2013 - A Year in Review

2013 has been a year of change for me. Some changes are related to photography and some aren't, but indirectly affects my photography hobby. The major change was my career. In May of this year, I left the job of 14 years and it was not without some regret, but mostly for the great people I worked with, and the excellent location, which was very conducive to photography related activities.

I am happy with the new job, but it is a very different culture that I need to get used to slowly. What I am less happy with, is the environment around my new job. It's mostly buildings that don't change much. I am not a street shooter and this created some difficulty for me to find things to photograph. In the old workplace, I could walk around the neighborhood and there is always something worthwhile to click the shutter for. This explains the lack of blog entries after May 2013. Being on a 17th floor of a building does not help either. I have had to motivate myself to get out of the office, wait for the elevator and finally get outside the building.

On the photography front, no new camera gear for me in 2013, with the exception of a used 5D Mark II, which, against my original reasoning, I have not used as much as I thought I would.  This year I have added very few lenses and I see myself coming to the reality that I have had enough lenses, both AF and manual focus. The only I lens I missed so much, and wish I could have it fixed, is my Canon EF 200mm f1.8L. This is especially true when shooting swimming events.  Other than that, I don't feel I have missed much. It is true that I would like to play with new toys, but what I already have is quite adequate for most of my needs.

The camera industry is in a slump as a whole. Some companies, such as Sony, is innovating and giving us fantastic products, like the A7/A7r, RX1, RX10, etc. And Olympus, which I see will do better than most in the mirrorless market, has photographer friendly OM-D series, especially the EM-1, which has won many Camera of the Year awards. The only company caught sleeping is Canon. What a lackluster year, in terms of gear, from Canon. Where is the once innovative company? If all they are going to do is to rehash the old tech and put on a new coat of paint, I see it going the way of Kodak. It's time to wake up, Canon.

Getting ready to rise - Canon 5D Mark II & EF 100mm f2.8L IS Macro.