NEW YORK NEW YORK – There’s a relatively recent new installation at Lever House: a large bronze version of the inflatable giant rat that labor unions inflate outside of sites using scab labor. This is a work by a collective called The Bruce High Quality Foundation. Because of the material and the site the work is gently ironical – one assumes that the creators were hoping for more emotional impact. Taken with my Leica Monchrom and 28mm Summichron lens.
Big RatBig Rat
On this day last year: Martini. Having fun with my iPhone.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – I took a walk across Central Park today on a route that took me north of the Reservoir. I stumbled across a lovely cast iron Art Noeveau bridge that I either didn’t know about or had forgotten. Here it is captured with my Leica Monocrom and an 18mm Super Elmar lens.
Art Nouveau
An image from the Reservoir, heavily fixed up with software perspective controls – the high bright sky makes this look like a vintage image on orthochromatic film.
Reservoir
Self portrait. I posted this on an online forum (where I somethimes test-drive images); it was pointed out that my fly was open; I edited the problem out in Photoshop.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – This is my third anniversary. I’ve posted a picture every day since October 16, 2009. I’ve reproduces below my October 16, 2009 picture, a Jean DuBuffet sculpture, that was my first post. This is my 1096th consecutive daily post.
I’m planning on continuing this indefinately. It takes discipline. It’s been like having a second job. I wake up every morning with the question “Where will I take my picture today?” But of course I’ve learned a lot about myself, photography and my subjects.
For today I got out on Second and Third Avenues with my Leica Monochrom with my Dual Range Summicron lens from the late 1950s.
Second Avenue SubwayWeird Science
I shot an image of an oldter building nestling into the arms of a new building on Second avenue on October 11. I struggled a bit with the very long dynamic range so I went back today and shot the same scene at the same time of day (but with a slightly different point of view and different lens) using an HDR technique. HDR is “high dynamic range” a technique that uses multiple exposures and specialized software to capture a longer dynamic range that is possible in a single image. The problem with HDR in general is that the resulting images have to have their dynamic range re-compressed (or “mapped”) back to the lower dynamic range of the viewing technology, a monitor or paper. The results are usually artificial looking. Some photographers have been using the technique, though, merely to tame highlights and make shadows transparent. So here’s the HDR rendering of the building on Second Avenue. Three exposures two stops apart taken with my Leica Monochrom and 18mm Super Elmar lens, and rendered in HDR Pro in Photoshop.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – This afternoon I had a meeting at the ICP where I found the pay phones hidden – perhaps out of embarrassment for this ancient technology. Taken with my Leica Monochrom and 35mm Summilux FLE lens. A bit earlier I caught a window washer out of my office window.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – A day of lovely light in the city. The light would be to harsh for non-urban landscape, but here the pavement and buildings act as giant reflectors illuminating shadows, making them less dense. I’m continuing my Leica Monochrom marathon, this time with a 28mm Elmarit lens. The word on the street on this lens is that its high level of sharpness and contrast boarder on offensive. It actually mates well with the Monochrom given the generally fiat look the the Monocrhom files have out of the camera. I had trouble choosing afavorite so I’m presenting a mini-gallery today.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – Stuck in my neighborhood, the upper east side, running errands today. A gray day at that. It appears that I’m in a slump. A local florist with my Leica Monochrom and 35mm Summilux FLE lens.
