ST. VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES – A long travel day from New York to Mustique, our favorite island paradise. If you’ve been following these pages you know that my work on air travel days generally sucks. This, taken with my iPhone, is not as bad as usual. I’m down to three cameras at this point (probably a lifetime low): my Leica S, my Leica Monochrom and my iPhone. This simplifies travel but it means that I really depend on the iPhone because it’s my only “pocketable” camera.
Travel
SANTA MONICA CALIFORNIA – We started the day in Manhattan and ended it in Santa Monica. Maria is here on business and I’m tagging along to explore Santa Monica and Naples and to drive up to Camera West in Rancho Mirage to trade my extensive Phase One and Alpa technical camera gear for a Leica S medium format camera. The technical camera actually brings out the worst in me – my shooting gets cramped and stilted (to my eye) once I put the camera on a tripod. More on this in future posts. For today I shot this fellow artist on the Santa Monica pier (a refuge for harmless sleaze) with my Leica Monochrome and a 35mm Leica Summilux wide angle lens.
Artist
Here’s a no-no. A pet. Basil, our splendid Norwich Terrier. I’ve sworn never to post pictures of pets or cute kids, so this is bad behavior on my part. Taken with my iPhone and processed a bit.
BETWEEN NEW YORK and BARBADOS – More insides of airplanes. I seem to spend a lot of my life supporting the air transportation system. We are on our way to Barbados, where we will connect to a small plane for Mustique. Here’s Maria in repose (a rare sight) captured with my iPhone.
Maria in repose
NEW YORK NEW YORK – Here I am on a US Air shuttle on my way to Boston. Guess what? Rain delayed departure. We’re held on the tarmac because of the very low ceiling. Lucky that I’m on the first flight of the day – the incoming aircraft for later flights aren’t going to be able to land. So here’s the weather out the cabin window with my iPhone. I don’t usually recommend shoot out of airplane windows (the results are usually miserable) but this might be my only chance to photograph today. The second image shows the same storm from 30,000 feet. Point of view matters.
Rain delayed departureOlympian view of rain
PAGET BERMUDA – We’re staying at the Coral Beach Club, which we were given an introduction to by a friend’s aunt way back when we were first married. We’re actually here with our children to celebrate our anniversary (today) and Maria’s birthday (yesterday). Still chugging along with my Monochrom. The weather was cloudy today – remember what I said about the reliability of the weather in Bermuda? Anyway, some images, first of the church of the oldest Protestant congregation in the Western Hemisphere:
The oldest church
An interior of the same church (done with the Monochrom and my 18mm Super Elmar):
PAGET BERMUDA – Still here. The great thing about Bermuda is that it’s close for us: two hours flying time from New York. The not great thing is that it’s too far North (the same latitude as North Carolina) to have reliable weather. Anyway, here are a few more images with the Monochrom.
BeachRopeBig rockScale invarient
PAGET BERMUDA – I’ve done something weird. Here we are on this island paradise and the only camera in my bag is my Leica Monochrom. That’s the one the shoots only in black and white. Here in pastel mecca. But for better or worse I’m here with the Monochrome and four lenses, a terrific light travel kit.
I’ll start with a sunset and then move on to a mini gallery of images from today without comment.
