Not so hot-on-the-heels of my last post over a month-and-a-half ago, here I am making some time to address my blatant inactivity on the site. As it turns out, student teaching and photography don’t happen to mix very well. My particular placement and accompanying assignments give me next to zero free time for anything else. Seeing as the essentials—sleep, eating, and physical activity—take up the majority of that time, finding a slot to simply “go out” and make photographs is a near impossibility. This busyness has also forced me to cancel my anticipated pre-order of the new Zeiss 16-70mm f/4 OSS, a popular lens that I would have loved to review. That’s the bad news.

However, every now and then I still take photography assignments from my university for sports and other campus events. This, at the very least, helps keep my shutter finger trained and my manual-focus skills honed. Per the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel, my student teaching will go only until this end of this calendar year. So in theory, next year I will be able to get back to my usual updating with photo-walks and all manner of lens reviews for you loyal readers to enjoy (many thanks for the recent subscriptions despite my absence). That’s the good news.

In…other news…if you have been living under a rock for the past couple months, there’s been a lot of buzz around the near-future of Sony’s E-mount. Some rumors are claiming Sony to introduce a whopping three E-mount cameras, all with a full-frame 35mm sensor! One is a supposed “NEX-9”—a camera I’ve dreamed about ever since the first time I shot with my beloved NEX-7—while another may be an ILC-9 or a9000 (a full-frame version of the already available a3000). Since that one will be relatively bulky with its pointless DSLR shape, it appeals less to me (well, the added grip of that shape gives it some relevance). Regardless, come mid-October, Sony has the very real chance of taking the mirrorless photography world by storm, and I’ll be watching avidly for pre-orders. 😉

Now, time for some photographs, right? Over the past year, I’ve taken part in my own Project 52, submitting one quality photograph for every week of the year under a supplied theme. My “supervisor” for the project is a local photography group that I’ve joined on Meetup.com, and the ability to see multiple other photographers’ work as the project progressed made the entire process more enjoyable.

All the following (52 in all, so yes, there’s quite a bit of scrolling ahead) photographs below are downsized to a web-friendly 2000×1333 ratio or similar to keep the site’s bandwidth from filling up. Most here are captured with the NEX-7, though a few captured with other cameras found their way into the project. A good number of these photographs have been featured elsewhere on my website in lens reviews or other photographic posts. Also, all photographs are in the ProPhotoRGB colorspace to get correct yellow saturation levels, so depending on your browser and viewing device (I recommend Google Chrome on a desktop computer), these photographs may have odd saturation levels on your screen.

Enjoy!

#1-Upside-Down

50mm, ISO 100, f/1.8, 1/640

#2-Dream

36-42mm, ISO 800, f/8, .8 Seconds

#3-Hidden

105mm, ISO 100, f/11, 1/200, 1:.88 Magnification

#4-Sweet

105mm, ISO 800, f/2.8, 1/1000

#5-Inspiration

105mm, ISO 100, f/2, 30 Seconds

#6-Fall

75mm, ISO 100, f/3.5, 1/1600

#7-Angle

50mm, ISO 100, f/16, 5 Seconds

#8-Eye

105mm, ISO 400, f/5.6, 1/8

#9-Halloween

105mm, ISO 100, f/8, 4 seconds, 10 exposures stitched

#10-Change

50mm, ISO 400, f/2, 1/160

#11-Food

50mm, ISO 100, f/.95, 1/13, PB&J!

#12-Thanks

50mm, ISO 100, f/8, 5 Seconds

#13-Emotion

75mm, ISO 100, f8, 1/800

#14-Frame

3.85mm, ISO 80, f/2.8, 1/640, iPhone 4

#15-Messy

35mm, ISO 100, f/8, 87 Seconds

#16-Love

105mm, ISO 100, f/4, 1/200

#17-Present

35mm, ISO 400, f/2.2, .5 Seconds

#18-Ice/Snow

35mm, ISO 100, f/4, 1/320

#19-Beginning

35mm, ISO 100, f/2.2, 1/320

#20-Junk

35mm, ISO 100, f/2.8, 1/50

#21-Shiny

300mm, ISO 800, f/3.2, 1/160

#22-Still Life

105mm, ISO 100, f/8, 8 Seconds

#23-Rotund

105mm, ISO 200, f/4, 1/640

#24-Romantic

105mm, ISO 100, f/4, 6 Seconds

#25-Detail

85mm, ISO 100, f/1.4, 1/2000

#26-Blue

85mm, ISO 720, f/2, 1/100, Nikon d300

#27-Path

60mm, ISO 80, f/4.3, .4 Seconds, Canon SX1000IS

#28-Light and Dark–Contrast

6mm, ISO 80, f/5.6, 1/50, Canon SX1000IS

#29-Singular

300mm, ISO 100, f/5.6, 1/100

#30-Pattern

105mm, ISO 100, f/5.6, 1/10

#31-Yellow

35mm, ISO 100, f/2.5, 1/200

#32-Neon

85mm, ISO 100, f/2, 1/3200

#33-Worm’s Eye View

3.85mm, ISO 80, f/2.8, 1/1150, iPhone 4

#34-Bird’s Eye View

85mm, ISO 3200, f/1.4, 1/800

#35-Metallic

300mm, ISO 400, f/3.2, 1/2500

#36-Neighborhood

35mm, ISO 100, f/5.6, 1/640, 19 images stitched

#37-Flamboyant

35mm, ISO 100, f/5, 1/25, +/- 3EV HDR via Photoshop

#38-Edge

35mm, ISO 800, f/2.8, 1/50

#39-Faces

35mm, ISO 400, f/4, 1/4

#40-Weather

35mm, ISO 100, f/5.6, 1/160

#41-What is it?

32mm, ISO 100, f/3.2, 1/50

#42-Hot

32mm, ISO 100, f/18, 1/100

#43-Summer Fun

32mm, ISO 100, f/3.2, 1/80

#44-Celebrate

105mm, ISO 100, f/11, 1 Second

#45-On The Road

3.85mm, ISO 80, f/2.8, 1/160, iPhone 4

#46-Extemporaneous

85mm, ISO 3200, f/2, 1/640

#47-Summertime

32mm, ISO 100, f/5.6, 30 Seconds

#48-Abundant

105mm, ISO 100, f/11, 25 Seconds

#49-Bulge

105mm, ISO 100, f/4, 1/80

#50-Psychedelic

32mm, ISO 400, f/4, 380 Seconds

#51-Memories

50mm, ISO 100, f/2.8, 2.5 Seconds

#52-Self-Portrait

32mm, ISO 100, f/4, 1/1250

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a year in photography! All in all, I had a lot of fun making these photographs, and the community aspect of the Meetup group really helped drive me to keep up with the photography pack. Who knows when I’ll start another one of these, though I would be interested in doing a “365 days with the NEX-9” like Luca Rossini so expertly completed with his NEX-7.  Come on, Sony. Announce the dang camera already. 🙂

Other than that, I don’t really know when the next post will appear on this blog. What with my student teaching and other—arguably more important—obligations this semester, it may very well be weeks, if not another couple months, until I can sit down to work on more quality content for you (awesome!) readers. However! Feel free to keep up-to-date with my photography happenings on Facebook or Google+ where I post photographs whenever I can.

Let’s just hope it’s sooner, rather than later, for when I can find more photography time!

P.S. I’m still waiting to list that 35mm f/1.8 OSS on eBay until I hear back from a reader interested in purchasing. I’ll keep you all posted.