ROBIN WONG

Merely a quarter into 2025, I have found myself collecting a wider range of images than usual. For my personal photography, I do mostly street shooting, as I have often called them shutter therapy sessions. However, the year 2025 proved to be interesting, it is moving me out of my comfort zone, and I have been taking more images that I would not have taken, unless they were required for specific content on my YouTube channel. I have been accepting more lenses from third-party manufacturers for reviews: anything from ultra wide-angle lens to cheap standard primes and add some accessories like close up lens and ND filter into the mix, my gallery of images expanded considerably over the past months. It is nice to see a growing variety of photographs generated on this blog (or YouTube, well they are all from me). Here is a quick compilation of some of my favorite recent images from the first few months of 2025. 

OM Digital Solutions may have made some questionable decisions in their product strategy and marketing activities lately, but one thing for sure that never went wrong since the days of Olympus - the weather-sealing capabilities of their cameras and lenses. I have to say, the reliability of the camera's sealing against harsh environment - splash, dust and freeze, is second to none. Almost all cameras that I have reviewed from Olympus and more recently OM System, I have run them through vigorous running water test. The OM System OM-3 was no exception, and as expected, no surprise here really, the camera survived and had no issues after the water splash. I even made a video to show the water running onto the camera and lens, OM System 25mm F1.8 II, which was also weather-resistant. You can watch the shorts here (click). The confidence of having such robustly built camera is something that I do appreciate a lot. 

The biggest factor that holds many photographers back from achieving greatness is time. In order to climb to the next level, time is the most important thing that you can spend that can bear significant results. You can't just expect to spend an hour or two doing photography in your spare time in the weekend and expect your skills to improve dramatically. To get to the standards of National Geographic photographers, someone once said (I forgot who) you need to eat, breathe and sleep thinking about photography. Your passion must burn so bright that you will want to shoot more and more to get that next best shot. Without spending enough time, you can only get so far. This is the case with my own macro photography, I admit it isn't my priority, and I did not spend enough time out there, looking for interesting bugs and dramatic shots to be captured. It is very simple really, the more time I spend out there shooting and looking for bugs, the more chances I am giving myself to discover greater shots. With the limited time that I have with the Tamron 90mm F2.8 DI III Macro lens (special thanks to Futuromic Malaysia), and even less time that I allocated to actually do macro photography in local parks, these are the few decent that's I managed to capture. Nothing award-winning worthy, but hey, it is work in progress. And I must remind myself to spend more time if I want to get better. 

I have always done my insect macro photography on my Micro Four Thirds setup, and this was perhaps the first time I did any serious insect macro on full frame. Futuromic Malaysia (official distributor for Tamron and Nikon in Malaysia) approached me and asked if I was interested to test the new Tamron 90mm F2.8 III Macro lens. They were being really generous; they offered for me to just take the lens and do anything I wanted with no strings attached. If I have some good shots, I was asked to share with them to be used on their socials, which was perfectly fine. I have the Tamron 90mm F2.8 III Macro with me for a several weeks, I am still in the midst of shooting with the lens, but I thought I'd share some images I have taken with it here, and some initial thoughts. 

I do have to admit, in the last decade or so, I have gone through so many changes. From quitting my engineering job to working for Olympus Malaysia, then quitting Olympus and become a full-time photographer, then I started the YouTube channel, I guess the only constant in my life is obviously change. However, I am currently still a photographer, earning the bulk of my income doing paid shoots and assignments for clients. Therefore, it was incredibly amusing when more and more people have come up to me and asked how "life being a full time YouTuber" was like. I then told them YouTube is just a side hustle, and you can see the shock in their facial expressions. How, and why would people think I have become a full time YouTuber? On the contrary, should I take the dive and be an actual, full time YouTuber? There is a lot to unpack here. 

During my recent sharing on Rob Trek's YouTube channel, I had to do some homework, to dig up old photographs taken with Micro Four Thirds that I am proud of. You see, here is the issue - the images that I am personally happy with are not my best photography work. Allow me to explain - how do we describe great photography? Often times, these images include amazing moments, drama, excellent composition, beautiful lighting, creative play of artistic elements, you name it, there are many ways to create wonderful, impactful photographs that will "wow" people. When I look back at my own catalogue of works, yes I do have those over the top, dramatic, bombastic kind of crowd-pleasing images, but they are not my favorites. What ended up in my own "images that I am proud of" list were usually mundane, simplistic images that may not make any other people look twice. But these are my images, I like them for whatever reasons that may not be relevant to you, and I guess what I am trying to say is, sometimes we do what we do because we love doing it, not to please others. Of course, none of these images made it to the sharing session on Rob Trek's YouTube gathering Live Stream event. I am sharing just one of these images here, just one, to illustrate my point. You will be the happiest you can be if you just be 100% you. 

If you have been following this blog, you'd know that I love small cameras. That's the reason I am a huge fan of Micro Four Thirds system; they make truly compact cameras that can deliver great results. I happened to have both the smallest cameras from Panasonic and Olympus, the GM1 and E-PM2 respectively, and I thought it would be a great idea to pitch the side by side and discuss their similarities as well as differences. At the end of the day, both are fantastic cameras, I intend to keep both, since these models are effectively discontinued, but if I had to pick just one, which would it be? I made a video to discuss this too, you can check it out here (click).