WARREN CONNECTICUT – This was a first day of Spring kind of day. I was up with the dawn’s first light with camera in hand.
Day 1,640 of one photo every day for the rest of my life.
On this day three years ago (day 544): Citicorp Center straight up.
On this day two years ago (day 910): Out my window at four different times. This is a riff on some of my earlier work where I set up on a tripod and took the same scene 24 times at one-hour intervals.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – I got up early and walked down Park Avenue — my morning commute — to a day of meetings. I got sunrise out our window with a Leica M and 280mm lens (which is fussy to use because focus is critical and it demands good tripod technique), more sunrise on Park Avenue with my Leica Monochrom, and a grid within a grid out the window of a conference room later in the day with my iPhone. I’ve posted them in reverse order because I like the grid image best.
On this day last year: The Grenadines.
WARREN CONNECTICUT – We’ve had a pattern here in the past few weeks where most days have a high overcast, but at sunrise the sun peeks under it for a few minutes. So here we are in lovely early morning light looking straight up with my Leica M and an 18mm Super Elmar M lens.
Two takes on the same subject. Same camera but with my 35mm Leica Summicron v.IV, a lens from the 1970s known as the “bokeh king”.
On this day one year ago: Spring in Connecticut. Spring is arriving at least three weeks later this very cold year. But last year at this time . . . this year I’m working with my Monochrom a lot to avoid the Spring colors trap.
WASHINGTON DC – I’m here in DC at some client meetings. They start around 8:00 AM but that let’s me get up and catch the morning magic hour with such monuments and flowering stuff (there’s a lot of it) as are within walking range of our hotel. These are all with my Leica M and an 18mm Super Elmar M lens – my go to wide these days. That’s the same contrail in the first two images.
On this day last year: Blond. Yawn . . .
NEW YORK NEW YORK – A bit of repair and maintenance today. The rangefinder on my M9 has been slightly out of alignment for a while which has made it hard to focus in demanding situations. Horizontal alignment is easy, but vertical alignment requires peeling the Leica red dot off and using a special tool through a keyhole that the red dot hides. The special tool arrived from China today, so I peeled the red dot off (making a mess in the process) and fiddled with the tool for 10 minutes or so. Weirdly, unexpectedly, after ome trial and error I got it just right. I ordered a replacement red dot online and covered the hole with a little patch of duct tape as a temporary measure so I’m ready to roll. Most people would have sent their camera to Leica for calibration but I use mine every day and can’t really be without it for the three week round trip to Solms.
The focus issue had prevented me from using my Noctilux .95 but since I’ve fixed it I’ll be shooting a lot with the Nocti. It’s a magical lens, imparting a poetic quality to the most mundane objects. Here’s an example:
This morning I had a chance to get more use out of the Perer 35mm lens. Here’s a picture of it, mounted on my Leica M9, taken with my iPhone.
Lovely sunrise light this morning taken out my window with the Perer 35 and my M9:
On this day one year ago: Gil.
BOCA GRANDE FLORIDA – We spent today on the beach. Maria could do this all day every day forever. One day is about the limit for a month or so for me. This a long beach – 7 miles or so. I took off walking with my Sony Nex-7 and a 35mm lens. Here are three images from the day. Sunset at the Gasparilla Inn beach:
The Gasparilla range light. These structures are only called light houses when there is an actual house for a tender to live in. The Gulf of Mexico (and the bay behind the island) are shallow here making navigation tricky for large boats. Three frames stitched.
A portion of Maria’s horde of shells from the beach.
On this day last year: Washington CT Congregational Church.
NEW YORK NEW YORK and GASPARILLA ISLAND FLORIDA – We woke up today in New York, boarded a morning flight to Ft. Myer Florida, arrived there and drove to Gasparilla Island in time to be on the beach in the late afternoon. There is a lot of Florida that we don’t much care for but a 1980 legislation has protected Gasparilla from high density development – it’s like Nantucket with palm trees. I took my Sony Nex-7 and a selection of Leica lenses. Here is sunrise in New York (taken with a 135mm APO-Telyt lens) and a sunset on Gasparilla (taken with a 24mm Summilux lens).
I’ve done a number of these, including a sunrise on February 14 last year.
On this day last year: Hoboken taken with my Alpa TC.
