Toot! (Thanks, Robin Wong)

As you might have noticed, I don't toot my own horn on this site much. Lord knows it's enough about me, me, me as it is, just because I'm the "I" who writes it. I figure it doesn't need any extra added ego—it's got enough already. So I tend to not feature comments that praise me, don't tend to push my own work forward (to the point that readers complain), and try not to make inflated claims of my importance or expertise (the more you know, the more you realize how much you don't know). I also try not to contend with self-appointed experts—the whole "dueling egos" thing bores me. (I had to referee several such tempest-in-a-teacup battles when I was a magazine editor.) There's room for everyone. The way I look at it, I might know more about photography—certain aspects of photography, anyway—than some of my readers, but the likelihood is very high that you know a lot more than I do about your field(s) of expertise. That thought keeps me from getting a big head, and I keep it front and center.

Robin Wong

Still, it's nice when somebody else says nice things about me. Robin Wong is a video reviewer who is already familiar to many in the photographic world. Born in the City of Kuching, Sarawak, on the island of Borneo in Malaysia, and an alum of the University of Western Australia in Perth, he was a civil engineer by training who started out writing mostly about Micro 4/3 and eventually joined Olympus Malaysia as a product specialist. Later he was a contributor to Ming Thein's popular website (a list of his articles for Ming can be found here). He originally conceived of his own photography as a creative counterbalance to his highly technical career, and he's the originator of the phrase "shutter therapy"—the notion that getting out and going photographing is a nice way to counteract the blues, engage with the world, and experience and communicate the joy of seeing. I know, and know of, many photographers who have felt that way about it. Too seldom do we stop to consider that it's a lovely hobby and a great pastime, whatever our level of engagement with it.

Anyway, I want to thank Robin for the too-kind things he said about me in one of his videos from a few days ago (starting at about 8:45). Of course I feel he overstates the case, but at the same time for some reason I'm disinclined to argue.  :-)  Very nice of him—and thank you kindly, Robin.

Mike
(Thanks to many readers)

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Anton Wilhelm Stolzing: "Wow, Mike, you are the one who brought us the term bokeh??? You are a genius!"

Mike replies: Brought you? Sort of. Carl Weese explained the concept to me, and John Kennerdell, Oren Grad, and Harold Merklinger wrote the articles. The original term is Japanese. I changed the spelling, and publishing the articles kicked off the popularization of it in the West, is all. Or perhaps, rather than "popularization," we should say the awareness of it, since of course it always existed.

Here's the lowdown.

Comments

[Marcelo Guarini]

Being myself an Olympus user, I follow him through his Youtube channel. Informative and much more optimistic about Olympus future than me.

[Leon Droby]

Bokeh. So that was your fault!

:-) LOL

[Kenneth Tanaka]

What a character! Happy, happy guy. You are forever to be known as the Boheh Buddha throughout Asia.

[Eolake Stobblehouse]

I like Robin's work.

Eolake

[Kye Wood]

TIL two things.

One. You brought back Bokeh from Japan? No small feat.

Two. What TIL means. Now I know OMG. LOL and TIL. That should keep me current for another decade.

[Roger Bradbury]

Nice background bokeh in the video, I see...

[Jeff]

And for the description, “king of bokeh”, which I imagine is rather regrettable. Can’t win them all. Although you likely helped sell a boatload of v.4 35 Summicrons, including in the current used market. You should receive royalties. ;)

[Yes, that was a misstep. The bokeh of that lens is only good within certain parameters. --Mike]

[Roger Bartlett]

Not genius:
'Influencer' then... :-)