At this point, I was officially infected with GAS. I was just buying cameras because they were new, but not because I needed them. There was really no reason to buy Olympus OM-D E-M10. Sure, it had some more megapixels and was faster or whatever. The only real reason was that the viewfinder kept falling off my old camera and this model had the viewfinder integrated again. But the camera also became bigger and heavier. It was a nice camera with decent ergonomics and good image quality. Otherwise, I just needed to buy new stuff.
I also bought a new lens. The Olympus M.Zuiko Digital 45 mm F1.8 which was telephoto lens mostly used for portraits. I was not really happy with the performance of the original zoom lens, and I very much enjoyed the 17 mm prime lens. So I figured a nice portrait lens would be a great addition. I always wanted to try my hand at people photography. Unfortunately, only my wife really offered her services as a model so I never really took many portraits. But I found use for this lens anyway.
I used this camera from 2014 to 2016 when In accidentally dropped it, causing the sensor to become loose. Someone on eBay actually bought it anyway. Maybe he was able to fix it. I took (kept) 317 photos.
A typical socialist cityscape. I said it already, I would not want to live in such an artificially designed place but I do like looking at them. Especially here, where the buildings are kind of staggered on the small hill. What I dislike with socialist city quarters is the lack of urban life. The lack of stores, meeting places, areas to just walk and socialize. Those buildings rarely have any commercial real estate on the first floor. Instead, each quarter had a kind of mini-mall with basic shopping and some doctor offices. I suspect the lack of urban meeting spaces was intentional and free exploration was frowned upon in such a conformist society.I am an avid collector of bottle caps in case nuclear war breaks out and the old money becomes worthless. Maybe you get the joke. It does not really matter.I don't even know where I took this picture. Someone put a small polar bear stuffy on the mailbox. It was already gray and dirty from the rain and weather. Nevertheless, I like small details like this, and a portrait lens was ideal to capture this little friend. I just left him there, but today my little kid would definitely "rescue" the bear.I went for a walk with family on a very cold winter day. I think it hit almost ten degrees below zero, which is quite cold for Germany. The river did not freeze over because of the current. I really do enjoy crisp winter days as long as there is some sky left. But these temperatures take their toll on electronic camera equipment. The battery went down really fast. Still, winter light can be quite interesting with its cold harshness.