NEW YORK, NEW YORK – Another heavy day of meetings. We ended the day at the James Beard Foundation’s annual gala at the Four Seasons restaurant (my life seems to be centered around the Seagrams Building), I chair the board of the foundation – here’s a link: James Beard Foundation. I had planned on getting my photo of the day at the gala and came equipped with my Nikon D700 and a fast lens. But as I tried to take my first image I had a major “oh shit” moment: I had left the camera’s compact flash card home in my computer. This is a first for me. I always turn the camera on when I pick it up to leave home to check the battery and settings, and take a picture to make sure that everything works. Lesson re-learned.
So what to do? David Young was kind enough to lend me his iPhone. The iPhone is the Holga of this generation. There’s a bit of a learning curve to get a plausible image out of these things – I’m a long way from mastery. I took a couple of dozen images, one of which (ironically of David Young) seems ok to me. So here’s David on David’s iPhone:
November 10, 2010
On this day one year ago: Out my office window The subject matter suggests (accurately) that I was struggling to keep up with the photo-a-day pace in November of last year – November really is a rough month for me. Out my window
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – We gave a birthday party for our daughter, Francesca. We’ve done this before, actually quite a few times, but they stopped playing pin the tail on the donkey quite a few years ago. I’ve posted a bunch more pictures of this event on my flickr account. Here’s Francesca and her mother, Maria (in her vintage Emilio):
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – Another party: a publishing party at the Pace McGill Gallery celebrating the publication of a translation of Giacomo Leopardi by Jonathan Galassi. Here’s a link to Jonathan’s translation, and another link to a Wikipedia entry on Leopardi. Interestingly when I Googled Jonathan (who’s an old friend – he and my wife think that they went on a blind date in college) the first entry in the drop down menu was about his divorce, which was years ago. Anyway, here’s a picture, taken with my Leica M9 and a 28mm Summicron lens, of literary agent Andrew Wylie. Andrew must be here as a friend such Jonathan doesn’t appear on Andrew Wylie’s client list.
One interesting note about this and the two previous posts is they are from social events – as are the images from one year ago for all three images. This confirms my intuition that we’re overrun with social events at this time of year.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – We went to a terrific Halloween party at Susanna Lea’s house – a good sized party with all ages, from newborns to, well, me. This is exactly where we were one year ago – same party and most of the same people. Here’s an image of one of the children at the party, taken with my Nikon D700.
As noted above on this date one year ago we are at Susanna’s house for a Halloween party: Susanna and Ingrid Betancourt
Here’s a link to the Wikipedia entry for Ingrid Betancourt. Interestingly when you enter “Ingrid B” as a Google search term she comes up first on the drop-down menu, ahead of Ingrid Bergman. Here’s Ingrid this year:
WASHINGTON D.C. – The James Beard Foundation sponsored a food policy conference, focusing on issues surrounding sustainability, at the Pew Charitable Trust’s offices in Washington. After the conference, taken with my Leica M9 and a 28mm Summicron lens.
Pew Charitable Trust
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – Antonio Monda’s birthday party. Antonio’s Wikipedia entry. At parties I work with a Nikon D700 and an 85mm f1.4 lens, shooting wide open. I never use flash. The advantage of the D700 is very, very good low light capability – it’s much better than the Leica that I use in other circumstances. Shooting the 85mm lens wide open results in very selective focus, which suits my shooting style.
Here’s Antonio and his daughter.
Antonio Monda
Here’s a part of the crowd cheering Antonio on as he blows out his candles. The woman who the focus is on is Donna Tartt. Behind her to the left is Maria Campbell, my wife; to the right is Jay McInerney.
WARREN CONNECTICUT and BROOKLYN NEW YORK – We started out the day in Connecticut (with power restored) – photographed a neighbor’s cornfield in the rising sun. We drove back to New York to attend an engagement party for our son in Fort Hamilton, Brooklyn.
Cornfield; Leica M9 and 1954 Dual Range Summicron lens.
