Categories
Events and holidays Family and friends Interior

Monday December 6, 2010

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – You’ve probably noticed that I’m a gear nut. Apart from the camera problem that’s pretty well documented on these pages, I have an issue with telescopes. I actually own telescopes with apertures (a measure of light gathering capacity) from 3.5 to 18 inches. I sorted out telescope gear in Connecticut last weekend – basically getting organized to use a smaller, quick-to-set-up, scope in the cold winter darkness here. I have two choices, a 4 inch Astrophysics Traveler and a 3.5 inch Questar Duplex.

The Questar is a charismatic object – it offers perfect optical performance in a design that is thoroughly rooted in the 1950s. Here’s a modern review of a Questar. In digging through my gear I found a Questar to 2″ adapter (the Questar stuff is sui generis), a 2″ to Nikon F adapter, and a Nikon to micro four-thirds adapter. By golly maybe I could put all of these together and mount my Panasonic GF1 on the Questar. Based on sad past experience any Nikon F mount body is way to heavy to balance properly on the Questar, but the GF1 is compact and light and has good image quality. I brought the Questar and all of the small bits an pieces to New York to see if I could take a picture through it.

The Questar is a 1300mm f14.6 optic. With the Panasonic camera that’s the equivalent of 2600 mm in 35mm terms! I fit the various small parts together and it seemed to work as planned. Shooting citiscapes out our dining room window was impossible – the air was too unsteady for photography through a telescope. I finally set up in one corner of our kitchen and shot a fitting on a water sprayer in the far diagonal of the kitchen. Here’s the result – the Panasonic GF1 through the Questar, six focus-bracketed images stacked with Helicon Focus software, and minor clean up of focus stacking artifacts in Photoshop.

Metal fitting photographed with a Questar telescope

Here’s a picture of the kitchen sink (taken Tuesday) – I’ve circled the fitting that’s the subject of the previous photo:

Woody and Maria's kitchen sink

And finally, the real reason for this post, a still life of the Questar with the Panasonic GF1 mounted on it, shot Tuesday with my Leica M9 and a 50mm Dual Range Summicron (a design contemporary of the Questar):

Questar Duplex Telescope

This has been a very active day, photographically, so this will be a long post. This evening we went to a benefit for the Center for Fiction at the Racquet and Tennis Club. The event honored Binky Urban. For more pictures from this event follow this link to my flickr page.

Anyway, I captured some available light images with my pocket Panasonic. Here’s a picture of Karl Marlantes and me. Karl is the Author of Matterhorn – the best Vietnam book ever and his first novel. He was awarded the Center for Fiction’s prize for best first novel. I preceded him in Vietnam by about a year – we were both Marines. Since I’m in the picture it obviously wasn’t taken by me. Rachel Cobb is our guest photographer for the day.

Karl Marlantes and Woody Campbell

Since Rachel took this where’s my picture for the day? Here’s a portrait of Rachel – in satisfaction of the one picture a day requirement:

Rachel Cobb

One more from this event – Karl with Susan Lyne:
Karl Marlantes and Susan Lyne

On this date one year ago: Sunrise in Connecticut after a storm. This was one of my most highly-praised images of 2009.

Sunrise Litchfield County
Categories
Garden Landscape

Sunday December 5, 2010

WARREN CONNECTICUT – I like this time of year. The light is crisp and variable. I spent some time today in the garden, which is more interesting to me from a photographic standpoint now than it is in the warmer seasons. Here are two images – I couldn’t decide between them. If you have any thoughts let me know. Both take with my Leica M9 and a 24mm Summilux lens. I’m shooting at f1.4 with a neutral density filter to explore the out of focus regions in these images.

Out in the garden

Ornamental grasses. I guess that my attention goes to winter themes this time of year.

On this day one year ago: first snowstorm of the year.

Snowstorm Litchfield County

Categories
Landscape Religion Small town

Saturday December 4, 2010

WASHINGTON CONNECTICUT – Here’s another angle on the Washington Congregational Church, first presented on these pages here: follow this link for information on Washington CT. This is with my new Leica 35mm Summilux FLE lens – I’m experimenting with the out of focus rendering.

Washington Congregational Church

On this date last year: Anika Grocery.

East 96th Street
Categories
Landscape Urban

Friday December 3, 2010

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – I took a walk today on the Lower East Side, ending up at Frankies on Clinton Street for an excellent lunch. Frankies Spuntino. The Lower East Side maintains its sruffy vibe well into the 21st Century, although some streets like Clinton Street are edging cautiously toward gentrification. This is a storefront on Delancey Street taken with my Leica M9 and my ever-present Voigtlander 12mm lens.

Delancey Street

On this date last year: Lexington Avenue and 93rd Street.

Ottomanelli
Categories
-Woody's Picks Events and holidays Family and friends Interior

Thursday December 2, 2010

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – We had a dinner party for Michael and Penny Hayward, visiting Australian friends. This image was caught with my Nikon D700 and an 85mm f1.4D lens. For more pictures from this dinner see my flickr account: Dinner party for the Haywards.

Party

On this day one year ago: Seagrams Building from the balcony of the Racquet and Tennis Club. This is one of my favorite images of the past year.

Seagrams Building
Seagrams Building
Categories
Landscape Urban

Wednesday December 1, 2010

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – Third Avenue and 55th Street with my Leica and 12mm Voigtlander lens.

On this date last year: Truffle dinner at James Beard.

White truffle dinner at the James Beard Foundation
Categories
Events and holidays Interior

Tuesday November 30, 2010

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – We had a reception for James Beard Foundation members this afternoon at Má Pêche, David Chang’s midtown outpost. Here’s a link: Má Pêche, and a link for the James Beard Foundation. I caught this in the mens’ room with my small Panasonic GF1. The lighting in the main room was interesting but poor for photograph. You can see that I was getting desperate.

má pêche

One year ago on this date: traffic at Columbus Circle. One of my favorite images of the past year.

Traffic - Columbus Circle
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