Category Archives: Family and friends

Sunday October 16, 2011

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NEW MILFORD CONNECTICUT – This is the two year anniversary of my photo-a-day effort. I haven’t missed a day! 730 days with at least one photo every day. This is just the beginning! I’ve included the first picture in this effort (from October 16, 2009), an image of the Jean Dubuffet statue in One Chase Manhattan Plaza. Today we had a picnic on our last outing of the year in our 60-year old wooden boat. Photographed with with my Leica M9 and 24mm Summilux lens.

I’ve also included below the third in my 24-hour “self” series. Taken on February 13, 1999 at with my Arca Swiss 8×10 view camera.

Boating on Candlewood Lake

Boating on Candlewood Lake

3:56 PM local time February 13, 1999

3:56 PM local time February 13, 1999

Jean DuBuffet "Four Trees" One Chase Manhattan Plaza


Friday October 14, 2011

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NEW YORK NEW YORK – A friend came ver for dinner in the kitchen. Image taken with my Leica M9.

A couple of new thoughts. I really liked the way that the self-portrait that i posted yesterday came out on the web. I’ve decided the give the “on this day one year ago” idea a rest for a month. Instead I’m going to post the full series of 24 hourly shots of myself, one a day starting today. The first image was taken at 2;06 PM local time on February 13, 1999. All were taken in my studio in Warren Connecticut with an 8×10 Arca Swiss view camera. I processed and scanned all of the negatives. The background derived from a Chuck Close self-portrait.

Here’s the image of the day followed by the first self portrait.

Francesca Barra has a friend

Francesca Barra has a friend

February 13, 1999 2:06 PM

February 13, 1999 2:06 PM


Tuesday October 4, 2011

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NEW YORK NEW YORK – Francesca has a new hat. This and the Triborough Bridge shot at the golden hour (which is particularly golden this time of year) were shot with my Panasonic GH-2. This is my kit for snapshots and for long lenses.

Francesca has a new hat

Francesca has a new hat

Sunset

Sunset

On this day one year ago: kitchen reorganization.

Kitchen

Kitchen


Sunday October 2, 2011

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NEW YORK NEW YOK – Well today is the big day for Alexander (our son) and Laura. I was a participant and had little energy/focus for photography. Here’s a quote on the event from a note from a friend:

I thought that Laura’s and Alexander’s wedding ceremony was beautiful, touching, and memorable. I was entranced by the rich and majestic setting (St. Ignatius Loyola was truly gorgeous), and charmed by the priest, whom I found interesting and compelling.

And then there was the wonderful, joyous, energetic, and sumptuous cocktails and dinner and dancing at the Yale Club. What a perfect setting! The hors d’oeuvres and dinner were delicious (I was the fellow who ate 8 pounds of the grilled sausage) and the dancing was amazing. Why didn’t you warn me that Francesca (senior) is a whirling dervish? She is a sensational dancer. I danced with Francesca for a song or two and, as I walked exhausted back to my table, concluded that she has the aerobic capacity of a Navy seal. And, of course, Patrizia was amazing to watch as she moved across the dance floor. Francesca (junior) was stunning (as always) and looked fabulous on the dance floor herself.

But, most important, I was touched to see Laura and Alexander so obviously happy and in love. They make a handsome couple. I was moved by their closeness, and I know that they will be very good to and for each other.

Anyway, a couple of images with my M9 and 50 mm Summilux lens:

Laura gets made up

Laura gets made up

Announcement

Announcement

On this day one year ago: New Milford Congregational Church.

First Congregational Church New Milford, CT


Saturday October 1, 2011

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NEW YOK NEW YORK – This is rehearsal day for Laura and Alexander’s wedding. Thankfully I’m not serving in any official role as a photographer for the event. Wedding photograph is grueling business – I have tremendous admiration for the team that is shooting the wedding. I managed a few shots with my Panasonic GH2 at the rehearsal at St. Ignatius.

Alexander and his best man, Karim:

Alexander and Karim

Alexander and Karim

The families watch

The families watch

Maria practices her reading

Maria practices her reading

Alexander and Laura sit patiently

Alexander and Laura sit patiently

On this day one year ago: The Guggenheim.

Guggenheim Museum New York


Wednesday September 28, 2011

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BROOKLYN NEW YORK – Today is Maria’s birthday. We had a small dinner at Frankies Spuntino in Brooklyn (that’s not a typo – it’s owned by two guys named Frankie). Shot with my Leica M9 and 50 mm Summilux lens.

Maria has a birthday

Maria has a birthday

On this day one year ago: Citicorp.

Citicorp


Tuesday September 27, 2011

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NEW YORK, NEW YORK – A couple of things happened today. We spent a while with Alexander and Laura, his fiancé, preparing for their wedding, which is next weekend. Here they are, with Maria, taken with my Leica M9 and a 50mm Summilux lens:

Last minute planning

Last minute planning

My firm had an alumni reception at Morgan Library. We had free run of the collection, assisted by docents. It had been a while since I had been there – the overwhelming impression is admiration for J.P. Morgan. Today’s billionaires build superboats, buy 747s, and collect 100,000 square foot houses. Morgan assembled a treasure trove of illustrated manuscripts, drawing and rare books. What a difference.

Morgan Library

Morgan Library

Morgan Library

Morgan Library

On this day one year ago: St. John the Divine.

St. John the divine


Thursday August 11, 2011

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NEW YORK, NEW YORK – I took a walk in the Union Square area with my Alpa and the 35mm Schneider. Partly cloudy, but occasional burst of fine light. this is made from two images captured, hand held, and stitched in Photoshop. Remember that I’m shooting with an 80 meg back so the resulting file is very large. Stitching with this very wide lens results in a highly distorted image, which I corrected in Photoshop – a process that involved significant hard labor.

Union Square

Union Square

In the evening Alexander and his fiance, Laura, came over for headshot for their wedding announcement in the New York Times. This is the one that the liked – taken with my Panasonic GH2 and on camera flash.

Laura and Alexander

Laura and Alexander

On this day one year ago: Elio’s.

Elio's


Monday August 8, 2011

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MARBLE DALE, CONNECTICUT – A friend just bought a 1956 Austin Healey that had major surgery in 1967: the Ford racing division replaced the engine with a 400 hp 302 cubic inch Ford racing engine. Of course adjustments were made in the transmission and rear end and the steering as suspension parts. Hear’s the car: Austin-Healey BN2. The sound this thing makes can’t be believed. The upgrades evidently didn’t include brakes. It’s a wild drive. Here’s my picture of the day, taken with my Alpa TC.

Doug and Marty have some fun

Doug and Marty have some fun

On this day one year ago: Paraty. One of the many lovely 18th Century colonial buildings in Paraty, Brazil.

Paraty


Sunday August 7, 2011

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WESTHAMPTON, NEW YORK – More with the Leica and the 50mm Summilux. I’ve been shooting a lot in the past month with Alpa and a 35mm Schneider which for a number of reasons facilitates images with a lot of depth of field and corner to corner sharpness. The Leica lets me rebel from that a bit. today (and yesterday) I generally shot with this lens wide open at f 1.4, producing large far out of focus regions. Steve’s house seemed to call out for this treatment.

Like most modern Leica lenses the 50 mm Summilux has optimum sharpness at its widest aperture, f 1.4 (lenses from other manufactures often need to be stopped down two stops for maximum clarity), this is one of the reasons why these lenses are so expensive. The out of focus portions of the of 50mm Summilux images have a lovely, creamy character, a quality that is referred to as “good bokeh”. I also like the way it renders colors. I don’t often write effusive praise for lenses. I guess I just got carried away by this one.

By the way, sorry about the dog. You know how I feel about pictures of dogs and cute kids.

Gil

Gil

Molly takes a break from reading

Molly takes a break from reading

Self

Self

On this day one year ago: big boat.

A day on a boat


Saturday August 6, 2011

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WESTHAMPTON, NEW YORK – I carried my Leica M9 with a 50 mm Summilux lens around all day. I’m often surprised and delighted by the images that this combination produces – I think that if I were to limit myself to a single camera and lens this would be it.

Still life

Still life

Party

Party

More party

More party

On this day one year ago: a not so magic moment.

Party


Friday August 5, 2011

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WESTHAMPTON, NEW YORK – We spent the weekend visiting our friend Steve Rubin in Westhampton. This was unusual for us, but Steve is a very good friend. We spend weekends in Litchfield County, Connecticut, which bills itself as the “unhamtpons”. We haven’t been to the Hamptons in 15 years but as I said Steve is a really good friend. It was a great weekend; Westhampton is the Hampton that is closest to New York City so the drive there was much less fearsome than I expected. I actually made the drive back to our apartment on Sunday in an hour and 20 minutes.

Taken with my Leica M9 and a 24mm Summilux lens.

Steve Rubin

Steve Rubin

On this day one year ago: Salman Rushdie and his son at FLIP.

Salman


Saturday July 23, 2011

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AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS – After an overnight flight I arrive in Schiphol Airport, meeting up with John and Nancy Novogrod, who we are traveling with and who have arrived on separate flights. Here’s Nancy taken with my Alpa TC and 35mm lens. I’m a bit tired and out of sorts, but Schiphol is my only shot at an image today because the arrival in Nairobi will be chaotic and in the dark.

Nancy Novogrod

Nancy Novogrod

On this day one year ago: Stalking a floral arrangement.

Flowers


Sunday July 3, 2011

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CAPRI ITALY – We spent another day at da Luigi at the Faraglioni. This is from later in the day shopping.

Amazon

Amazon

We spent some time Saturday and Sunday at Le Conversazioni, Antonio Monda’s literary festival in Capri. We had run into Dona Tart on the aliscafo to the island, so we caught Antonio’s interview of Dona this evening. Leica M9 with a 90mm lens.

Dona Tart

Dona Tart

Capri Literary Festival

Capri Literary Festival

On this day last year: Clamps.

Clamps


Saturday July 2. 2011

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CAPRI ITALY – We spent the day at the da Luigi at the Faraglioni, one of those rocky places where people congregate to bathe in the sea in Capri. The link above says that you get there via a “pretty little path through the coastal pine trees that leads down to the sea”. That may be a fair description of the descent but the return is a very long uphill slog in the heat of the day with hundreds of steps. We’ve always gone to da Luigi and going there maximizes our opportunity for chance encounters with family and old friends. But I maintain that the real reason we go there is that walking back up the mountain burns any calories that might have been added by a truly superb plate of spaghetti alla vongole.

Anyway, lunch at da Luigi:

Lunch at da Luigi

Lunch at da Luigi

Da Luigi and the Faraglione from well less than half way up the path (three frames stitched).

da Luigi

da Luigi

On this day one year ago: Our new sign in Connecticut.

Wild turkey sign


Friday July 1, 2011

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CAPRI ITALY – Still no bag from Air France. They say it should arrive late afternoon. Anti-French images crowd out every other thought. “Cheese eating surrender monkey” doesn’t begin to capture it. The wedding is at 6:00 PM. This is no joke. I’m in Italy. These people take their wedding seriously. Everyone is beautiful and well dressed. I have a theory that on Capri the Carabinieri round up all of the ugly people every night, take them out to sea and drown them. You actually can’t show up at a fancy Italian wedding in jeans and a three-day polo shirt.

We made the most of the day. I bought a swimsuit and spent the day with my family on the “beach”. Beach is in quotes because there are no actual sandy beaches on Capri. People pay mega-euros to lay out on the rocks near the water. I’ll cover that beat in tomorrow’s post. Anyway at exactly 6:00 PM my bag arrived at my hotel room door. I dressed and was out the door in 15 minutes and got to the church by 6:30. This was the full mass version of a wedding so things were just starting to move along. I’m posting several images from the wedding, not necessarily in narrative order, all taken with my Leica.

The enthralled crowd at the Piazzetta.

Piazzetta

Piazzetta

All kidding aside the bride, Emanuela Volpe (Maria’s niece and perhaps Francesca’s closest friend), was radiant.

Emanuela

Emanuela

Some ambience.

Wedding party

Wedding party

Francesca and her great aunt.

Two hot girls . . .

Two hot girls . . .

On this day one year ago: Quito.

Demonstration - Ecuador National Assembly


Thursday June 30, 2011

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CAPRI ITALY – What a difference a day makes. After a rushed set of connections (New York-Paris; Paris-Naples with exactly 25 minutes to make the connection; meet Maria, Alexander, Francesca and Laura at the Naples airport; taxis to port; aliscafo to Capri; madhouse disembarking) we finally made it to our hotel and Maria and Francesca made it to the pool. Caught with my Leica M9 and a 90 mm lens. The calm of the setting bears no relation to the chaos of getting here. I made the connection in Paris but my bag didn’t. I now hate Air France. When I made the reservation they swore that there was plenty of time for the connection. As it is I’m stuck on Capri in the jeans and two-day polo shirt that I wore on the flight while my bag tries to find me. No swimsuit. This is why I’m not at the pool.

When I added this post I found out that I didn’t have an “Italy” tag – we haven’t been to Italy in the past 20 months which is unusual for us. We go to Italy almost annually, often to Capri or the Amalfi Coast.

Francesca and Maria

Francesca and Maria

On this day last year: sunrise outside the farmacia.

Shoe shine man


Tuesday June 28, 2011

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NEW YORK NEW YORK – Our firm’s partners meet for lunch every Tuesday. I wouldn’t ordinarily photograph at one of these but this was a special occasion: it was the last lunch at which Rick Evans served as presiding partner, a role that he is retiring from after a record-setting 13 years of service. I sat across the table from my retired partner Andy Hartzell, who doesn’t make many of these because the conflict with the weekly “French table” at the Yale Club, which actually includes a French tutor. Anyway here’s Andy caught with my Leica M9 and a 50mm Summilux lens.

Andy Hartzell

Andy Hartzell

On this day one year ago: San Pablo del Lago


Wednesday June 22, 2011

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NEW YORK NEW YORK – Our friends Varya Gornostaeva and her husband, Sergei Parkhomenko, were in town from Moscow so we had a small dinner party for them in our kitchen. Varya has terrific English and Sergei very good French (as does Maria) so we had enough languages in common to communicate well. This is Sergei captured with my Leica M9 – this is less annoying than it looks because it was at the end of the meal and still mid-afternoon in Moscow.

Dinner in the kitchen

Dinner in the kitchen

On this day one year ago: A passport photo for Maria. This very clearly demonstrates that I really could make a living at photography, doing passport photos.

Maria

Maria


Sunday June 19, 2011

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WASHINGTON CONNECTICUT – Well here it is, Fathers Day again. This is a stupid ersatz “holiday” made up by greeting card publishers, but my public position on it is that it’s the most important holiday on the calendar. At least that’s what I tell my children.

Alexander and I celebrated by playing a round of golf. When asked if I play I can truthfully say “no”, but I do own a set of clubs and maintain a golf membership at our local club in Connecticut. Anyway, here’s Alexander doing what he does best on the golf course, which is pounding the hell out of the ball off the tee – he outdrives me by about the length of Central Park.

Alexander tees off

Alexander tees off

On this day one year ago: a shot (which no one much liked) of a perennial boarder in Connecticut.

Perennial boarder


Thursday May 19, 2011

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NEW YORK NEW YORK – We attended a dinner sponsored by the Harvard Business School Alumni Club of New York, which named my friend of long standing, Tom Barry, as “Business Statesman of the Year”. Past recipients of this award include David Rockefeller, Felix Rohatyn, Paul Volker, Louis Gerstner, Henry Paulson and Michael Bloomberg. Tom spoke on the role that luck (the “ovarian lottery”) has played in the fortunes of the attendees – one of Tom’s recurring themes. Here’s Tom at the dinner, at the Temple of Dendur at the Metropolitan Museum, taken with my Panasonic GS2 and a 20mm pancake lens.

Tom Barry

Tom Barry

On this date one year ago: Jim and Kelly. May 19 seems to be National Portrait Day.

Jim and Kelly


Monday May 2, 2011

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NEW YORK, NEW YORK – A busy day – this evening was another installment in my periodic poker game – with me acting as host. So of course I had to invest significant time in counting chips, planning Chinese takeout food and of course sorting the wines out and planning on what to do with my winnings. Here’s an image as the game broke up. Another one of those days when I just squeaked under the wire in terms of getting my picture before the day was over. Taken with my Panasonic GH2 and a 20mm pancake lens.

Poker game breaks up

Poker game breaks up

On this day one year ago: Connecticut spring, taken through my 5″ Astrophysics refractor.

Connecticut Spring


Sunday May 1, 2011

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NEW YORK NEW YORK – We had lunch today at Jacqui and Antonio Monda’s. Taken with my Panasonic GH2 and a 14mm pancake lens.

Lunch at Antonio and Jaquii Monda's

Lunch at Antonio and Jacqui Monda's

And this is from my walk home through Central Park – with my Alpa TC camera, 36mm Schneider APO lens and Hasselblad H4d 60 digital back.

Central Park

Central Park

On this day last year: Jay Kriegel at my birthday party.


Tuesday April 26, 2011

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NEW YORK, NEW YORK – This daily blog project is starting to reveal the cyclicality of my life. Here we are at the 2011 Pen gala. Compare this with the link for “on this day last year” in tomorrow’s post. Here’s a link to the Pen American Center website. Maria is a board member and treasurer; she’s one of the moving forces behind the “World Voices” festival.

Nan Graham, Editor in Chief of Scribner captured with my Panasonic GH2 and a 20mm Pancake lens.

Nan Graham at Pen Gala

Nan Graham at Pen Gala

On this day last year: fog on Park Avenue.

Park Avenue in the Fog

Park Avenue in the Fog


Sunday April 10, 2011

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NEW YORK, NEW YORK – Park Avenue is sprouting giant roses installed by sculpture Will Ryman. Here I’m using one as a backdrop for a solitary, struggling tulip. This was captured early evening with my Leica and a 24mm Summilux lens.

Tulip

Tulip

Post Park Avenue I had dinner with John Novogrod, an old friend, at an Argentinian restaurant in Alphabet City.

John Novogrod

John Novogrod


Thursday March 31, 2011

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NEW YORK, NEW YORK – I went to the Yankees season opener against Detroit at the new Yankee Stadium. I associate baseball with early summer days with the stands full of women wearing halter tops. It wasn’t like that. It was colder than hell and wet (the rain delay has bowed to commercial interests) but we were in one of the owners’ suites so we could periodically warm up. The Yankee’s offense and fielding looked terrific. CC Sabathia pitched and put in a sloppy performance – heroic fielding saved a couple of runs – the margin of the 6-3 win. It’s going to be a long season for the Yankees if they can’t muster better starting pitching than this. Here’s the story. No joy in winning against Detroit given the sorry state that the city is in.

I took some pictures of the game and the crowd but I didn’t like any of them. Not my genre. This was taken with my Leica M9 and the bokeh king:

Bob Forbes at the Yankees opener

Bob Forbes at the Yankees opener

On this day last year: a pedestrian image out my living room window.

Out my window

Out my window