Happy New Year everybody ! Hope that you will have a great time and lost of fantastic shooting opportunities.

Well, well, well, another New Year bash came and went without major incidents (like having to dance 🙂 ) and it’s time to reflect of what the future may hold. So, without too much waiting, which trends  will be interesting to watch in 2014 in the world of photography ? There are the three areas that I’ll keep my eye on (in no particular order):

• First: I think that one of the potentially interesting stories may be the introduction of first cameras by Panasonic and FujiFilm sporting their jointly developed sensor which uses an organic film for capturing photons. It was formally announced back in June (here is the link to the press release) and if we believed the claims there, there is a chance to see some tangible improvements over the standard CMOS sensors. We shall see.
• Second: I have a hunch that sometime this year Adobe will release a tablet version of the Lightroom. It was showed by one of the Adobe guys last year on Kelby TV (or was it The Grid ?) but it was still at a very preliminary stage, not ready for release. Considering that they decided to tease us, with that piece of info and that the processing power of tablets is improving at great rate, I think that it is quite possible we’ll see such  a product this year. Does the world need an app like that ? It depends on a combination of price and capabilities but yes, I can see some useful applications for such technology. I would use it to quickly review my photos on an iPad during the times when I’m away from home on a shooting trip. As an example, I would quickly process the more promising images and use one or two as an illustration for posts on this blog. Certainly, I’m intrigued and I’m willing to try it.
• Third: Since I’m a Canon shooter, it is obvious that I’m extremely curious about what Canon is planning for this year. See, for more than a decade, between 2000 and 2010, they dominated the DSLR market (I’m not sure about the Point and Shoot segment). They were the leaders, setting trends and introducing great, if not iconic, cameras. Remember the original 5D and and then the 5D MkII ? I’m sure you do. Now ? With the exception of sports/action camera (1Dx), Canon has lost its mojo, it seems. They lost focus preoccupied by video camera market, it seems. In the pro and semi-pro sub-segment, Nikon is eating its lunch with such great cameras like D800. In the mirror-less market, they stumbled badly with EOS-M and are being beaten by virtually everybody: Olympus, Sony, FujiFilm, Panasonic. Even Nikon, with its less than inspiring Nikon 1 cameras seem to do better. And of course, the P&S cameras are quickly going the way of the Dodo bird pushed aside by smartphones and tablets. Now, I firmly believe that Canon is too big of a company, with too many smart people to let it continue for too long, hence my curiosity. What will they do to compete ? I have a hunch that it will be a very interesting year. … Added on Jan 9th – Just read a post at Canon Rumors that nicely supports my “hunch” 🙂

The image in this post was taken during my latest trip to the US South West. More specifically, I took it in Zion National Park while hiking from above the Scout Lookout on the West Rim Trail.

Once again, Happy New Year !!!