WARREN CONNECTICUT – Finally, some cold weather. Actually really bad weather. We had planned on going out to dinner but the roads were terrible so I pulled together dinner out of what was available. This is what it looked like outside, taken with my Leica Monochrom and a Leica 18mm Super Elmar lens. A 16 second exposure on a tripod. Sixteen seconds was too long to be outside – the wind was howling.
On this day one year ago: Sundial.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – Fuji has furnished a firmware update for the XPro-1 which I installed last night so I took the Fuji out for a spin today. The autofocusing is improved as promised. The problem with this camera, though, is that there are not a lot of lenses for it – the 50mm equivalent is terrific but that’s about it. Later in the day I met up with Maria and some friends for dinner and carried my Leica Monochrom and an f.95 Noctilux lens. The Monochrom fits my shooting style much better than the Fuji – I suppose that I’ll be putting the Fuji up for sale soon.
First with the Leica Monochrom:
Now with the Fuji:
On this day last year: Pudong at sunrise.
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!
NNEW YORK NEW YORK – A busy day of meetings. II got home and still hadn’t taken my picture (except one iPhone image from a meeting but I decided that it would be unprofessional to post it to the web. So I set up my Sony Nex-7 on a tripod in the dark with a wide lens (the 15mm Voigtlander) and did an image of out living room, draped with drop cloths, illuminated only by the light coming through the windows.
On this day last year: sunrise out my window.
BREWSTER, NEW YORK – We drove up to Connecticut tonight (a Thursday!), something that we almost never to. Here’w a rest stop on 684 in Brewster New York, captures with my Leica M9 and 28mm Summicron lens. Three frames stitched.
On this day one year ago: Sunrise over Boston Harbor.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – Â Here’s a surprise for you. One of the reasons that I’ve gotten behind in writing these – I’m actually writing this on February 18 – is that I’m experimenting with . . . . film. You read that correctly. The F*** word. My plan was to shoot film for three or four days. There’s a couple of days turn around on processing, and then whatever time it takes to edit and scan. Taken with my Alpa TC and a 36mm Alpa APO Switar lens. Shot on 120 size Ilford XP-2 film, a “chromogenic” black and white film that is processed with the normal C-41 color negative process.
And . . . here’s FILM:
On this day last year: Racquet and Tennis Club.
WARREN CONNECTICUT – Today there was an ice storm – a gray day in the extreme. This is a color image. You couldn’t walk on our road, let alone drive on it. Here’s a three frame stitch captured with my Hasselblad H4D-60 and a 300mm lens.
On his day last year: Connecticut landscape at night.
