1.1.11

Another new year comes again.

2010 has been a year of ups and downs for me. Actually its a year of ups and one down. The only thing that hit me hard in 2010 was that my Company's salary revision did not favour me. But instead of complaining and responding negatively, I channeled all that frustration and anger into passing my CFA Level 2 Exam and working hard for the rest of the year. Alhamdulillah, I passed the exam and I was well rewarded for my hardwork with a handsome year end bonus.

2010 has also been a year where I started to re-ignite my interest in photography with a purchase of my first dSLR, the Nikon D3000. I think my learning curve for the year was steep. From shooting with the auto modes to aperture priority and shutter priority, I now shoot mostly in manual. Composition-wise, I'm now no longer afraid to get closer to the subject as I strive not to crop my shots in post processing. I've also gain more knowledge in post processing and am now comfortable using Lightroom to process my shots and manage my workflow. Oh, and I've converted from being a JPEG shooter to shooting in RAW.

All of my photograpic endeavors throughout the year, I owed it mostly to these two websites: FroKnowsPhoto.com and Kenrockwell.com. Both of these guys have contradicting styles and philosophies but the advice and knowledge that they've shared has been brilliant.

And also, thanks to the revived interest in photography, the number of posts on this blog was the highest for 2010, surpassing the first year that I started blogging in 2005, and was 6 times more posts as in 2009!

So what's next for 2011?

I have a list but would rather not disclose all of them here. But on top of the list is to pass my CFA Level 3 exam in June and be done with the CFA program once and for all. In doing so, I will become the first person in my Company to pass all three levels in the shortest time possible without even failing once. That is my motivation to pass the exam this year. Cmon!

To friends, families and readers, Happy New Year 2011 and may the year be a blessed and successful one for all of us.

I end the post with a slideshow of a the best photos (I think) that I took in 2010. Enjoy.