Well said, Peter. While all of my parts don't function as they once did, and I'm closer to being obsolete than many others, I still work! However, I must say that I'm not exactly in demand. 
My old D200 is the newest Nikon around our joint.
Still have my D200 for a back up as well..
I am happy with the D700 I get to use my old lenses and have something to do waiting for that phone call for a Job interview, I have been waiting over a year now?
It does make one feel obsolete after getting laid off.
I guess you can look at ones photographs as there visual interpretation of what they see of the world and what effects them?
The person may be obsolete as well as there equipment but the image that was made in the frame frozen in time will be around forever.
And that's why I love photography it's capturing something that will never be again and can never be repeated, it's the photographers vision of the moment.I grew up on the west coast of Florida. When I was a kid in the late 60's my parents would take me with them to Tampa Airport to pick up or send off a relative and on the ride we passed this large field, Green grass surrounded by scrub oak and dotted with larger oak trees and Palmettos. This huge dead oak tree stood in the center of this field and it captivated me.
As the moods of the light and sky was ever changing the way it looked every time we went past this spot. Some time in the early morning Shrouded by fog, storm clouds over head during the summer afternoon monsoons and smoke from smudge pots burning in the nearby Orange orchards in early winter months with beams of sun breaking through and raining down on this tree.
When I started photography I was driving by then had an old KAWA Six Medium Format and a roll of Kodak 120 Technical Pan, I was determined to do something with this tree and make a record of it.
I got some good photographs and printed a few out.
Not long after that a real estate sign appears along the fence, by this time I was driving past this field every day going to work then one day I was stunned to see that they sold it and earth movers tearing the field and surrounding area keeping a few choice looking older live oaks. No doubt this is going to be another gated gulf club community for rich retirees with a cheesy pond and fountain in the foreground, sure enough it was!!!!
Many years later I entered these photos into a local contest the theme was "remember our local heritage". This was funny as by now the old Florida Cracker Ranchers and Grove owners had long moved out and now was filled by people from New York, Jersey and Chicago, most of us moved down from the north with our parents when they retired. I was from Chicago originally!
But I was stunned to meet people that told me "When I was a kid my grand father, my sister, my Dad my Mom my friends Etc" would ride past this field".
So many people recognized this dead tree as a symbol of there childhood and how things are not the same it was truly humbling. I was awarded in the top five that day.
