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
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
WARREN CONNECTICUT – Well here we are, 9/11 ten years on. We decided to ride this out in Connecticut. Our son was on the street outside of his office two blocks from the WTC when the first plane hit and was one of those running to escape the dust cloud as the first tower collapsed. We’re all lucky that he got through it alive and unhurt. We watched the ceremonies on television. The whole thing was done with great dignity, a relief given the circus atmosphere that has surrounded some aspects of 9/11. Photography tasted stale so I discharged my obligation to take a picture by shooting a hallway in our house with m Alpa TC. Four images focus stacked.
Hallway
On this day one year ago: Ornamental grasses.
Ornamental Grass
KENT CONNECTICUT – We visited our friend Greg, the owner of R T Facts, an antiques store in Kent that specializes in industrial and architectural stuff. We’ve been looking for a large fire pot for our terrace – these are now the vogue in these parts – you bundle up and light a roaring fire, extending the season for using the terrace a month or two. We found a large steel pot that was used in a steel mill in India. Here’s the inside shot with my Alpa TC and 35mm Schneider XL lens.
Fire pit
More from RT Facts:
Table
On this day one year ago: Wake at the Colony.
Wake at the Colony
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – Maria’s in Paris and our children are off in their separate directions and I didn’t have any dinner plans, so I had a lonely guy moment. I ordered a pizza and opened a Stella. Here’s the pizza in its various stages, captured with my Panasonic GH2, 29mm pancake lens and a stepladder.
Dinner
Dinner
Dinner
Dinner
On this day last year: Evening light adumbrates fall foliage.
WARREN CONNECTICUT – As noted yesterday we rode out tropical storm Irene in Connecticut. It rained 8 inches in a few hours, causing minor erosion damage – but no other problems. Amazingly good luck. Here’s what things looked like post storm. Taken with my Alpa TC and a 35mm Schneider XL lens.
Basil surveys Irene damage
On this day last year: Our last day in Nairobi.
An indian pastry shop
WARREN CONNECTICUT – Tropical storm Irene arrived early this morning with more rain than we’ve ever seen before. We had plenty of warning and were well-prepared – we suffered essentially no damage. This was not a bad as a typical winter ice storm. We brought some statues back from Bali years ago – here we’ve laid one on its back so it won’t be blown over. Taken with my Alpa TC and 35mm Schneider Digitar.
Ganesh meets Irene
On this date last year: we visit AmericaShare in Nairobi.
AmericaShare
WARREN CONNECTICUT – I puttered around our Connecticut place working with my tech camera stuff. This was taken with my Alpa Max and a 120 mm Schneider Digitar.
irch
This with my Alpa TC and a 35mm Schneider.
Bedroom
On this day last year: Hippos. These guys are seriously dangerous, “Killed by a hippo” is the most common bad human-wildlife encounter in Kenya.
Hippos
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – A hallway in our apartment, captured with my Alpa TC and a 35mm Schneider XL lens.
Bathroom
On this day last year: wildebeest kill.
wildebeest kill
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – I spent the day with my Leica with my 12mm Voigtlander lens attached. That’s right, 12mm on a full frame camera. This lens is really, really wide. Int’s a miracle that it even forms an image. You don’t need a viewfinder – just assume that it gets everything. What’s in focus? Everything, because of the extreme depth of field. I put a small level on the camera when I use this lens – if it’s only slightly off level vertical lines converge wildly because of the extreme wide angle perspective. This lens has a serious issue on a digital camera: there are wild color casts across the frame, and there are two plus stops of “cosine vignetting”, light fall off toward the edge of the frame. I’ve learned how to solve this problem with my Alpa – that’w why I reached for this lens.
Anyway, here you go:
Flatiron Building
Vase
On this day last year: Landscape
Warren, Connecticut Woods
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
On this day one year ago: Stalking a floral arrangement.
Flowers
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – Francesca, my daughter, nagged me finally to see a doctor this morning. The mystery of why I’ve been feeling so poorly for so long has been solved! It’s Lyme disease! This is a tick-bourne disease that’s epidemic in Connecticut – it’s actually named after Old Lyme Connecticut, the first place that it was discovered. If not treated it has very serious long-term consequences, but in early stages it responds well to industrial-strength antibiotics. Symptoms are fever, lassitude, depression and a really gross rash. Anyway I started my meds today and will be fine.
I’m continuing my search for subjects close at hand that I can photograph when I’m sick. Today I shot a bookcase at home, filled mainly with books about photographers and photography, with my medium format rig. Here it is:
Home sick
Arethusa Farms
NEW YORK NEW YORK – Out my window, taken with my Panasonic GR2 and 14 – 140 zoom lens. Two exposures, one for the skyline and one for the moon. I hand tipped the correct moon exposure in Photoshop. Still feeling poorly so I’m resorting to out my window stuff to meet my one photo every day objectiive.
Moonrise over Manhattan
On this day one year ago: Boston public art.
Nessie
WARREN, CONNECTICUT – Still fighting this miserable flu. This from the morning with my Alpa TC tech camera, a Schneider 35mm Digitar XL lens and my 60 meg Hasselblad back.
Summer morning
On this day one year ago: Ancramdale Presbyterian Church.
Ancramdale Presbyterian Church
WARREN CONNECTICUT – Back in bed battling the flu from hell. We cancelled a dinner party. I spent the weekend trying to prepare for meetings next week through the fog of flu. I got out with my tech camera for a few minutes in the late afternoon:
Warren Connecticut
On this day one year ago: Riverside Boulevard.
100 Riverside Boulevard
NEW YORK NEW YORK – Fair warning here, we’re going to hit a rough stretch. I arrived back from italy with a severe case of the flu characterized by a high temperature and an overwhelming feeling of lassitude. So what happens to “one photograph every day” when I get sick? The answer (I hope) is “Keep on shooting – no excuses.” Anyway, I used my few waking moments today to take a focus stack image of some porcelain that we brought back from China. It’s not perfect. It may not be the best idea to try a technical project like this when I’m delirious. Six focus stacked images with my Leica M9 and a 90mm lens.
Chinese procelain
On this day one year ago: one of many Hello Kitty images.
Hello Kitty
NEW YORK NEW YORK – Another sick day – something that I’m not very good at. This is our bedroom window on a really hot July day. I did have to get out of bed to put my Leica on a tripod.
Out my window
On this day one year ago: East River in the 60s.
East River runner
NEW YORK NEW YORK – Another session trying to optimize the performa of my Hasselblad digital back on my Alpa TC technical camera. I shot the fireplace in our living room fussing with varius settings. I’ve included a crop to give an idea of what the image looks like printed large. The glass is mostly Venini
Home
At home crop
On this day one year ago: Macaroni Beach Mustique.
Macaroni Beach Mustique
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – A lazy day, photographically. We’re gearing up to a have a large party tomorrow; I brought flowers back from Connecticut last night; Here’s an arrangement. Taken with my Hasselblad H4D-60 camera and an HC 100 mm lens.
Party preparation
On this day one year ago: Parking Garage.
95th Street Parking
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.
Manhattan
WARREN CONNECTICUT – I’m getting a little impatient with early spring here – it’s indistinguishable from winter in other parts of the world. Here I’ve taken a picture of a birch and our barns, wonderfully detailed by my Alpa TC, 60 meg Hasselblad back and 36mm Schneider APO digitatar.
Birch
On this day one year ago: 94th Street at night.
94th Street
NEW YORK NEW YORK – St. Patricks Day. Why am I not out photographing the parade? After all that’s what I did on St. Patricks Day last year. Well there are couple of reasons. For me a parade is interesting if you have a privileged point of view. For example as a participant or from a high vantage point. I haven’t arranged for either this year. Absent that sometimes the most compelling images can be found by looking in the opposite direction from the parade and focus on the spectators – ground that I covered last year. But the truth is I was too busy to get out.
I did find an hour to experiment further with exploring the limitations of my Hasselblad 60 meg back on an Alpa 12 Max technical camera. Today’s assignment was to see how this combination works with focus stacking – a technique of combining images taken at various focus distances into one image, all parts of which are in focus. There is a software tool, called Helicon Focus, that makes this possible. The following image, taken in our living room, was made by combining six images with focus points from the close edge of the table to the burned out area in the room on the upper right. I used a laser distometer to measure the distances. Technical cameras like the Alpa 12 Max don’t come with focusing aids or light meters. The detail, depth and pliability of the images from this combination are remarkable. I’ll be doing more of these.
At home
On this day one year ago: Guess what? St. Patricks Day Parade.
St. Patrick's Day Parade
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – I’ve taken advantage of a Hasseblad offer the upgrade my H3D-39 to the latests H4D-60. That’s a medium format system with 60 megs of resolution. I’ve spent a fair amount of time working with a piece of equipment called HTS 1.5 and the new camera – it adds the ability to tilt and shift lenses (as one can on a view camera). The HTS 1.5 provides 18mm of shift in either direction. So theoretically f you do three images, one centered, one with the lens shifted all the way left and the other shifted all the way right, in portrait orientation, and stitch them, you end up with a frame in landscape orientation with a perfect 2×3 aspect ratio and pixel dimensions of 12,762 x 8,488, for a whopping 108 megs. Nice but does this actually work?
The image below was captured with the Hasselblad 100mm lens and the HTS 1.5 – three images with the HTS 1.5 shifted as above and stitched in Photoshop.
Here’s a 1:1 crop from the left side of the image – the Robert Kennedy Bridge (formerly the Triborough Bridge) at night.
Robert Kennedy Bridge
This is very impressive – I’m going to have some fun with this thing.
On this day last year: Shopping on Fifth Avenue.
Shopping on Fifth Avenue
WARREN, CONNECTICUT – This is the first anniversary of my One Photo Every Day Blog. We’re in Connecticut (without electricity) and the fall foliage is if anything better than ever, so my photography this weekend is fixated on it. Here’s foliage in early morning light. Three frames stitched, taken with my Leica M9 and a 90 mm Elmarit lens.
Connecticut fall foliage
I’ve decided from this point on to experiment with putting in links to last year’s post from the same date:
On this date one year ago: October 16, 2009
My first post after a frustrating month sorting out blog technology was an image of the Jean DeBuffet sculpture at One Chase Manhattan Plaza.
Jean DuBuffet "Four Trees" One Chase Manhattan Plaza
Here are a couple of more from October 16, 2010 – since it’s my anniversary I’m giving myself a break from the editorial chore of sorting pictures down to one. We ran into an old friend, Lane Smith, at a book signing for his book, It’s a Book, at the Hickory Stick Bookstore in Washington, Connecticut Here are couple of links of interest: Lane’s video version of the It’s a Book, which ironically went viral. And Hickory Stick Bookshop. Shot with my Leica M9 and a 1954 50mm Dual Range Summicron.
Lane Smith book signing
Finally, more foliage. Leica M9 plus 35mm Summicron v. IV. Two frames stitched.
Connecticut Foliage
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – A dreary morning for weather. I decided to use the opportunity to reorganize our kitchen, which is where I spend most of my time when I’m not at the office or looking for interesting light.
Leica M9 and Wide Angle Tri Elmar.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – On the way to pick up my car to drive to Bridgehampton for a meeting a caught the northern facade of 1185 Park Avenue in wonderful morning light. Not much going on visually in the Hamptons so I’m posting this.
1185 Park Avenue
Leica M9 with 50mm Summilux Asph. lens.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – We’re planning a trip to East Africa in mid-August. This is an experiment with a new lens that I bought for the trip – stalking a floral arrangement in our living room.
Flowers
Nikon D700 with 70-200 f2.8 VR lens.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – Today was packed with activities. Meetings in the morning, a business lunch and cooking all afternoon for a dinner party at home. I was planning on getting my picture for the day at dinner, but realized after the last guest had left that I had gotten so involved in conversations that I hadn’t picked up a camera. 11:00 PM and no picture. I’ve vowed never to post a picture of our dog, so that’s out. I tried shooting out the window at the dark city scape without much success. Finally I shot a pair of images on our wall by Penny Umbrico – blown up images from a curtain catalogue. Here’s a link to Penny’s work: Penelope Umbrico
Curtain catalogues
Nikon D700 with 85mm f1.4 lens.
WARREN CONNECTICUT – Well here I am in Warren for the Fourth of July. A quick personal inventory: Maria, my wife, is in Capri at a literary festival (no kidding); our son, Alexander is in Puerto Rico on vacation proposing to his girlfriend (she said “yes” so she’s now his fiance); our daughter is in Southampton with an old friend of hers. So I’m here by myself doing the lonely guy thing. After the excitement of Ecuador this seems dull. I picked up a different camera hoping for inspiration – not much came of it.
Sunset Warren
Hasselblad H3D 39 with 35 – 90mm lens.
WARREN CONNECTICUT – Our travel from Quito finally ended this morning after an all night flight with a layover in Miami. I managed to keep a lunch date with my son, and I managed to stay awake during the drive to Warren to arrive in time for dinner with some old friends.
Here is the sign for our house that we put out on Rabbit Hill Road after a number of guests were unable to find us. We used the wild turkey theme because . . . well we have a lot of wild turkeys.
Wild turkey sign
Leica M9 with 28mm Summicron.
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