NEW YORK NEW YORK – I spent most of today at Harvard Business School, where the turn-around of the James Beard Foundation was discussed by a class as a case. Very, very bright kids, who over an hour and a half identified most of the issues that we actually dealt with and thoroughly debated all sides. Very interesting – these students are well-qualified to take on the world and all of its problems. We were rushed the whole day with not many opportunities for photography. I captured this at home after I got back from Boston, as I was leaving for dinner. Basil looking irritated. Taken with my Sony Nex-7 and 24mm Leica Summilux lens. The photograph on the wall is by Lalla Essaydi.
The dog scolds me for leaving
NAPLES FLORIDA – Another walk on the beach at sunset with my Panasonic. There’s a stretch of beach here where thousands of gulls gather to watch the sunset, along with the local residents, who bring out chairs to sit on as they literally watch the sunset. As the last rays of the sun fade they (the people) break out into applause. Really. The experience of being surrounded by a very large number of birds was pure Hitchcock. Here’s an image:
Hitchcockesque
WARREN, CONNECTICUT – Warren’s “downtown” consists of the Rooster Tail Inn and four shops. One of the shops, Privet House, belongs to Richard Lambertson who has assembled a sensational collection of eclectic stuff. Travel and Leisure piece on downtown Warren. Anyway this is from Privet House’s substantial collection of things for dogs, Shot with my Leica M9 and my new 35mm Summicorn V. II.
WARREN, CONNECTICUT – I occasionally experiment with odd or eccentric bits of equipment to help keep the daily photo grind fresh. For the last few days I’ve been shhoting with a 12mm rectilinear (as opposed to fish-eye) lens on my full frame Leica M9. This lens is so wide that it’s a miracle that it even forms an image. When I say wide, I mean that I often find myself having to crop my knuckles out of the frame. Ultra wides offer huge depth of field so near-far compositions with everything in focus are possible.
I’ve sworn never to post pictures of pets. Why? I’ve explained this before. Pictures of pets remind me of the millions of pictures in online forums the read something like this: “This is my cat Wallace taken with my Canon Superturbulator 600 mm lens. You can see every whisker!” Lonely guy stuff. Nothing better to take a picture of than the pet cat. Anyway, this is my second exception in almost a year. Basil, our Norwich Terrier, wandered into the frame as I was exploring near-far. Leica M9 and Voigtländer 12mm lens.
NAIROBI, KENYA – Sadly, here we are loading our bush plane to return to Nairobi where we have planned a busy day
Bush plane
In Nairobi we visited the David Sheldrick Animal Orphanage, one of the two remarkable charities on our itinerary. Founded by Dame Daphnne Sheldrick the orphanage rescues orphan elephants (the most come cause of the mothers’ death is ivory poachers). The animals are cared for intensively for five years, and then reintroduced into the wild. You can walk among them at their feeding time.
Elephants
Our constant companion on the trip, Patrick, playing soccer with an elephant.
SINGITA GRUMETI RESERVES, TANZANIA – We made a short trip by air to another spot on the Mara River (in Tanzania) known for its crossings. The wildebeest didn’t cooperate so there was little drama in the excursion. We did see a lot of hippos – managed to capture some of my best hippo images.
Hippos
We visited Singita Sasakwa Lodge for lunch and a ride on trail bikes. Singiti Sasakwa is the lodge built by Paul Tudor Jones that I mentioned in an earlier post. Here’s a link: Sasakwa Lodge.
Here’s an image of a burned out area from our bicycle ride:
Controlled burn
Finally, a sunset back at our tented camp – our last in the bush as we return to Nairobi tomorrow.
