Category: Family and friends

Tuesday September 27, 2011

Post author By Woody
Post date Monday October 3, 2011

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – A couple of things happened today. We spent a while with Alexander and Laura, his fiancé, preparing for their wedding, which is next weekend. Here they are, with Maria, taken with my Leica M9 and a 50mm Summilux lens:

My firm had an alumni reception at Morgan Library. We had free run of the collection, assisted by docents. It had been a while since I had been there – the overwhelming impression is admiration for J.P. Morgan. Today’s billionaires build superboats, buy 747s, and collect 100,000 square foot houses. Morgan assembled a treasure trove of illustrated manuscripts, drawing and rare books. What a difference.

On this day one year ago: St. John the Divine.

Tags Books, Family, Parties

Family and friends Landscape Urban

Thursday August 11, 2011

Post author By Woody
Post date Tuesday August 16, 2011

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – I took a walk in the Union Square area with my Alpa and the 35mm Schneider. Partly cloudy, but occasional burst of fine light. this is made from two images captured, hand held, and stitched in Photoshop. Remember that I’m shooting with an 80 meg back so the resulting file is very large. Stitching with this very wide lens results in a highly distorted image, which I corrected in Photoshop – a process that involved significant hard labor.

In the evening Alexander and his fiance, Laura, came over for headshot for their wedding announcement in the New York Times. This is the one that the liked – taken with my Panasonic GH2 and on camera flash.

On this day one year ago: Elio’s.

Tags Alexander, Manhattan, New York, Union Square

Family and friends Transportation

Monday August 8, 2011

Post author By Woody
Post date Monday August 15, 2011

MARBLE DALE, CONNECTICUT – A friend just bought a 1956 Austin Healey that had major surgery in 1967: the Ford racing division replaced the engine with a 400 hp 302 cubic inch Ford racing engine. Of course adjustments were made in the transmission and rear end and the steering as suspension parts. Hear’s the car: Austin-Healey BN2. The sound this thing makes can’t be believed. The upgrades evidently didn’t include brakes. It’s a wild drive. Here’s my picture of the day, taken with my Alpa TC.

On this day one year ago: Paraty. One of the many lovely 18th Century colonial buildings in Paraty, Brazil.

Tags Automobiles

Family and friends Interior Portrait

Sunday August 7, 2011

Post author By Woody
Post date Sunday August 14, 2011

WESTHAMPTON, NEW YORK – More with the Leica and the 50mm Summilux. I’ve been shooting a lot in the past month with Alpa and a 35mm Schneider which for a number of reasons facilitates images with a lot of depth of field and corner to corner sharpness. The Leica lets me rebel from that a bit. today (and yesterday) I generally shot with this lens wide open at f 1.4, producing large far out of focus regions. Steve’s house seemed to call out for this treatment.

Like most modern Leica lenses the 50 mm Summilux has optimum sharpness at its widest aperture, f 1.4 (lenses from other manufactures often need to be stopped down two stops for maximum clarity), this is one of the reasons why these lenses are so expensive. The out of focus portions of the of 50mm Summilux images have a lovely, creamy character, a quality that is referred to as “good bokeh”. I also like the way it renders colors. I don’t often write effusive praise for lenses. I guess I just got carried away by this one.

By the way, sorry about the dog. You know how I feel about pictures of dogs and cute kids.

On this day one year ago: big boat.

Tags Pets, Self portrait, Still life

Events and holidays Family and friends

Saturday August 6, 2011

Post author By Woody
Post date Saturday August 13, 2011

WESTHAMPTON, NEW YORK – I carried my Leica M9 with a 50 mm Summilux lens around all day. I’m often surprised and delighted by the images that this combination produces – I think that if I were to limit myself to a single camera and lens this would be it.

On this day one year ago: a not so magic moment.

Tags Automobiles, Houseparties, Parties, Still life

Family and friends

Friday August 5, 2011

Post author By Woody
Post date Friday August 12, 2011

WESTHAMPTON, NEW YORK – We spent the weekend visiting our friend Steve Rubin in Westhampton. This was unusual for us, but Steve is a very good friend. We spend weekends in Litchfield County, Connecticut, which bills itself as the “unhamtpons”. We haven’t been to the Hamptons in 15 years but as I said Steve is a really good friend. It was a great weekend; Westhampton is the Hampton that is closest to New York City so the drive there was much less fearsome than I expected. I actually made the drive back to our apartment on Sunday in an hour and 20 minutes.

Taken with my Leica M9 and a 24mm Summilux lens.

On this day one year ago: Salman Rushdie and his son at FLIP.

Tags Houseparties

Family and friends Home

Saturday July 23, 2011

Post author By Woody
Post date Thursday August 4, 2011

AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS – After an overnight flight I arrive in Schiphol Airport, meeting up with John and Nancy Novogrod, who we are traveling with and who have arrived on separate flights. Here’s Nancy taken with my Alpa TC and 35mm lens. I’m a bit tired and out of sorts, but Schiphol is my only shot at an image today because the arrival in Nairobi will be chaotic and in the dark.

On this day one year ago: Stalking a floral arrangement.

Tags Airport