WASHINGTON CONNECTICUT – I went out with my Alpa Max today to add to my collection of Litchfield County churches. In reviewing my progress to day I realized that I hadn’t yet taken a full frontal image of the iconic Washington Congregational Church with high res medium format gear. I wasn’t satisfied with the image that I captured so I’m not showing it today – I’ll have to go back to try again – but I caught this as a set up the tripod and did a test image to assure that all was in order.
Washington Congregational Church
MEW YORK NEW YORK – Well here I am outside the headquarters of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. I’ve written a couple of other posts on this subject: August 24, 2011 and November 24, 2010. I’m standing here because this is the only place within blocks where any sunlight is hitting the street. I loaded a bunch of camera apps on my iPhone and went looking for a scene with a long dynamic range and some bricks to test the apps. Here’s the one taken with an app called Pro HDR, which takes two images at different exposures and combines them in a “high dynamic range” images. The HDR feature is only so-so. Without a tripod the camera moves between shots. The app compensates for movement but the image appears less sharp than a non HDR image. It does give you the two exposures, though so you have a choice of which to use – here I used the under-exposed shot.
So the iPhone camera is working well for me. We’re planning a trip to DC this weekend. I’m taking the iPhone as my only camera.
NORTHVILLE CONNECTICUT – Back to Connecticut at last. No hurricane. No blizzard. No problems. A rare relief.
I had a chance to explore a de-commissioned church that I’ve seen many times from a distance in gentle, late afternoon light. This is two exposures with my Alpa Max, stitched in Photoshop. Whatever information there may have been about this structure appears to be lost, at least on the web.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – Today we did the sacred and profane on Fifth Avenue. Starting with the sacred I stopped by Marble Collegiate Church, the oldest Protestant congregation in North America and for decades the bully pulpit for Norman Vincent Peal. The Church has a “Payers for Peace” program. The congregation offers prayer for service men and women who have died in Central Asia during the week; yellow ribbons with the names of the departed are attached to the railing around the Church. Here’s a segment of the fence with a statue of Dr. Peal in the background. Images taken with my Leica M9 and a 24mm Summilux lens.
Marble Collegiate Church
Now the profane. At the 42nd Street Library I spotted the following, which I couldn’t resist:
XXX rated at the Public Library
From my self portrait series taken hourly on February 13, 1999 the image from 8:52 PM. Taken with an Arca Swiss 8×10 view camera.
WARREN CONNECTICUT – Back to photographing in the actual world (as opposed to taking pictures of cameras). There was a lovely, fleeting moment at sunrise in Connecticut to today when the first rays of the sun caught the ground fog. I grabbed my Alpa TC with the IQ 180 and Schneider 3mm XL attached and captured the moment.
Later in the morning I went to the town of Warren to experiment with my new 120mm lens, capturing the Warren Congregational Church from a slightly different angle.
Fog at sunriseFog at sunriseWarren Congregational Church
On this day last year: The beginning of our safari in East Africa. One year ago things start getting really interesting for the next week or so. The Cliff Notes version of our safari is the top gallery on the right of this site.
KENT and WARREN CONNECTICUT – Well the IQ 180 (see my posts from the previous two days) is starting to sing. I went for a hike today carrying my Alpa TC with the 36mm Schneider Digitar and the Phase One IQ 180. This is a compact, hand holdable combination. The form factor and functionality are very similar to the legendary Hasselblad Superwide C (one of my favorite film cameras ever), but the 80 meg digital back delivers much higher resolution than medium format film. The trick is mastering this oddball combination of exotic stuff to the point where I can stop thinking about it and start really shooting.
KENT CONNECTICUT – I felt that yesterday’s photograph of the wooden gothic church in Cornwall Bridge was a success, so I drove to Kent to shoot the gothic Congregational Church there. According to the Church’s website it was founded 1740 with the present building dates to 1849. They’ve fallen onto slightly hard times with 200 members and a bunch of peeling paint. But at least they have some attitude. According to the website the Kent Congregational Church was ” first to ordain an African-American pastor (1785), a woman (1853), an openly gay person (1972) and the first to affirm same-gender marriage equality (2005). ” “First” out of what universe isn’t clear. Anyway, here’s the picture, taken with my Alpa Max, a 60 meg Hasselblad digital back and a Schneider 48mm Digitar lens.
Congregational Church Kent Connecticut
