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Close your eyes and imagine this. The year is 2010. Wedge sneakers and Athleisure are the (regrettable) fashion trends of the moment. Toy Story 3 is the highest-grossing movie of the year at the box office. Everyone is obsessed with juice cleanses, gluten-free food was just starting to go mainstream and the reality TV show Jersey Shore was ruining television forever.
Sometimes it’s easy to forget how different life was just a mere 10 years ago. From the clothes, we wore to the pop culture that filled our lives, to the technology we depended on. It all seems old now but not so long ago, we thought we were cutting edge.
The end of the year, and especially the end of a decade, is always a great time to reflect and remembers so as we wrap up the decade, let’s take a moment to look back to a time before Instagram influencers filled our feed and mirrorless cameras dominated the scene. Let’s take a look and see just how different life in the photography world was a decade ago.
Okay, Okay. Lightroom wasn’t created in the last decade but as a product of 2006, it was still fairly new to the post-processing world earlier in this decade. Now, nearly all photographers process their photos in Lightroom and even amateur photographers will do quick touch-ups on their Lightroom app on their phone. What is now considered a dominate software program for post-processing was just starting to kick off at the beginning of this decade. Highlight and shadow recovery, location-based organization, panorama merge. You have the last decade to thank for those crucial Lightroom additions.
Do you remember a time when Sony wasn’t synonymous with mirrorless cameras? Yeah, us either but they weren’t actually the first company to pioneer the mirrorless camera. The first mirrorless camera came from Epson in 2004 with Leica and Panasonic product soon to follow but the real industry shakeup did indeed come from Sony when they entered the mirrorless camera scene in 2010 when they introduced their own interchangeable lens mirrorless camera, the NEX-3 and NEX -5. They were described as ultra-compact DSLRs and with a lower price point, they made mirrorless cameras affordable and attractive to everyday photographers. Now, a decade later, Sony has redefined mirrorless cameras with other companies following suit.
In 2010, a French company named Parrot release the Parrot AR Drone, which was the first ready-to-fly drone controlled entirely with Wi-Fi via smartphone. This specific model made drones accessible to everyday users end sold nearly half a million units. The technology and usability of drones continued to improve over the decade with consumer use skyrocketing and as drones got smarter, usability continued to go up. Now, drones such as the DJI’s Phantom 4 uses computer vision and machine learning technology to avoid obstacles and intelligently track.
Photo by Thomas Gallopin
The end of the decade is a great time for self-reflection and we couldn’t help but throw a few of our own decade milestones in there. Ten years ago, the idea of the photography glove was a foreign concept. Winter photographers struggled through the cold making do with bulky ski gloves or improvising their own solutions.
After becoming tired of cold hands during winter shooting, Vallerret founders Carl and Stine put their solution into action to solve cold hands once and for all. They gained momentum once launching their Kickstarter fundraiser in 2016.
After the first run of gloves, they went back to the drawing board to see how they could improve our products and create even better gloves. They designed the Markhof Pro glove which instantly became a fan-favourite as well as the Trigger Mitt which had the warmth of the mitt but the functionality and dexterity of a glove.
Now, as we move into 2020, we have a full line up of gloves for every winter occasion and photographers debating which gloves they would rather have.
Love it or hate it, there’s no denying that Instagram forever changed the photography world when it debuted to the world in 2010. What started off as a little app where you could slap and god-awful filter on a photo and share with your friends turned into a mega monster social platform that bred Instagram celebrities and curated feeds. For photographers, Instagram was used to help expand audiences and showcase portfolios. Sharing projects and photos with the world had never been easier and with the invention of Instagram, photography was able to take its rightful spot in the social platform landscape. While it may be on its way out now, there’s no denying the impact it had on the 2010s.
The iPhone was introduced in 2007 and while it revolutionized both mobile phones and pocket-sized cameras, one crucial addition in 2010 impacted amateur photography forever: the introduction of the front-facing camera. Yes, that’s right, the iPhone 4 made it easier than ever to snap a photo of yourself so while we’re not saying the iPhone invented the selfie in 2010, we’re also not saying it.
HDR is an idea that has been around for a while and while it wasn’t technically invented in the last decade, its usability skyrocketed with the launch of Adobe Photoshop CS2 in 2013. Adobe expanded the HDR capabilities by offering a built-in HDR margin tool and from that point on, HDR capabilities have been a standard in editing software ever since. Like any good thing, we definitely saw some abuse of the HDR functions in post-processing photos over the years but as always, when used in moderation it can be a fantastic tool to amplify a photo.
So there you go, the last decade has been an absolutely wild ride when it comes to photography. As we take time to reflect on the advancements we’ve seen in the last ten years, we are so excited to jump into 2020 to see what the next decade will hold. A lot can happen in a decade! After all, ten years ago Vallerret only existed in the form of two winter-loving photographers trying to figure out how to make winter photography better for everyone. Thank you so much for being on this wild ride with us and we can’t wait to bring you some awesome advancements of our own in 2020.
From all of us at the Vallerret Team, Happy Holidays!
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