December last year, I lost my Nikon D80 in a Christmas party; hence, Christmas this year, I was too hesitant to take my Nikon D200 to take holiday pictures. Maybe I am still traumatized by the experience.

In my photo library, there are no pictures taken in January 2008. I was still suffering from the loss of the said camera, but good thing my mom (a professional photographer) took pity on me and lent me her camera. So I was able to shoot pictures in a hot-air balloon festival. It felt SO good to be able to take pictures that time. Probably, she saw how happy I was being able to get my photography mojos back that she GAVE me the camera and asked me to take extra care of it. So, in the first quarter of 2008, I started taking pictures in February and many of the pictures I took were not really vacation pictures--save for the company outing we had in a nearby province.

Many of these shots are not as technically good as my latter pictures this year--but now I see a lot of potentials in these shots. It feels really great to re-visit this quarter of the year where I reclaimed my passion for photography from the tragic loss of my old camera.