NEW YORK NEW YORK – Busy day with no time for photography. But as I was cleaning up after making dinner for myself (Maria is in London) I spotted an amazing sunset out the window. I grabbed the nearest camera – my Sony NEX-7 – and clamped a 50mm Summilux onto it. It would have taken too long to set up the big guy. I used a beanbag to steady the camera, and took a lot exposures hoping to get a good one. I got exactly one. Here it is:
On this day one year ago: On the Bund, Shanghai.
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.
NAPLES FLORIDA – Another walk on the beach at sunset with my Panasonic. There’s a stretch of beach here where thousands of gulls gather to watch the sunset, along with the local residents, who bring out chairs to sit on as they literally watch the sunset. As the last rays of the sun fade they (the people) break out into applause. Really. The experience of being surrounded by a very large number of birds was pure Hitchcock. Here’s an image:
And another sunset.
On this day one year ago: Mustique rainbow.
NAPLES FLORIDA – Back here again, on a mission that’s unrelated to last week’s board meetings: attending the annual MFDF directors’ conference. Today is the first day of the conference and is thus busy, so I’ve limited myself photo-wise to my iPhone and what I can photograph within an easy walk. I caught this from a boardwalk through a local park with my iPhone. The image is my new lock screen image on my iPhone and I’ve adapted it to serve as one of this blog’s rotating headers. The over cooked quality is what comes out of the iPhone. I could dial it down in Lightroom or Photoshop, but who said this process needs to be serious. The image looks very good on a small screen. It demonstrates (again) that great light trumps every thing else (including limited equipment) when shooting landscape.
Another iPhone image from the top of the bar where I had dinner.
On this day last year: an immense image – three Hasselblad frames stitched – of the Mustique sky. I’m using a cropped version of this as one of my rotating headers. It turns out that fabuolous skies are my theme for January 24 in whatever year.
NAPLES FLORIDA – I flew down here from New York this morning for two days of client board meetings. I managed a long walk on the beach today. Beaches aren’t great for photography (at least when I’m pushing the shutter button) I suspect because they are all similar, if not the same. Here’s a sea bird admiring its shadow, taken with my Panasonic.
A few hours later, a sunset from my hotel room.
On this day one year ago: snow.
LEMARTI’S CAMP, KENYA – Maria caught up with us in time to board a bush plane to the Northern Kenyan foothills where we’re spending three days at Lemarti’s Camp. This is a “tented camp” far north of the beaten path, owned by our friends Anna Trzebinski and her husband Loyapan Lamarti. Lemarti is a Samburu Maasai; Anna is a Kenyan of European descent. We’re here to see Anna and Lemarti and to soak up some Maasai culture. We weren’t planning any game drives (we did that last year), but ran into a herd of elephants in our long drive from the dirt landing strip to the camp.
This is a remarkable site, which (like a lot of Kenya) gets under your skin. We arrived in time for tea, dinner and a sunset. Images captured with my Alpa TC, Phase One IQ 180 and a Schneider 35mm Digitar.
On this day one year ago: Barking Dog Cafe.
MUSTIQUE – Back again to Macaroni Beach for another picnic plus, of course, a sunset. Beach shoot with my small Panasonic; sky with my Hasselblad H4D-60.
On this day last year: Back from Mustique. Hugues de Montalembert’s book signing party.
