Category: Still Life

Wednesday November 5, 2014

Post author By Woody
Post date Wednesday November 12, 2014

NEW YORK NEW YORK – A heavy package arrived from Leica today. It was my 50mm Leica Noctilux f.95 lens back from repairs. This is a major object. The f.95 isn’t a typo – it’s the fastest 35mm format lens ever. It’s a beast – heavy and it blocks the lower left-hand portion of the viewfinder, so as I’ve reviewed images taken with it there are occasional surprises. This lens renders magically wide open, but is very demanding in terms of focus. Perfect images take a lot of practice. Stopped down it performs similarly to the widely-acclaimed Leica 50mm f1.4 Summilux. This is one of the reasons why I go through the expense and bother of owning Leica. I’ll be keeping this lens on my camera for the next week.

I’ve gotten rusty with this thing since the repairs have taken four months. I shot around home with it at f.95 practicing focus and seeing whether it really can work magic with every day objects. Here you go:

Day 1,847 of one picture every day for the rest of my life.

On this day two years ago (day 1,117): Movie poster. Two frames stitched; shot with a 35mm lens on my Leica Monochrom.

Tags 1185 Park Avenue

Still Life

Monday March 17, 2014

Post author By Woody
Post date Sunday March 23, 2014

NEW YORK NEW YORK – Not much going on visually as I spent the day preparing for board meetings.

Day 1,614 of one picture a day for the rest of my life.

On this day last year (day 1,249): The morning after. At least I was together enough to photograph the remains.

Tags Food and wine

Culture Landscape Still Life

Sunday January 26, 2014

Post author By Woody
Post date Saturday February 1, 2014

WARREN CONNECTICUT – It’s literally too cold to go out. So I collected a couple of candidates for shot of the day from around the house, taking breaks from sitting in front of a fire and reading. Here’s a plate on a wall in the kitchen. It’s from New Mexico, from the Acoma Pueblo which produces brilliant art. Taken with my Sony Alpha 7 and a Leica Summicron lens.

Day 1,564 of my daily photo blog. Some people call these “phlogs”.

On this day two years ago: The Birds.

Tags Native American Art

Interior Still Life

Friday January 17, 2014

Post author By Woody
Post date Thursday January 23, 2014

NEW YORK NEW YORK – More work on “bokeh” shots around the house (those of you who follow this blog will know that bokeh refers to the quality of the out of focus portions of the image). Taken with my Leica Monochrom camera and a 50mm Luxocron lens.

Day 1,555 of one photo every day for the rest of my life.

On this day last year: Rat, not a work of sculpture at the Lever House but a real inflatable rat.

Tags Bokeh

Landscape Still Life Urban

Friday December 13, 2013

Post author By Woody
Post date Friday December 20, 2013

NEW YORK NEW YORK – I’m keeping up the thread on old lenses. I went out today with my 1959 Leica Dual-Range Summicron. I’ve shot this lens extensively in the past two years, but almost always at f5.6 and higher, a range where this lens behaves like a modern Leica lens (its character is very similar to the current 35mm Summicron). Today I resolved to shoot it at f2.0, where it has a lower contrast, more dreamy quality. Here is one from the street:

I also resolved to try the 1937 Carl Zeiss Sonnar on my Monochrom relying on close focus and guessing at longer focus distances. Here you go.

Here’s another with four frames stitched:

On this day one year ago: 86th Street.

Tags Christmas, Manhattan, New York

Interior Still Life

Monday December 9, 2013

Post author By Woody
Post date Monday December 16, 2013

NEW YORK NEW YORK – More old lenses. Today I’m experimenting with a 5cm Nikkor-S (Contax mount) f1.4 with a Contax to Leica adapter that I found on ebay (the focusing helicoid for the Contax was on the body, not the lens, so this is a complex adapter). This lens, which is from the mid-1950s, does much better at close focus than infinity, where there is all kinds of junk going on in the corners. Here are two samples on taken with my Monochrom. This lens has a lovely signature in an intimate setting.

A second old lens: an 8.5 cm f2.0 Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar from 1937, also in Contax mount with a modern copy of the adapter referred to above. The mount had a slight ding which caused serious hassles fitting it to the adapter. After fussing with it on and off for a couple of months I finally got it working this week. The focus cam is not correct for Leica so the rangefinder is only accurate at close focus (1.15 m) but is extremely accurate there. This with an M so I could use the EVF to focus and converted to black and white. This is a sensational, charismatic lens, especially given that it is 75 years old. I’ll be doing more work with it.

The Nikkor from the Mad Men era:

The Sonnar from pre-War Germany – not a great image – I’m trying to figure out what this lens can do.

On this day one year ago: White House.

Tags Home, New York

Landscape Still Life Urban

Friday December 6, 2013

Post author By Woody
Post date Friday December 13, 2013

NEW YORK NEW YORK – Another rainy day. I spent some time this morning at Thornwillow Press’s shop at the St. Regis ordering Christmas presents for various family members, an experience captured with my Leica Monochrom and 50mm Luxochron lens. Later I took in the crowds at Rockefeller Center in the rain, again with the Monochrom but with my 24mm Summilux lens.

On this day last year: glassware.

Tags Christmas, Manhattan, New York, Shopping