KENT CONNECTICUT – Passover and Easter are on the same weekend this year – a quite unusual event I’m told. We attended a Seder given by our friends Nancy and John Novogrod – I actually contributed a sous vide beef brisket to the occasion. The Seder was deeply affecting.
Unfortunately the photographs did not live up to the event. I was again plagued by bad technique Same camera and lens. I’ve resorted to a low resolution presentation here.
On this day last year: Street. Boring.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – Tonight we went to a benefit for the Paris Review. I usually hate these things and most often send a contribution rather than attending. But this was a lovely evening. It was quite dark so my Sony Nex-7 and Leica Summilux struggled at bit. I’ve got a Leici Noctilux on order – the extra stop and a third would have been meaningful here. I’m generally find this camera easier to focus in poor light than my Leica (aging eyes). Anyway here’s one of many images from a long evening.
On this day last year: Look up! I don’t know what happened to the blues in this image – it looks like they were mugged on the way to the web.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – We stayed in town tonight (rare for us on a Friday) to take some Swedish friends to the Red Rooster, a restaurant owned by celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson. “Celebrity chef” is used without irony here. Marcus is a sensation and his success is well-deserved. Think of the dinner as an “event” in very poor light. I shot the following with my Sony Nex-7 waring a 50mm Leica Summilux lens.
On this day last year: The familiar view out my window. A brick wall torture test for a new lens.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – We hosted a dinner party for our friend Jonathan Galassi as a benefit for the Pen America Center (Maria is on the board and Treasurer of Pen). Jonathan read from his new book of poetry – not out yet but Maria had arranged for Jonathan’s publisher, Knopf, to send bound galleys out to guests before the dinner.
I worked through the party with my Sony Nex-7 and a 35mm Leica Summilux. For an event the lens worked much better for me than the Sony Zeiss 24mm: I’m familiar with the feel of its manual focus and manual focus was faster and more accurate than autofocus with the Zeiss because of its tendency to “hunt” in poor light. I didn’t get a picture that I liked of Jonathan. Here are a couple of other friends.
On this day one year ago: Hello Kitty is no more.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – The times they are a-changing. This evening we went to a book party for an “enhanced e-book” version of a book about Bob Marley. Really fun. “I Shot the Sheriff” running in the background, a good bar, terrific food and a great looking crowd. Here’s a pose for the camera captured with my Sony Nex-7 and 24mm Sony Zeiss lens. About 20% of these are out of focus because the lens hunts so badly.
Maria and friend:
One this day one year ago: a lovely image captured with my Hasselblad. Sometimes I’m pretty good.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – Well, well, well. Here we are on Super Bowl Sunday and New York has a horse in the race. One of the great surprises of the regular season. We had a dozen or so friends over to watch the game and eat chili, corn chips, salsa, empanadas and so on, and to drink a dozen obscure varieties of beer (once again I found some Full Sail IPA) and some pretty decent wines. I shot the festivities with my Nex-7 and the 24mm Sony Schneider. As you will see from the image below ambient light was not all that low, but it still hunted like the devil focusing. A big problem at events. But the image quality is very nice.
From earlier in the day. Taken in Warren with m Alpa Max and 72mm Schneider lens. Two frames stitched.
On this day last year: ice storm.
TAOS SKI VALLEY NEW MEXICO – We’re staying at the Bavarian where we celebrated New Years Eve with some friends who have built a house here. A family party image with my Panasonic.
On this day last year: Maria in a nun costume. The scary thing about this was that Maria went to convent school and actually knows how to act like a nun.
