After the selfie is taken, both the photograph and accompanying video footage will be emailed to the subject, and they can then share the “image as a short video clip which starts as a close up selfie and pulls back to reveal their location.”

O’Sullivan continued, “The ‘Giga Selfie’ campaign will help to raise the level of conversation about Australia in Japan as people share their incredible experiences of holidaying here with their friends and family back home, and in turn helping to encourage more Japanese travelers to follow in their footsteps.”

Tourism Australia has yet to decide whether they will keep this project running after the weekend, but will first assess the overall success of its debut before making any moves. But come on, how could a selfie taken by a camera 100 times more powerful than a normal device sitting hundreds of feet away not be a smash hit?

Lulu Chang
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Fascinated by the effects of technology on human interaction, Lulu believes that if her parents can use your new app…
This GoPro camera is $100 off at Walmart today
The GoPro Hero 12 Black Creator Edition set up on a small tripod on the beach.

When it comes to high-octane sports and other speedy scenarios, our phone cameras can only do so much to capture the action. That’s why there’s such a big market for action cameras, and one of the O.G. camera companies in this realm is GoPro. For years, GoPro has been delivering HD and 4K cameras that are both durable and user-friendly, which is why we’re glad to shine a light on this fantastic offer we found while vetting Walmart deals:

When you purchase the GoPro Hero 12 at Walmart, you’ll pay $300. At full price, this model sells for $400.

Read more
The excellent intermediate Canon EOS R10 camera is $86 off at Walmart today
Canon EOS R10 camera mirrorless with STM lens attached and flash up

I recently grabbed a Canon EOS R50 bundle for a trip to the Dominican Republic. I did a lot of research before I made my decision, sifting through the best camera deals, and the two options I essentially narrowed down were the R50 and the EOS R10. The biggest difference between the two is that the R10 gives you more granular control over some of the photoshoot settings. R50, on the other hand, was designed assuming you'll mostly use the automatic shooting modes. That's a great option for novices, while the R10 is better for intermediate to more skilled photographers. Why am I telling you all of this? Because the excellent Canon EOS R10 camera is on sale at Walmart for Black Friday, discounted by $86 to $760 instead of $846. It is one of the better early Black Friday camera deals I've found so far. It comes with an 18-45mm lens. Needless to say, that's a great deal. Comparatively, the R10 with body only -- no lens -- is .

 
Why shop the Canon EOS R10 camera in Walmart's early Black Friday sale?

Read more
SpaceX images show the awesome power of Starship’s Raptor engines
The Super Heavy booster's Raptor engines powering the Starship's launch on November 19, 2024.

SpaceX has posted some incredible images showing the Super Heavy booster's 33 Raptor engines as they powered the Starship rocket skyward at the start of the vehicle’s sixth test flight on Tuesday.

“[Thirty-three] Raptor engines powering the Super Heavy booster off the pad from Starbase,” SpaceX wrote in the message on X.

Read more