GASPARILLA ISLAND FLORIDA – A boating day. All with my Leica Monochrom but three different lenses: the first with my 18mm Super Elmar; the second with my 50mm f.95 Noctilux; and the third with my 35mm Summicron pre-Asph. v.4 (the Bokeh King).
Boating party
Bird
Filing cabinet
On this day last year: Luncheonette.
Luncheonette
TOBAGO CAYS – We chartered a fast boat for the the day to take us down to Tobago Cays where we snorkeled and had a picnic lunch. The trip back and forth was exceptionally rough. Altogether a fund day. Images with my Leica S.
Grenadines
Life on board
On This day one year ago: Lava lamp.
Lava Lamp and Jim Dow
WARREN CONNECTICUT – Out on our boat (the star of stage and screen) with some friends, my Leica Monochrom and a Noctilux lens.
Nancy
On this day last year: Pit Stop.
Pit stop on the Hutchinson River Parkway
WAAREN CONNECTICUT – We had some fun today. We were approached by a film production company called Lost Highway Films. Lost Highway is producing a television commercial for State of Connecticut tourism folks. They came across our new old boat (the 1952 Chris Craft) on this website. After some negotiation on fees, insurance and so on we agreed that they could film the boat in action in a segment of the commercial that they were shooting on Lake Waramaug. Today was the day. We had a stressful hour dealing with a dead battery but finally got things running.
I was surprised at the number of people involved. There must have been sixty or seventy in total. So the “talent” (five actors) got costumed up in into the boat, and we spent four hours running around the lake being filmed from a pontoon boat. A lot of fun. I’ll post a link when the commercial is finished, probably around the end of September.
Anyway, here are some images, all taken with my Leica M9 and Noctilux.
The Pontoon boat.
A Man and His Ari
Talent
Sunset
The production company had a still photographer on the team. He had set up a Profoto with a soft box which I borrowed (along with some off duty talent) for this.
Talent relaxes
Riding back to the barn.
Star
On this day one year ago: A mud slide caused by the remnant of Hurricane Irene. We subsequently built a retaining wall here.
Basil surveys Irene damage
NEW YORK NEW YORK – It’s a relief to be back home. Salt Lakers (and people from almost anyplace else in the country) find it hard to understand how New York can be home. It’s hard to explain but browsing through these pages may give you a sense. I celebrated my return by seeing a Yankees game with Alexander. That’s my fourth baseball game for the season – an unprecedented level on interest for me, driven more by the strong sense of place that Yankee Stadium (and Fenway) have, than an abiding curiosity about the game.
So here’s a street scene and Yankee Stadium, taken with my Leica M9 and a 12mm Voigtländer lens. As a non-fisheye this wide it’s amazing that it even produces an image. It produces serious color shifts with digital cameras, shifts that I correct for by “developing” the images in C1 with an llc correction. No veiwfinder is necessary – I just assume that it takes in everything in the general direction of the front of the camera. Focusing is redundant because of the long depth of field. Results can be weird and unpleasant because of wide angle geometric distortion – I tend to get a lot of junk with it but also an occasional gem.
The news meets weenies
Yankee Stadium
I got film back today so I’ll be including a few film images each day until I run out of them. Generally taken with my Leica M4, Ilford Delta 100 film, and a dual range Summicron lens.
Fishers Island redux
On this day one year ago: a Nash Metropolitan.
Nash Metropolitan
NEW YORK NEW YORK – I stopped by Francesca’s apartment to help her put it back together after a paint job. Then a Yankees game against Texas. This was a sensational day for baseball (but the Yankees lost 10-6) – through a friend we had Legends seating which as you will see is about as good as it gets. Both images with my Leica M9 and 18mm Super Elmar lens.
After the paint job
Good seata
On this day last year: really wide.
Flatiron Building
BOSTON MASSACHUSETTS – I had a couple of hours fee this morning in Boston, and actually did pretty well with my Fuji Xpro-1 and an 18mm lens (28mm equivalent). In the evening we were guests of a client at their box at Fenway Park – I caught the Green Monster with my iPhone – five images stitched in photoshop. The Red Sox lost to the White Sox (who in Chicago actually follow this team – I’ve never met a Chicagoan who isn’t a Cubs fan), but we had the pleasure of watch balls carom off of the wall.
Green Monster
Beantown
Beantown Rocks
Notes
On this day last year: Centerfold.
Centerfolding
WARREN CONNECTICUT – We took our new old boat out for a sunset cruise on Lake Waramaug. The spotlight on this think is irresistible – I’m going to have to break it off to eliminate the temptation to include it in every image taken from the boat. Take with my Leica M9 and 24mm Summilux.
Sunset on Lake Waramaug
On this day one year ago: Peonies.
Home
NEW MILFORD CONNECTICUT – Over the past two years I have occasionally included on these pages pictures of a 1954 Chris Craft that I own with a friend (neither of us get enough use out of it to justify sole ownership). It was having some reliability problems so we have traded it for a new old boat, another Chris Craft. I drove up here this afternoon to check the new boat out with Roger, our friend who restores Chris Crafts. Feels like a silly indulgence, but Maria told me this evening that a very close friend has been diagnosed with breast cancer (which appears to have been treated successfully) so repeat after me: “carpe diem, carpe diem, carpe diem . . .” Images taken with my Sony Nex-7 and 24mm Summilux lens.
Here a corner of Roger’s shop. I got dozens of images like these today. Where to start? Do a project on shops?
Roger's shop
The boat’s engine looks great.
Marine engine
More boat. I’m going to try a crop of this to exclude Roger (I often crop to square format – probably as a result of my long experience with a Rollei 2.8 F and Hasselblad film cameras). I’ll post it tomorrow.
Chris Craft
On this day last year: Hongqiau Airport. A travel day between Shanghai and Beijing.
Hongqiao Airport
NEW YORK NEW YORK = Alexander’s birthday. We made the pilgrimage to Yankee Stadium for a game with the Minnesota Twins. There’s no better experience on a balmy summer evening. It’s not summer but the weather has been unseasonably warm so the evening was in fact balmy. Here’s Yankee Stadium as landscape taken with my iPhone plus a couple taken by Francesca (guest photographer) with the Hipstamatic app.
Yankee Stadium
Birthday boy
Francesca and self
On this day one year ago: Hongqiao rail station.
Rail terminal Shanghai
GASAPARILLA ISLAND FLORIDA – Our friend Don Burton (who has introduced us the Gasparilla) took us on a boat ride today, a rare gray and threatening day. There’s an area on the east side of the island that has canals and houses built by boat fanciers. This captured with my Sony Nex-7 and 90mm Elamarit lens.
Boat People
It's still winter
TAOS SKI VALLEY NEW MEXICO – We made it to Taos. Our children, Alexander and Francesca, are excellent skiers. They started at age 3 and are at a very high level at this point. In most ski resorts they disdain actual runs, preferring off piste with a guide or instructor. Taos is a little different – there’s a bumper sticker that says “Taos – a four letter word for steep”. That pretty much summarizes it. They are in heaven. Maria is also a terrific skier. Laura is a beginner and is tackling lessons with great spirit. I haven’t skied that much since my knee replacements – I’m taking lessons to see what I can recover. At my current state there’s actually not a way off the mountain that I can ski.
The great thing about Taos is that it has snow, and spring skiing conditions in December. Midday it’s in the low 40s (F). Here’s lunch at the St. Bernard. All images from the trip are with my Panasonic – my travel kit when I’m concerned about size and weight (I actually thought that I might shoot on skis) or iPhone.
Lunch at St Bernard
On this day last year: wind carved snow. Shot with my Hasselblad.
Windswept snow, Warren Connecticut
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 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
On this day one year ago: Connecticut spring, taken through my 5″ Astrophysics refractor.
Connecticut Spring
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
On this day last year: a pedestrian image out my living room window.
Out my window
MUSTIQUE – We went on a picnic to Macaroni beach. Here’s an image taken with my Hasselblad H4D-60, followed by a sunset with the same camera. As you have seen from the previous post we were in exactly the same place for lunch on January 26, 2010.
Picnic on Macaroni Beach
Sunset Mustique
On this day one year ago: A raining morning in Mustique.
Mustique