NEW YORK NEW YORK – So today I really didn’t feel like photography. I “captured” a pot of rice while cooking dinner – it wasn’t moving all that fast so the capture was easy.
Day 1,776 of one picture every day for the rest of my life.
On this day four years ago: Singita Grumeti Reserves Tanzania. Converted to black and white this year – an improved image.
CHICAGO ILLINOIS – My daughter, Francesca, brought me here for a combined birthday/fathers day present: dinner tonight at Aiinea, currently number 9 on the San Peligrino list of the world’s 50 best restaurants. Much of the weekend was spent stuck in the air transport system as a result of weather delays. Today’s image could have been anywhere – we didn’t have time for any of the iconic Chicago places.
Day 1,703 of one photograph every day for the rest of my life.
On this day four years ago (day 242):
JACKSONVILLE FLORIDA – Where I grew up (check out my biography – it’s Utah) the highest praise that your could lavish on a restaurant was “Well they’ve got a pretty good steak there.” So I’m right at home here having a pretty good steak for dinner. I captured it with my iPhone.
This is day 1,552 of my daily photo blog.
On this day last year: Fog. More of this stuff!
NEW YORK NEW YORK – First an image with my Leica Monochrom and Luxochron lens, looking up in Manhattan in the early evening. This is a great setup for shooting Manhattan at night handheld. This can result in some nice images particularly after the end of daylight savings time next week because it is dark at 6:00 when buildings are still full illuminated by lights in offices.
I joined some friends in going out to South Williamsburg for dinner at a restaurant called XiXa. Pronounced “shiksa” by the owner. No kidding. It was supposed to be a Southwestern dive but it turned out to be serious Asian-Mexican fusion at a very high level. A major upside surprise.
On this day one year ago: Sandy.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – I’ve got a lot going on, and on top of everything else today is the run up to a travel day – I’m flying th Munich tomorrow to meet Maria (who is at the Frankfurt Book Fair) to be her spa buddy for a week. I settled for some of our home grown tomatoes today (rotten spot and all), with a Leica Monochrom and Luxochron lens.
On this day last year: Pumpkins. Hmmm . . . this is a vegetables kind of time of year.
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.
On this day last year: Henry.
WARREN CONNECTICUT – I had busy day work-wise in Connecticut. Client confidentiality and my natural reticence preclude any discussion of what I’m doing, but I can say that there seems to be a lot of it. I had time for a couple of snapshots with my Fuji X100s. Before I leave the house or apartment I always pick up a camera take a test exposure or two to make sure that there is a memory card and that the battery is charged, and that the camera’s setting aren’t off somewhere in outer space. I delete most of these in editing, but occasionally a test shot is the best image for the day. Here you go with our dining room in Warren. Later in the evening we had dinner with our friends Barbara and Charlie Robinson. Charlie is a painter and for some reason he’s used the top of a wood burning stove in their kitchen as a palette.
Taken with my iPhone at a point when I was concerned that I might not have another picture for the day.
On this day one year ago: La Pizza Fresca, my favorite pizza joint in New York. It’s actually not a joint: ingredients are first rate and they make Neapolitan-stile thin crust pizza (the only style that I tolerate) in a wood fired oven. The wine list is remarkable. Here’s a picture of the key actor in the Pizza Fresca drama:
