WARREN CONNECTICUT – Second day with my loaner Phase One IQ 180. Very high performance photo equipment is like a very high performance car – the photo equivalent of noise, vibration and harsh ride are part of the experience. This thing doesn’t auto anything, and getting the most out of it takes some work. I spent part of the day experimenting with shifting the back on my Alpa Max technical camera. Initial results are technically good but uninspiring as I focus on technique rather than seeing. Here’s our pool in Warren and the perennial border next to it with the IQ 180 on the Alpa Max and my 47mm Schneider Digitar.
Pool Warren Connecticut
WARREN CONNECTICUT – It poured all day. These are actually pretty good conditions for intimate details of the Northeastern landscape. I captured this in our garden with my Alpa TC and a 35mm Schneider Digitar lens. That’s Basil, our Norwich Terrier, putting his nose in the picture.
Summer Rain
WARREN CONNECTICUT – Most of the bushes and shrubs around our Warren house flower at some point between April and July, and everything turns invitingly green during this period. From a photographic standpoint it’s a little bit of a distraction because I doubt that MOMA or Pace will be showing any dynamic new photographers specializing in flowering shrubs any time soon. But nonetheless this pretty conventional landscape is hard to resist, so I spent the weekend wandering around with my Alpa and Hasselblad digital back.
Shade Warren CT
On this day one year ago: Walking back from lunch. The restaurant that I mentioned in this post last year closed with no notice under mysterious circumstances. They just put a sign out saying they were closed. They had received excellent reviews and were always packed. The rumor mill suggests that it was something to do with the owner’s divorce or a litigation involving employee tips. Too bad.
WARREN CONNECTICUT – This was another in a seemingly endless string of rainy, foggy days. This is actually a continuation of the months of very heavy precipitation that we had during out long, hard winter. In reality the rain is a blessing. Steven Solomon’s book Water suggests that we’re on the verge of a global crisis where in many parts of the world the supply of clean water will not meet the needs of expanding population. The North Eastern United States is one of the regions of the world with a water surplus and enough rain to permit agriculture with little irrigation. Of course in Connecticut “agriculture” means digging massive stones out of the earth and fighting frost in May and October . . .
WARREN CONNECTICUT – Our wildflower cultivation in Connecticut seems to be limited to dandelions, at least this season. I set my Leica up on a tripod with my 24mm Summilux lens framing a field of dandelions from about 2 feet away to the horizon. I then took 7 exposures focusing at various distances, and combined the images in Helicon Focus, “focus stacking” software. The combined images are sharp from the close forground all of the way to the tree line 150 meters away.
Dandelions
On this day one year ago: Another pedestrian image. Raises the question of why am I doing this. There are good streaks and bad streaks.
WARREN CONNECTICUT – I walked around our Warren property this morning with my Alpa TC, a 36mm Schneider lens and a 60 meg Hasselblad back. Finally, I mean finally its really spring here. The shadow of the tree in the first image has an anthropomorphic quality that I really like
Warren ConnecticutWarren birches
On this day last year: a Tiepolo sunset. For all of my fussing about not doing sunsets one of my favorites from last year.
