NEW YORK NEW YORK – Well here we are on Groundhog Day. I had an early evening meeting in midtown just off of Fifth Avenue so I took the opportunity to walk over to Radio City Music Hall to capture this with my Sony Nex-7 camera and a Sony Zeiss 24mm lens.

Radio City

On this day one year ago: /study date.

Francesca at work

Share

NEW YORK NEW YORK – Well here I am in my office with my new Nex-7 camera and a Leica 35mm Summciron v.4 lens, the “bokeh king” (“let’s strap the king onto the new camera and see what happens”). So here’s my Lava Lamp. The photograph in the background (from the Jim Dow courthouse series) is out of focus and the bokeh looks pretty smooth – score another win for the king. Click through the bokeh link if you don’t have any idea of what I’m talking about. Anyway, here’s the Lava Lamp:

Lava Lamp and Jim Dow

On this day one year ago: remains of the blizzards.

Reality

Share

TAOS SKI VALLEY AND TAOS NEW MEXICO – Maria, Alexander, Laura and I snowmobiled in the morning, guided by a local legend and egregious name dropper called “Big Al”. Really fun racing up and down the mountains in two-cycle engine exhaust miasma. Here’s the village in good light and Maria.

Taos ski village

Maria does a snowmobile

Later in the day Laura and I drove down to Taos and visited the Taos Pueblo, one of the most photographed and painted sites on the face of the earth. From an editorial standpoint I’ve had failure of self control here.

Horse

Sagebrush

Taos pueblo

Cemetery Taos Pueblo

On this day last year: a clear day in Connecticut.

Tanner farm, Warren Connecticut

Share

NEW YORK NEW YORK – Back home. I carried my little Ricoh GRD IV through the day, catching autumn foliage ending up on the sidewalk, and a new installation at Lever House, a salt water aquarium and plants by Paula Hayes. Very cool. Worth a look.

Streets of New York

Weird Science

On this day last year: on the Acela.

Share

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – Today we did the sacred and profane on Fifth Avenue. Starting with the sacred I stopped by Marble Collegiate Church, the oldest Protestant congregation in North America and for decades the bully pulpit for Norman Vincent Peal. The Church has a “Payers for Peace” program. The congregation offers prayer for service men and women who have died in Central Asia during the week; yellow ribbons with the names of the departed are attached to the railing around the Church. Here’s a segment of the fence with a statue of Dr. Peal in the background. Images taken with my Leica M9 and a 24mm Summilux lens.

Marble Collegiate Church

Now the profane. At the 42nd Street Library I spotted the following, which I couldn’t resist:

XXX rated at the Public Library

From my self portrait series taken hourly on February 13, 1999 the image from 8:52 PM. Taken with an Arca Swiss 8×10 view camera.

Share

NEW YORK NEW YORK -I read a glowing review of the World Trade Center Memorial in the New York Review of Books so I made a reservation and made the trek down there. It’s huge. The memorial is the foundations of the two towers – recessed (by 50 feet or so) pools where the foundations were. Water cascades down the four sides of the foundations holes to the pools. The water disappears into black square holes in the center of the pools. The falling theme is powerful given the context. The central hole evokes a grave. The names of all of the 9/11 victims were cut into the railing around the pools. The Memorial owes a lot to Maya Lin and at the same time is totally unique. Images taken with my Leica M9 and a 12mm Voigtlander lens and 24mm Summilux lens.

World Trade Center Memorial

World Trade Center Memorial

World Trade Center Memorial

Another take on the Old Equitable Building taken with my Leica and a 24mm Summilux lens:

Old Equitable Building

8:00 PM February 13, 1999 from my series of hourly self-portraits over a 24-hour period.

8:00 PM February 13, 1999

Share

SHANGHAI – We traveled yesterday to this remarkably photogenic city. We stayed on the Pudong side of the river at the Park Hyatt Shanghai, located on the upper floors of the Shanghai World Financial Center. From an architectural standpoint the SWFC (as it is known) is one of the better and more appealing super tall skyscrapers. I regretted not having my Alpa kit and the time to use it. Here’s what was possible with my Panasonic GH2.

SWFC

SWFC and the moon

Pudong

Pudong

On this day one year ago: Grand Central Terminal.

Grand Central Terminal -ramp from the lower level

Share

NEW YORK NEW YORK – Walking on Park Avenue with my Leica (and 90mm lens) I caught Lever House and the Racquet Club in spectacular light. Two frames stitched.

Lever House

On this day last year: An angle on the Seagrams Building in lovely light.

Park Avenue sunrise

Share

LITCHFIELD CONNECTICUT – I spent the late afternoon giving myself a walking tour of North Street in Litchfield. Here’s a link to the Wikipedia article on the Litchfield Historic District. Shot with my Alpa TC and 47mm Schneider XL lens. Two frames stitched.

North Street Litchfield

On this day one year ago: Infrared image. One of the better examples of these.

Park Avenue

Share

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – This afternoon I walked the Brooklyn Bridge from the Manhattan side. It was seriously crowded. I shot with my Alpa and the 72mm Schneider lens. Framing continues to be a challenge. Out of the 30 or 40 images I thought this was the best point of view, but it’s flawed because I didn’t recognize it at the time so I didn’t take the time to wait for the optimum moment in terms of the pedestrians. Near misses for me two days in a row. Here it is:

Brooklyn Bridge

On this day last year: wildebeest migration. I had so many images that I did three posts for the day. Here’s a crocodile killing a zebra.

Zebra kill

Share