NEW YORK NEW YORK – Finally, at 7:30 AM I see the dentist. The problem tooth has a rap sheet. Root canal in 1988. Oral surgery to fix the roots again, this time through my gum, in 1992. Internally it has broken into many fragments and has become infected. It’s supposed not to have a nerve but it does. It takes an hour and 20 minutes for Dr. Heilbut to dig all the fragments out. He’s a patient man. I’m a mess. I go home to sleep. Shot a pepper mill with my iPhone.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – We gave up on Connecticut for the weekend. It was still raining as we packed up to leave last night. So here we are back in New York on Labor Day counting the minutes until tomorrow morning when I can take my throbbing jaw to the dentist.
This long weekend of trying to photograph while in serious pain has exposed an issue. I plan on running this daily blog project into the grave. But my equipment of choice, Leica, requires too much clarity and focus to operate successfully when in serious pain or otherwise impaired. Today a shot Maria and Francesca with my Monochrom and Luxochron but it was the wrong setup for a portrait and the lighting while conceptually correct had a serious problem (my body blocked the light) that I didn’t notice as I made the shot.
If I’m going to continue to shoot at least an image every day I need a simpler setup to use at times when I’m sick. Figuring this out is a project for the next few months.
I will also need to do simplified posts during periods impairment. Maybe just a place name and an image.
Anyway, here’s an out of focus poorly conceived image from our spice shelf from today. It’s all that I’ve got.
WARREN CONNECTICUT – Day four in a long weekend of rain and fog. And of course the toothache from hell. I’m abusing Tylenol to be able take pictures at all. My liver hates me.
I’ve moved to color today – rain and fog can actually yield lovely saturated hues. I’ve swapped my Leica Monochrom for a Leica M. Still shooting through the Luxochron: the 50mm APO Summichron Asph. Somehow I made a couple of images. I didn’t go very far.
WARREN CONNECTICUT – Another day of leaden skies. Even worse, I woke up with a toothache. Not one of those little sensitive tooth ones but a great big “someone drove a nail into my jaw” feeling. I really can’t do anything but abuse non-prescription painkillers and try to sleep through it. This is Saturday morning of a three day weekend. No dentist in the world is available this weekend. And I don’t need just any dentist. I need my dentist, Dr. Heilbut. My mouth has a lot of history. It’s to dentistry what Chartres Cathedral is to masonry.
All in all this was a challenging day to photograph. Here you go with my Leica:
WARREN CONNECTICUT – Forbidding gray day number two. This sucks.
A friend who restores quilts brought an example over for our consideration. It’s from 1910 or so and unusually has a detailed provenance. We’re interested so she’s going to finish the restoration and put a back on it. She should be done in time for Christmas.
Did you know that Mallomars have a season? (A Mallomar is a piece of graham cracker with some marshmallow goo on top; the whole thing is coated with a hard dark chocolate shell.) They have a real following. Witness this example of usage from the online Urban Dictionary:
Jane: “Tanner do you want to come over and bang?”
Tanner: ” No way it’s MALLOMAR SEASON!!”
Of course we would need to know more about Jane and Tanner’s relationship to assess how important Mallomar Season actually is to Tanner.
There’s a Mallomar Season because Nabisco doesn’t make them year-round. For example today is not Mallomar season; I haven’t been able to get a straight answer as to when it actually is. At our poker game tonight Marty attempted to synthesize a Mallomar (he’s a fan) by shooting Miracle Whip onto fragments of chocolate doughnuts. I believe that this gets the nutritional values right, but doesn’t actually taste much like a Mallomar.
The quilt taken with my Leica S2 and the Mallomar man with my Leica Monochrom.
QuiltMarty simulates a Mallomar
For some reason I had trouble linking to my image from a year ago. It wasn’t that good so we’ll skip “On this day last year” for today.
WARREN CONNECTICUT – We’re here for a long weekend. Unconscionably long as you will soon see. Remember that I’m a blue sky and puffy clouds guy. An optimist. A sunny disposition. I have to be fully caffeinated to be irritable enough to do my job a lawyer.
The weather is grim in Warren Connecticut today. The gray sky presses down. I took a walk down to the spot where we push plant life trimmings that are too small for firewood and too large for mulch. Taken with my Leica Monochrom and a Leica 50mm APO Summicron Asph. lens. No great shakes as a photo. No mojo today.
PORTLAND OREGON – Back to New York on an early morning flight from Portland. I had a window seat (I usually prefer isle) so I shot pictures out the window with my Monochrom and 50mm APO Summicron Asph. This usually doesn’t work but today it did because of interesting morning light on the ground and interesting late afternoon light above the clouds.
