NEW YORK NEW YORK – I’ve operated for a few days on the theory that the point of this exercise (a daily photo blog) is to document my daily life. A visual diary. Ok. So here’s a picture taken with my Panasonic while waiting for a red light. I may have to give this a bit more thought. Maybe it’s a Friday the 13th effect.
Driving to Connecticut
On this day one year ago: Hell’s Kitchen.
Hell's Kitchen
WARREN CONNECTICUT – Boxing Day. Curiously I shot the same subject one year ago. This time I selected a different angle and camera, my Alpa Max with a short-mount 120 mm Schneider lens and a tilt adapter. Tilting is a view camera feature that is available for longer Alpa lenses. It permits tilting the lens and thus the focus plane, to either extend or shorten apparent depth of field. Here I have used it to keep the top of the sundial and the wall and the trees in the background in focus. It can be a tedious iterative process to get focus right with this technique; there are rules of thumb that help; there’s also an iPhone app that gives you a very good starting point. What I don’t like about this image is a mental mistake on my part: cutting off the bottom of the sundial.
Sundial
On this day last year: Sundial.
Blizzard
NEW YOEK NEW YORK – I spent some time this afternoon at Yancey Richardson looking at photographs, primarily by Andrew Moore. The experience was energizing. When I started this daily photo effort over two years ago I expected that a number of longer term projects would emerge. Looking at Andrew’s work and paging back through mine I’ve decided to push on the churches of Litchfield County project. I see a couple of phases, starting with taking an inventory of facades, making high quality prints as a means to get closer to the ministers/rectors/priests, doing more in depth studies (which I’ve only done at the Washington Congregational Church at this point), teasing out the narrative (which I have some ideas on but need further work to refine) and then more follow through studies.
But today I’m not in Litchfield County so I point my Alpa Max out our window into good light. I’m working to achieve technical mastery with this tool – it’s the key to creating the kinds of images that I’m looking for in Litchfield County. By “technical mastery” I mean that my hands do the right things without an need to think about anything but composition.
Out my window in good light
On this date one year ago: Urban landscape.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – More fussing around with my new iPhone 4S. I tried my classic out my window brick wall torture test, shooting with the phone braced against a window sill to approximate the effect of being on a tripod. I used the “HDR” (high dynamic range) mode given the phone’s tendency to blow highlights and the long dynamic range of the scene. It turns out that this was a mistake – on close inspection there are ugly white bands where the buildings meet the sky. After a bit of digging online I came to the conclusion that Apple dramatically over sharpens in HDR mode – so for future reference I’ll be avoiding it. Later in the evening I shot a Martini at the Monkey Bar – odd that this famous bar serves a Martini in a sherry glass. Whatever . . .
Out my window
Martini
The next installment in my 1999 24-houe self portrait project – this one from 12:08 AM on February 14, 1999. As always taken with an Arca Swiss 8×10 inch view camera.
12:08 AM February 14, 1999
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
Sunset
On this day one year ago: kitchen reorganization.
Kitchen
WASHINGTON CONNECTICUT – We spent the day on Lake Waramaug. Here is a friend’s Nash Metropolitan, a cottage on the lake that we’ve rented for the summer, and three friends in our boat, all taken with my Alpa TC, 35mm Schneider XL lens and Phase One IQ 180 back,
Nash Metropolitan
Cottage on the lake
Boating
On this day last year: The David Sheldrick animal orphanage outside of Nairobi.
Elephants
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – A long day in the office. I caught this out the window in a moment of lovely light with my Leica M9 and 24mm Summilux lens.
Bloomberg Building
On this day one year ago: Porto Seguro, Brazil. This isn’t bad for a travel day. Maybe I should just stop whining about travel days make the most of them.
Porto Seguro Airport
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – While I was in Africa Phase One released a firmware update to the IQ 180 back that enables “live view”, the ability to view on the back’s lcd screen what the camera is seeing in real time. Live view is commonplace in consumer cameras, which use CMOS technology, but is difficult to implement in medium format cameras which use CCD technology. I downloaded the update and installed it and voila it worked. Live view is a boon to technical camera users because it permits composition on the back’s lcd monitor while using shifts. I set the back up on my Alpa Max with my 72mm Schneider Digitar and took the following out my window (with the back shifted up 15mm and to the right 17mm),
New York Rooftop
On this day last year: Trancoso at night.
Trancoso
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – Back to New York – that was a genuinely quick trip to attend a wedding. Still a bit under the weather. Francesca noticed a quite cruddy looking rash on my legs and had nagged me to see a doctor, which I’ll do tomorrow morning.
I installed new firmware in my Hasselblad back. I did an out-my-window test, stitching two frames shifted to the left and the right on my Alpa Max, to see if the firmware cures the “centerfolding” issue that’s apparent when this back is used shifted on a technical camera. It didn’t – note the vertical line in the sky on the right side of the image:
Centerfolding
On this day one year ago: fundraiser at the Litchfield Community Center.
Bruce
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 – 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
On this day one year ago: Friends in Mustique.
Judy and Doug
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – I’m spending a lot of time trying to get my Hasselblad back to produce acceptable images in my Alpa Max. Hasselblad claims, accurately, that their “closed” system creates a high level of integration between the camera, lenses, the digital back and software. The system produces sensational images but Hasselblad is evidently not committed to doing the work to make their digital back work on a “technical” camera, like the Alpa Max. Most Hasselblad shooters don’t care about this – technical cameras are of primary interest to landscape and architectural shooters, people who want the highest performance wide angle lenses and those want to create immense high resolution images with a technique called “planar stitching”. It turns out that a technical camera like the Alpa Max (and its little brother the Alpa TC) fit my style and interests perfectly.
Putting a digital back on a tech camera general results in undesirable color shifts across the frame, which within limits can be corrected by software. The Hasselblad files also show a line down the center of the image ( a phenomenon called “centerfolding”) when the lens is shifted relative to the back on the tech camera. I spent most of the day shooting out my window trying to find the limits to this issue and looking for a solution. Here’s the view from my dining room window – it’s a two frame planar stitch. I’ve cropped the sky out because that’s where the centerfolding issue is most evident. Not a distinguished photograph but this view out my window is very useful for testing lenses, backs and techniques.
Out my window
On this day one year ago: Portrait at Martha McPhee’s party.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – I’m writing this about a week after I took the picture for May 16. The one week delay in posting gives me a chance to sort through images hopefully making an non-rushed decision on what to post. The scene out my window was the same as it was then and has been unchanged all month. We’ve had the rainiest May in memory. It’s as if the weather system has its coasts mixed up – you might expect this in Seattle but not here. This is three frames stitched with my Leica M9 and 135mm APO Telyt.
Rooftops in the fog
On this day one year ago: farm stand.
Farmstand
PRINCETON NEW JERSEY and NEW YORK – I started the day with a series of meetings; moved back to my office where I caught a window washer out of my window; then on to Princeton where I spoke at the Princeton Photography Club – a serious group of people and a lot of fun.
This is from the Princeton campus. Not much going on here creatively (I was rushed) but at least is shows off my Alpa TC, 36mm Schneider lens and 60 meg Hasselblad back.
Princeton
As noted above here’s a window washer and the Chrysler building captured with my Leica M9 and a 28 mm Summicron lens.
Chrysler Building
On this day last year: one of my many “Hello Kitty” images.
Hello Kitty
NEW YORK NEW YORK – I have better days and worse days. This was one of the better. Sometimes it is enough just to go through your routine day with a camera in hand. It helps that it’s Spring. I met Francesca (our daughter) at J. McLaughlin where she was picking up a birthday present for her fiance, and for a coffee.
the way regular visitors (thanks to all of you) may notice that I’ve changed the galleries to the right. I’ve added a collection pulled together from the Litchfield County Connecticut churches that I’ve been exploring for the last 16 months, and a series of timed exposures taken out of the window of a high speed train in China. Let me know what you think.
These were taken with my Panasonic GH2 and the wonderful 14mm pancake lens
J McLaughlin
Same setup. I’m using a crop of this as my blog header.
East 95th Street
On this day last year: Bill Cohan and Maria at the Pen gala.
Maria Campbell and William Cohan
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – A busy day in New York catching up on my day job and getting ready for a quick trip to Portland Oregon. This with my Leica M9 out a window in our apartment.
1185 Pak Avenue
On this date one year ago: My best “Hello Kitty”. I think that this is one of my best “Hello Kitty” images of the past year but it wasn’t highly rate by the star system.
Hello Kitty
NEW YORK NEW YORK – You’ve seen this before – it’s the view out of my dining room window – and I guaranty that you’ll see it again. Hasselblad has finally released a production version of the firmware for its 60 meg back that permits it to be used on a technical camera. (I had previously been using a beta version of the firmware.) I attached the 60 meg Hasselblad back to my Alpa 12 Max camera and a Schneider 36mm digital lens and spent a couple of hours exploring the limits of this combination out of the window of my dining room. Here’s a typical image. This good landscape test image for me because there is a wealth of fine detail and the streets are orthogonal (eliminating focus as an issue). The Alpa Max permits the camera back to be shifted. Here I’ve used this feature to move the horizon down – to emphasize the sky. This could have been accomplished by pointing the camera up, but then the vertical lines would have converged. Technical cameras like the Alpa are often used to photograph architectural subjects because the facilitate composing while maintaining horizontal and vertical lines in the buildings parallel.
Out my window
On this day one year ago: Cash for your Warhol in Beantown.
Cash for your Warhol
NEW YORK NEW YORK – This is a busy week for me so I’m tucking my daily photos into odds and ends of time. I spent the day in my office but kept an eye out for good or interesting light in the Manhattan cityscape outside of my windows. I’m shooting with my Panasonic GH2 because it’s the lightest and most compact camera that I have and the selectivity of the very long telephotos effectively let me cheat, not having the time or space to actually get close to an interesting subject. Here’s the Bloomberg Building out my office window:
Bloomberg Building
On this day one year ago: A dismal image of the mud season in Connecticut.
Warren Connecticut
NEW YORK NEW YORK – I spent a few hours sorting out my Alpa Max today. Alpa provides the ability to shim the back adapter to achieve perfect focus. This requires an object to focus on that’s a long ways away; I used the Triboro Bridge out my dining room window. I was also able to work out corrections for the color shifts across the frame that result from putting a digital back on a technical camera. Late in the afternoon the light and the sky turned interesting so I captured this (a two frame panorama):
Out my window
On this day one year ago: a truly uninteresting IR image of the World Trade Center construction site.
World Trade Center Construction Site
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – So I find myself walking around New York with a battery in my inside coat pocket and a wire snaking down my sleeve. It connects to the digital back on my Alpa TC. It’s flexible and is highly compatible with my style of shooting but at some risk that I’ll be mistaken for a suicide bomber. I take a fair number of images like this at extreme angles, but this is one of my favorites.
The lady wears red
Here’s another take on the sunrise out our dining room window with my Alpa Max:
Sunrise out my window
On this day one year ago: Another cold day in Connecticut.
Warren sunrise
NEW YORK NEW YORK – So my Alpa TC has a companion camera: an Alpa Max, which uses the same lenses and the same digital back but is designed for tripod use and allows full shifts in both the horizontal and vertical directions. It’s a so-called technical camera. It permits making compositions by shifting the back up, down, right or left while keeping camera level so vertical lines don’t converge or diverge, an effect that is especially evident when shooting wide angle. So here we are shooting with the Max out of our dining room window at dawn, shifting the back downward to obtain this composition.
Sunrise out my window
On this day one year ago: Episcopal Church, Morris Connecitut.
Episcopal Church Morris Connecticut
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – I spent most of the day in the office. Fortunately in the late afternoon there was a moment when the light was wonderful, so I caught this image looking south from 919 Third Avenue with my Leica M9 and 35mm Summilux II lens. It’s two frames stitched.
South from 919 Third Avenue
On this day last year: Dinner at Le Bernardin.
Le Bernardin
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – More mementos – these from our living room in New York. I really am in a sentimental place. There is a digital technique called focus bracketing that lets you extend depth of field. It turns out that this is actually easier that messing with tilts (the classical view camera technique for achieving a similar result) as long as nothing moves between exposures. This was taken with my Hasselblad H4D-60 and a 150 mm lens. It’s 7 exposures focusing from near (the front of the tea chest) to far (the speaker grill in the lower left). The frames were stacked in Helicon Focus, specialized software that combines focus bracketed images to produce one in focus composite. The moire on the lampshade is actually not an digital artifact – it results from the interaction of screens in front of the window that illuminates the scene.
Momentos
On this day last year: Dangerous tree.
Park Avenue
NEW YORK NEW YORK – This is a slightly melancholy week for me – it’s my first week serving as of counsel in my law firm – I’m officially no longer a partner. I photographed the “work wall” in my office, a design feature common in offices that includes file drawers and bookshelves. A lot of effort went into its design. (Gensler was the architect, the wood is anigre – ours is a light wood office.) Everything about it is obsolete. The file drawers are empty; their contents have been supplanted by on-line resources. There are almost no books on the bookshelves; books have been supplanted by on-line resources. What you see on the bookshelves are mostly “deal toys”, mementos of completed transactions past, but for the present and future a luxury that most clients are not willing to pay for. Pictures of my family at younger ages. Anyway . . . . Here’s the work wall shot with a Leica M9 and 35mm Summilux II lens.
Office at Debevoise & Plimpton
On this day last year: Balloons!! This is really as good as it gets. On reflection one of my favorites from last year. Taken with my Leica M9 and a 35mm Summicron version iv lens.
919 Third Avenue
WARREN CONNECTICUT – A quiet day in the snow-covered countryside. This with my Hasselblad H4D-60.
On this date one year ago: Out my office window in lovely light.
Looking North
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
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – Perfect late fall weather here. But I was house-bound preparing for meetings the following week. This is out our dining room window with my Hasselblad H3d-39. Nice light. Too bad that I didn’t get out into it. The Hasselblad makes lovely images but it gets the most use when I’m driving to where I shoot, because it’s heavy and awkward to carry, and not very well suited to urban walk around use.
November 12, 2010
On this day one year ago: Diana Fiskejon’s birthday party
Gary Fisketjon
NEW YORK, NEW YORK and CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – Well I’m two for two on out the window shots for the day. I started the morning in New York with a lovely sunrise. Yes, I’ve said that I don’t do sunrises and sunsets but this seemed sufficiently spectacular to warrant and exception. Out our dining room window with my Leica M9 and 28mm Sumicron Asph. lens.
Manhattan sunrise
Midmorning I left for Chicago to attend an two day mutual fund directors’ conference. By the time I got to my hotel and registered for the conference the day’s rather poor light was failing. I took a walk along the Chicago River but didn’t take anything that I liked. When I got back to my hotel I got this out the window. Leica M9 and 90mm Elmarit lens.
Chicago River Tour Boat
On this date one year ago I was in Portland Oregon at a farmers market: October 25, 2009
Farmers Market Portland Oregon
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – A crap day for photography. The weather was an appalling mixture of wind and rain. I carried my Leica around all day, but didn’t get much use out of it: My schedule consisted of lunch at the Harvard Club with an old friend (photography isn’t appropriate here) followed by a trip to B&H with the same friend but I didn’t have the wit to use my Leica there. An evening concert at Carnegie Hall, guest of a professional friend so again photography wasn’t appropriate. I arrived home after the concert empty-handed photo-wise, so I set my Nikon up on a tripod with a long lens and shot the rainy night out my window. Long exposures with long lenses are technically demanding and I was tired, so the results are so-so at best. Here’s the best of a poor lot, shot with a Nikon D700 and a 200mm lens with a 1.7x tele-extender.
Rainy night in Manhattan
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – An overcast day with intermit clearing. The sky is really low. Here’s Citicorp center out my office window. I’m using a “new” old lens: a 40mm Leica Summicron-C from 1977. This lens was designed for use with the Leica CL, a “budget” camera produced in a joint venture with Minolta. Leica CL. I found this lens, which is in perfect condition, at a very good price on e-bay – I’ve been watching for one for some time. It has the advantage of being the most compact Leica-built lens for M-mount cameras. It appears to be very, very good. I’ll be exploring its capabilities over the next few days.
Citicorp
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