WARREN CONNECTICUT – Martin Luther King Day. A Holiday so we’re still in Connecticut. The light was bleak but not interesting so not a lot of landscape imagery. I took this in the barn with my new Leica S.
On this day last year: Sundial.
DALLAS TEXAS – Still here. Another iPhone image from the offices that we’re in. Not much going on here – I’m tired and distracted by other work.
On this day last year: On the beach at Naples Floriday.
WARREN CONNECTICUT – I’ve become obsessed with a lens that I bought for a song on eBay, the lens that I wrote about in my December 19 and December 20 posts. Further research indicates that work started on the optical cell (the optical workings of the lens) at the Karl Zeiss works in Jena in December 1945. So it actually is a Zeiss Jena 5cm f1.5 Sonnar. The lens cell was subsequently fitted to a Leica screw mount body by an unknown third party, probably in Germany, the UK or US, for sale in the UK or US. The distance scale is denominated in feet and Zeiss itself didn’t make any lenses in Leica mounts as Leica was a competitor (Zeiss and Leica were the equivalent of Nikon and Canon today). I can see why it would have been worth the trouble to convert this lens to a Leica mount: it is actually the equivalent of an modern lens in most respects at f4 and beyond – its performance is simply breathtaking and it has a lovely signature. I’ll be continuing to shoot with it over the next few weeks. Here are two images from today taken with the Sonnar on my Leica Monochrom.
This is what the lens looks like.
On this day last year: more fun with my iPhone.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – Wow. A very long and demanding week in my day job. I’m beat. Too tired to raise a camera to my eye. I’m home mid-afternoon and ready for a nap but I pulled it together to shoot some images around the apartment. Here’s a porcelain piece from Spin in Shanghai. Taken with my Leica Monochrom and 35mm Summicron lens. This is odd. This image has been received with much praise in the informal network that I use as an editorial resource. It was a casual capture on a day when not much was happening. I guess this is the benefit of shooting every day – a monkey typing on a word processor long enough will eventually produce the entire works of Shakespeare.
On this day last year: at the office with my iPhone.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – Well this is finally the last week of November, the busiest month of my year. I have a week of meetings and calls which is distracting me from the visual world. I found a few moments this morning to explore our living room with my Leica Monochrom and 50mm Dual Range Summicron lens.
On this day one year ago: Field.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – Walking through the reception area in our offices I spotted a lovely composition made by the sun and shadows on a piece of art and furniture. I ran for my camera, took a couple of shots studying the composition and called it my image for the day. One of the better images recently, so I guess it is possible to get into the moment when I’m busy if there is actually something to see. When I uploaded the images to process them I was surprised to find that a random exposure that I took in the morning just to see if the camera was working was actually kind of interesting. This is in the category of “purse art” – images taken at random the way a mobile phone sometimes dials from a purse – that I have explored before. Both images with my 1958 dual range summicron (a completely charming lens) and my Leica Monochrom.
On this date last year: Photo object.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – I spent the morning working at my day job and got away in the afternoon in time to stand in line to vote. We had some family and friends over to watch the returns. By 11:00 PM I still hadn’t gotten my picture, so i finally shot the television with Leica Monochrom and 35mm Summilux lens.
On this day one year ago: Not much of an image.
