NEW YORK, NEW YORK – We had a dinner party for Michael and Penny Hayward, visiting Australian friends. This image was caught with my Nikon D700 and an 85mm f1.4D lens. For more pictures from this dinner see my flickr account: Dinner party for the Haywards.
On this day one year ago: Seagrams Building from the balcony of the Racquet and Tennis Club. This is one of my favorite images of the past year.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – Another heavy day of meetings. We ended the day at the James Beard Foundation’s annual gala at the Four Seasons restaurant (my life seems to be centered around the Seagrams Building), I chair the board of the foundation – here’s a link: James Beard Foundation. I had planned on getting my photo of the day at the gala and came equipped with my Nikon D700 and a fast lens. But as I tried to take my first image I had a major “oh shit” moment: I had left the camera’s compact flash card home in my computer. This is a first for me. I always turn the camera on when I pick it up to leave home to check the battery and settings, and take a picture to make sure that everything works. Lesson re-learned.
So what to do? David Young was kind enough to lend me his iPhone. The iPhone is the Holga of this generation. There’s a bit of a learning curve to get a plausible image out of these things – I’m a long way from mastery. I took a couple of dozen images, one of which (ironically of David Young) seems ok to me. So here’s David on David’s iPhone:
On this day one year ago: Out my office window The subject matter suggests (accurately) that I was struggling to keep up with the photo-a-day pace in November of last year – November really is a rough month for me.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – Another party: a publishing party at the Pace McGill Gallery celebrating the publication of a translation of Giacomo Leopardi by Jonathan Galassi. Here’s a link to Jonathan’s translation, and another link to a Wikipedia entry on Leopardi. Interestingly when I Googled Jonathan (who’s an old friend – he and my wife think that they went on a blind date in college) the first entry in the drop down menu was about his divorce, which was years ago. Anyway, here’s a picture, taken with my Leica M9 and a 28mm Summicron lens, of literary agent Andrew Wylie. Andrew must be here as a friend such Jonathan doesn’t appear on Andrew Wylie’s client list.
One interesting note about this and the two previous posts is they are from social events – as are the images from one year ago for all three images. This confirms my intuition that we’re overrun with social events at this time of year.
This day a year ago another party (that’s the problem with this time of year): tango demonstration at Edgar and Elie Cullman’s apartment.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – Another lunatic day. We gave a dinner party for 10, “auto catered” by me. On top of this November is typically a busy time in my day job (actually round-the-clock) so at a couple of points I’ve been hanging by my fingernails in terms of a daily photograph, and timely posting has suffered. As things ease off a bit I’m catching up on posts. Here is a guest at dinner:
On this date one year ago: Grant Winthrop at an Irving Penn show at the Forbes Gallery
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – We had dinner with some friends of long-standing at Steve Rubin’s.
There has been, by the way, a week’s delay in posting this image. When I get very busy I can bet behind on posting here, but be assured that I am taking a picture every day.
On this date a year ago: Book signing by Patrizia Chen
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – Antonio Monda’s birthday party. Antonio’s Wikipedia entry. At parties I work with a Nikon D700 and an 85mm f1.4 lens, shooting wide open. I never use flash. The advantage of the D700 is very, very good low light capability – it’s much better than the Leica that I use in other circumstances. Shooting the 85mm lens wide open results in very selective focus, which suits my shooting style.
Here’s Antonio and his daughter.
Here’s a part of the crowd cheering Antonio on as he blows out his candles. The woman who the focus is on is Donna Tartt. Behind her to the left is Maria Campbell, my wife; to the right is Jay McInerney.
On this date one year ago: October 19, 2009
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – At a book party for a friend’s illustrated book of poetry.
