A Decade Old, More Shutter Therapy Sessions to Come

I was so busy lately that I have not even had the time to do a proper recap of the year 2014. I have been busy with shooting weddings for the last weekends, and I could barely find time to catch my own breath! 

Ending of 2014 marked that this blog has been in existence for 10 years! Yes, robinwong.blogspot.com is a DECADE old! I can barely believe it myself, and little did I know I would come this far and stay this long when I started this humble blog all these years ago. Also, I have accumulated more than 10 Million page views (90% coming in the last 2 years). Goodness, where did everyone come from? 

I am glad that I have had the opportunity to speak to so many people and contribute in whatever small ways I can in the online photography community. I realize my blog updates frequency has slowed down dramatically for the past few months, but I also ensure that I have longer blog posts, with more photographs (not just simple snapshots, but photographs made with a lot of thought and effort behind them). I shall continue to do so!

Photo Credit: Matti Sulanto

Here is a list of highlights over my 10 blogging years:

2004

My first blog entry was about a surprise birthday party I helped made happen for a friend, which involved everyone being thrown into the river in Perth, Australia.

2004-2007

Documentation of my university life, my struggles, my journey, the beautiful memories, the delicious food and awesome people that I have met. My blog was the usual random, online diary format, a place where I can rant and pen down anything I wanted, freely. 

I have taken down my blog posts from my early years for privacy reasons. My blog here now only started showing from the year 2008 onward

2008

I left Perth behind. That was a painful phase of my life, and I started a new life in Kuala Lumpur. I have also picked up my first DSLR (Olympus DSLR E-410), and getting more serious in photography. After a few months the E-410 was snatched from me at a public train, and I replaced that with a newly launched Olympus E-520. 

2009

My father passed away in this year. Again a very difficult and dark time for me. Many people do not know, but the phrase Shutter Therapy was born during this time. I was feeling depressed and I thought to myself, photography could be doing me good, and it did, hence it became a form of therapy for me. I started using the phrase Shutter Therapy ever since and become something that become widely accepted, within the photography community. 

2010

Olympus Malaysia approached me with the Olympus E-5, which I was loaned with to do a blog review. And I did, but with little expectations on what would follow. This blog suddenly become known and page views surged to tens of thousands per day, from just mere hundreds. This was possibly the turning point of my blog, a defining moment that paved my path and led me to where I am today. By this time, robinwong.blogspot.com has somehow transformed into a full photography centric blog. 

2011

Another important year for me, as my blog grew larger in audience. Initially my blog only had spike of visitors during blog review seasons, but I have noticed that the retention of readers got better after each review I did. This blog also started to get recognition from more prominent photography bloggers, such as Mike Johnston (the Online Photographer), Steve Huff and Kirk Tuck. It was an honor being mentioned on their blogs!

2012

The peak of my blog has got to be during the OM-D E-M5 review. Come on, everyone has got to agree that E-M5 could possibly be the most successful, and most highly regarded mirrorless camera up to date. It was the mirrorless interchangeable camera that changed the perception of what a mirrorless interchangeable camera was, and totally raised the bar of camera performance, surpassing and matching even DSLR counterparts. 

2013

Two huge events happened in 2013. First, my mum was hospitalized, I spent two months with her in the hospital including her recovery at home, and got huge support from my blog readers. Suddenly I was reminded that the people here are very real, and I can never thank everyone enough for helping me through this extremely difficult time. Secondly, I quitted my old job (Geotechnical Engineer) which I have been doing for the past five years in Kuala Lumpur, and joined Olympus Malaysia Marketing team. 

2014

What an exciting year, a change of career, and I have just turned 30 years old. I have met so many people from all over the world, dived deeper into photography, and loved what I do even more here. 

I know it is a little late, but hey, Happy New Year to all of you beautiful people out there! I appreciate your support, visits, comments and contributions in any way that you have made to me. Many of you have helped me through difficult times and I am grateful for that. Here is to more shutter therapy sessions to come for everyone.