WARREN CONNECTICUT – A couple of images from around here in interesting light taken with my Alpa.

Warren in good light

More Warren in good light

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NEWARK NEW JERSEY – I landed here on my return flight from Naples. This gave me a chance to drop by the airport customs office and complete the Global Entry process, which should speed going through customs and immigration on my return from foreign travel. There was very nice light for the ride on the monorail that connects the terminals at Newark. Taken with my iPhone, not the world’s best tool to shoot landscape with very high contrast lighting.

Newark

On this day one year ago: Macaroni Beach.

Picnic on Macaroni Beach

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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:

Hitchcockesque

And another sunset.

Sunset

On this day one year ago: Mustique rainbow.

Doug and Judy

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NAPLES FLORIDA – Day two of the conference. There is a little more daylight in the schedule today so I’m carrying my Alpa TC and a 35mm Schneider lens. Toward the evening I found myself on the beach with the Alpa. Did I say that it’s hard to find an interesting photograph on the beach. Well yes and no. True. But – - – In the few minutes of the “golden hour”, which is usually not an hour – more like 20 minutes, it really doesn’t matter what you point your camera at. When the light arrives, stop what you’re doing and shoot whatever is at hand. Even a beach. I have to relearn this periodically. In landscape light is more important than landscape. Anyway here is the golden hour light etching the beach in Naples.

Magic light trumps banal subject

Earlier in the day I spotted a familiar looking steeple and indeed it was the local United Church of Christ (in round terms the Congregational Churches outside of New England), a sure sign that Naples has been colonized by New Englanders.

Evidence of New Englanders

On this day last year: rainbow in Mustique.

Grenadines rainbow

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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.

Sunny Florida

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.

Grenadines sky

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NEW YORK NEW YORK – We’re having some painting done. It’s been a few years (actually quite a few ) since we’ve done this. Basically touch ups on trims and moldings – every thing else is fine. Here’s a shot of the work in progress taken with my Alpa Max.

Paint job

On this day one year ago: on board the Shroud Dancer.

Shroud dancer

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WARREN CONNECTICUT – It snowed yesterday and last night, for the first time in a long while. I put on my snow shoes and spent a couple of hours out in the fields around our house in poor, overcast light. This with my Alpa TC and 35mm Schneider lens.

Hay bale

On this day last year: Flying SVG, a not-quite-scheduled “airline” operating between Barbados and Mustique.

SVG

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WARREN CONNECTICUT – Last month I set my Alpa Max up to demonstrate its “tilt” capacity (the ability to tilt the focus plane to increase the appearance of depth of field) and got an somewhat poorly visualized image of our sundial. It’s snowing today (at last) so I set up trying to do a better of seeing and imagining the image:

Sundial redux

On this day one year ago: a long skinny Third Avenue from my office.

Third Avenue

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NEW YORK NEW YORK – Out with my Leica and 90mm lens I caught this in the failing light.

East 86th Street in good light

On this day last year: 9-11 memorial.

9/11 memorial

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BROOKLYN NEW YORK – At last a good day of photography. I met a friend for lunch a Peter Luger, still the best steakhouse in New York (and maybe in the universe). It’s just over the Williamsburg Bridge in Brooklyn, so after lunch I explored the bridge and Williamsburg in lovely winter light. Williamsburg is an interesting melange of Lubavitchers, hipsters and young urban types – it has a very good subway connection to midtown. The day was good enough to warrant treatment as a mini-gallery in this post. All images are with my Leica M9 and a 24mm Summilux lens. Lets start with an image of a lone runner in the shadow of the bridge overpass:

Soloist

I’ve done this a lot. For a long time. The distant, solo figure is a recurring theme in my work. Here’s one from 1970 (taken with a
Rollei 2.8 F in Luxembourg):

Solist

Since 1970 the cells in my body have replacement themselves many times; I’ve had a world of experience but I still identify with the lonely, isolated figure. Another thought is captured in the comparison of these two images: my work is often symmetrical with correct prospect (which takes a certain amount of control when shooting with a wide angle lens) or is wildly askew. Anything in between just feels like a mistake to me.

One of the advantages of living in the Northeastern US is the brilliant winter light. It was very much in evidence today giving the graffiti a visual kick.

Fine winter light

Kind of mixed use real estate here, with car repair shops and the like tucked in among buildings undergoing major renovations.

Car repair shop

Here’s the bridge. It wasn’t easy to get this angle. The East River has no accessible waterfront here. I had to trespass through a bridge and tunnel authority parking lot and climb a fence. There are some excellent early 19th century warehouses along here that look like they are in early stages of being renovated.

Williamsburg Bridge

Finally, the scene under the El for the M train back to Manhattan could have been from 1954.

Under the El

On this day one year ago: parking space.

World Trade Center Boston

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