Tag: Manhattan

Friday April 13, 2012

Post author By Woody
Post date Thursday April 19, 2012

NEW YORK NEW YORK – Hmmmm . . . Friday the 13th. I took a walk on 11th Avenue in the morning light. 11th Avenue is great for urban landscape. There are Hopperesque blocks. There’s a tenderloin vibe. This sort of thing has mostly disappeared in Manhattan. Hell’s Kitchen might as well be renamed “Dante’s Catering”. I captured a couple of images with my Alpa TC, 32mm Rodenstock and Phase One back, a setup that I use hand-held — it works like a digital Hasselblad Superwide C.

We stayed in the City – rare for a Friday night – because I and a friend hosted an “Edwardian Dinner” at the Knickerbocker Club. The image is from my iPhone – I’m in the picture (but I set it up) so there’s obviously a guest photographer.

Here’s 11th Avenue:

The Edwardians:

On this day last year: Dinner at the James Beard Foundation popup.

Tags Events and holidays, Manhattan, New York, Tenderloin

Landscape Out my window

Thursday April 12, 2012

Post author By Woody
Post date Thursday April 19, 2012

NEW YORK NEW YORK – I periodically go back to school on photography. It’s a great way keep to technical skills fresh, to get work critiqued and to meet new friends. Today I started a ten week class on landscape at the International Center for Photography taught by Benjamin Dimmitt, a landscape photographer who does a variety of subjects and has a particularly lovely body of work on primitive Florida. The first assignment was to shoot “out your window”, literally or figuratively, in a comfort zone, at various times and in various lights. Of course I shot out my window, something that I’ve done frequently here, at various times over a 24-hour period. You’ll be seeing more of these over the next few weeks.

So . . . I put my Alpa Max on a tripod, selected a 72 Schneider lens (the “normal” formal length for this format) and fired away. The results where ok, but the most interesting thing going on seemed to be the sky so I switched to a wide lens (the 32mm Rodenstock) to get more of it. Because of accidents of meteorology the night images came out as the most interesting.

On this day one year ago: Citcorp. I photograph the Citicorp building and its neighbors a lot: Citicorp Center images. I love their bulk and the surprising angles and reflections. It’s also convenient for me. My advice to urban landscape artists: Look up!

Tags Manhattan, New York, Night, Night phography

Landscape Urban

Wednesday April 11, 2012

Post author By Woody
Post date Tuesday April 17, 2012

NEW YORK NEW YORK (yes it’s that place again) – I took the big guy out today (my Alpa) hoping for landscape. The light was a disappointment – the camera is heavy so it’s really no fun to lug it around all day and come home empty handed. Well not quite empty. The playground near the 96th street subway stop was momentarily suffused in curtain filtered sunlight so I caught this (Alpa with Phase One IQ 180 back and 32mm Rodenstock lens).

On this day one year ago: James Beard Foundation popup restaurant.

JBF Ltd. - James Beard Foundation restaurant pop-up

Tags Manhattan, New York, Sporting events

Street

Tuesday April 10, 2012

Post author By Woody
Post date Tuesday April 17, 2012

NEW YORK NEW YORK – All day meetings. I mean starting at 8:30 and ending at 6:30. These tend to be crumby photo days but once again I got lucky and captured this with my Sony Nex-7 and 24mm Leica Summilux at the subway entrance at 59th and Lexington.

On this day last year: Another good flower shot. The 24mm Summilux does its magic again.

Tags Manhattan, New York, Subway

Landscape Urban

Thursday April 5, 2012

Post author By Woody
Post date Saturday April 14, 2012

NEW YORK NEW YOUR – Good light in Manhattan comes at odd times. Out there in the non-urban landscape good light predictably arrives around sunrise and sunset – the so-called “Golden Hour”, but it really doesn’t last an hour. Manhattan is fine at a distance at the Golden Hour but at street level that early or that late everything is bathed in deep shadows. Magical light in Manhattan is more often caused by sunlight reflecting off of a large building and acting as a fill light at street level. The first of the images for today is an example – taken at about 2:30 in the afternoon, a generally poor time for landscape anywhere else. The second image is just a reflection of Citicorp Center ending up in an odd place. Both taken with my Sony Nex-7 and 50 mm Summilux lens.

On this day last year: Big yellow teddy bear lamp (no kidding). So last year there was this big yellow teddy bear in the plaza between the Seagrams Building and the Racquet and Tennis Club . . .

Tags Manhattan, New York

Family and friends

Wednesday April 4, 2012

Post author By Woody
Post date Friday April 13, 2012

NEW YORK NEW YORK – Maria and I had dinner with Patrizia Chen, her sister and some friends. Patrizia entertains remarkably so it was, as usual, a fine evening. I took my Nex-7 and a Leica 50mm Summilux. As you’ve noticed all of my “event” style work is in available light. I find that I can simply disappear after the first two or three images – impossible with flash. Its also helpful that the Nex-7 is small and quiet (more so than my Leica M9).

On this day last year: Chrysler Building, sort of. And a Breuer chair – the 1930s redux.

Tags Manhattan, Parties, Patrizia Chen

Events and holidays Family and friends Food and wine

Tuesday April 3, 2012

Post author By Woody
Post date Friday April 13, 2012

NEW YORK NEW YORK – Tonight we went to a benefit for the Paris Review. I usually hate these things and most often send a contribution rather than attending. But this was a lovely evening. It was quite dark so my Sony Nex-7 and Leica Summilux struggled at bit. I’ve got a Leici Noctilux on order – the extra stop and a third would have been meaningful here. I’m generally find this camera easier to focus in poor light than my Leica (aging eyes). Anyway here’s one of many images from a long evening.

On this day last year: Look up! I don’t know what happened to the blues in this image – it looks like they were mugged on the way to the web.

Tags Fund raisers, Manhattan