NEW YORK NEW YORK – On the street (actually Lexington Avenue in the 40s) during the Manhattan golden hour. I’ve been pursuing the Chrysler Building for years. Here it is again. I found myself in Brooklyn this afternoon, at our daughter’s new apartment on Remsen Street. The view from her roof North.
Day 1,656 of one photo every day for the rest of my life.
On this day three years ago (day 560}: the view from Dewey Lebouf.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – I have discussed in the past the “golden hour” as it occurs in Manhattan. It’s not the period immediately after sunrise or immediately before sunset (as it is our in the real landscape) – at those times its too dark on the street for effective “cityscape” images. The best times of day at this time of year are actually around 10:00 in the morning and 4:00 in the afternoon when you have a rich interplay of shadows and reflections.
Out in the real landscape I’ve learned that when a golden hour occurs just stop and photograph whatever is at hand. It doesn’t matter what it is. It will look great. You’re photographing the light, not objects around you. The same applies in urban settings. When a golden hour happens just start shooting. I usually look up. Here I’ve done it again. Let me know if you are getting tired of these.
Day 1,652 of one picture every day for the rest of my life.
On this day last year (day 1,287): GM Building.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – A clear day at last but I’m not fully in the moment so blah images. I sometimes shoot infrared in the winter – rarely in the summer because I don’t like the white leaves effect. Here’s an “out my window” with a digital camera that I had modified a few years ago so that it sees infrared only.
Day 1,586 of at least one photograph a day for the rest of my life.
On this day two years ago: Gasparilla Island.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – Well this certainly has been . . . winter. Winters are quite variable here. This one has been tough – one major storm after another. We’re not giving up and moving to Costa Rica yet, but the challenges of moving around in a large city in appalling weather kind of wear on you. This is shooting up Lexington Avenue in a blizzard, and looking West from our offices.
Day 1,582 of one photograph a day for the rest of my life.
On this day two years ago: Big Girl.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – I walked to the office this morning with my Leica M and a 50mm Summicron Asp. lens. I work more in black and white than color. Surveying my posts for the past four plus years about two thirds have been black and white. Of course shooting with a camera with color capability I can always convert to black and white which I’ve done with three of the four images below. The first is three frames stitched and perspective corrected in Photoshop.
This is day 1,576 of my one photograph a day for the rest of my life effort.
On this day two years ago: Lipstick. Same site as the image immediately above but three hours earlier and from the opposite direction (this view is looking South).
NEW YORK NEW YORK – I went out today with a 1939 Carl Zeiss Jena 85mm F2.0 lens. This lens had a fabulous reputation back then. I managed to fit it onto my Sony Alpha 7 using no fewer than thee adapter (Zeiss rangefinder to Leica screw mount; Leica screw mount to Leica M, and Leica M to Sony E mount). It actually works and stopped down to f11 the lens is as sharp as a modern lens. Wide open it has lovely “bokeh”. The qualities are illustrated in the two images below which don’t have much merit otherwise.
Day 1,565 of my daily photo blog.
On this day four years ago: Mustique. On this particular day I’ve been in the Caribbean in each of the past four years. As a photographer I struggle with the tropics. There’s not much of of visual interest in Paradise. So I’ve reached back four years for a rainy day in Mustique.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – More experimenting with odd lenses. Today I attached a Leica 280mm lens designed for the dearly departed Leica reflex camera to my Leica M via an adapter and used the M’s electronic viewfinder to focus an frame. This lens has a sensational reputation, which based on this brick wall torture test, it deserves. But it’s a handful and the Leica M’s EVF isn’t very good so it is quite hard to work with.
On this day last year: From a rooftop.
