NEW YORK NEW YORK – I went out today in midtown with my Leica M (which unlike my Monochrom actually takes color pictures) and the 1937 vintage 8.5cm Carl Zeiss Jena lens that I wrote about yesterday. It produces muscular results. Very nice. Here is a typical (for me) shot around Citicorp Center and a wreath that Maria is using as her office Christmas card image this year.
Then for the evening I moved back to my Monochrom and Luxochron lens for a visit to my friend Bill Beekman’s place for a tour of his Virginia Woolf first editions, letters and so on.
Christmas CardOld lensBill and TedTedMaria and Ted
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.
Thornwillow PressRockefeller Center Tree
NEW YORK NEW YORK – I’ve spent some time digging around on the subject of Zeiss Jena lenses in the WW II and immediate post-war era. Jena was originally occupied by the Americans but was turned over to the Soviets and ultimately became part of East Germany. The Americans relocated some senior Zeiss managers and engineers and their families to the west; they went on to build what became the modern Carl Zeiss. When the Russians arrived in Jena they packed up the Zeiss equipment, drawings and records and most of the people and moved them to Kiev where they were set up to manufacture the same optics that had been made in Jena. The Contax factory and people were similarly moved to Kiev from Dresden. The Russians were acting within their legal rights – they had taken the Zeiss Jena and Contax business as part of the reparations from Germany. See this link for an interesting history: history of Kiev cameras. Ultimately after long Cold-War legal battles it was determined that the Kiev products couldn’t call themselves Zeiss in the United States so they became “Jenoptic” here. Here are some more images with my new old lens which is from this period.
SubwayStore Window
Here’s the Seagrams building more or less wide open – the lens shows some aberration in the upper left corner.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – Out and about with my Leica Monochrom and 18mm Super Elmar lens. An intense winter day. We left for Connecticut without having uploaded this images from my New Desktop, so we skipped December 19 until we got back to New York – I’m actually writing this on January 1 and posting it retroactively. Here it is – the sidewalk in front of Bloomingdales.
Bloomingdales
NEW YORK NEW YORK – A Christmas shopping day on Fifth Avenue. I spent an hour at the Fendi shop – when I told the salesman about my photo a day project we took me to the second floor fur salon where there is a wonderful view of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church. Taken with my Leica Monochrom and 28mm Elmarit lens. Three frames stitched.
Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church
NEW YORK NEW YORK – On the subway platform with my Leica Monochrom and vintage 40mm Summicron-C lens.
Grumpy Santa
Interesting. Here’s a compass rose on a Park Avenue island that I hadn’t noticed before. It makes the point the the Manhattan grid is tilted 29 degrees West, more or less.
SOUTH KENT CONNECTICUT – A holiday party with some friends in a neighboring town. Taken with my Leica Monochrom and 35mm Summilux Asph. lens.
RobertAggie and Maria
Yesterday’s photo (demonstrating that I actually managed to take a picture on December 15, 2012, keeping my record alive):
