Thursday 25 December 2014

POV | 2014's Highlights | The Travel Photographer

Your Year In Review (or something like that) is a new trend on Facebook that allows it to pull any user's 2014 activities, and create a personalised timeline of the highlights of the year complete with photos and statuses.  Users can customise their  timelines as well, with Facebook allowing users to add up to four photos for each month in the year.

Since I have no intention of letting Facebook getting involved any more than necessary in my timeline, I thought it to be an idea to do my own...briefly listing some the highlights of my photographic timeline of 2014.

From a technical standpoint, I think my decision to reduce my reliance on the heavy Canon DSLR system I have been using for over 15 years to the lightweight mirrorless system in the form of the Fuji X Series (X-Pro1 and X-T1) and the Leica M9 is one that's at the top of the list.  I was particularly impressed by the X-T1's performance during my September photo expedition to Vietnam.

The two photography expedition-workshop that I led to India (to cover Holi festival) and to Vietnam were by and large very interesting but very different. The former was very technically challenging, while the latter was not.

On a personal level, teaching at the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop is always a phenomenal experience. This year in Antigua, I had the pleasure of working with 8 talented photographers of diverse backgrounds and experience.

The memory of getting literally hosed with cold and colored water during Holi was one that will remain in my subconscious for quite a while, but the pleasure in meeting lovely people in Ha Noi's Hoan Kiem lake will remain for far longer.

Finally, discovering, and then researching and documenting, obscure religious rituals performed in Northern Vietnam's Red Delta region which will hopefully be included in my 2015 photo expeditions.

So I hope I was prophetic in my earlier message...may the next year be filled with superb light, exotic travel, colorful festivals and new (and even better) photo-taking devices!

REI | De Las Flores

REI by Tewfic El-Sawy on on Exposure