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Category Archives: Urban
Tuesday August 10, 2010
SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL – Our last day in Brazil. As far as I can tell most Brazilian (or at least Paulista) architects’ student projects were prisons. The drabness is enhanced by the diffuse yellow sunlight that reaches the street here. This is out of the window of our hotel, the Emiliana, in the Jardins district of Sâo Paulo. Link to the Emiliano.
This is nine images stitched.
From the Emiliano
Friday July 30, 2010 (click to comment)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – This detail caught my eye on a building on East 55th Street: a shield-shaped sign on a townhouse referring to “She who must be obeyed. With a little digging around I found that this is the US headquarters of a company called D. L. Taffner, the producer of a television show called “Rumpole of the Bailey.” Rumpole’s wife on the show is referred to as “She Who Must Be Obeyed.” According to the New York Times: “Eleanor is Eleanor Taffner, the wife of Donald L. Taffner Sr., the founder of D. L. Taffner, a television production and distribution company. That sign has been out there since 1983, said Mr. Taffner, who is retired. . . . ‘Truck drivers point up to it and just love it,’ he added.”
Anyway – here’s the image:
124 East 55th Street - DLT Entertainment
Leica M9 and 90mm Elmarit lens. Three frames stitched.
Wednesday July 28, 2010 (click to comment)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – I met our daughter at a rooftop lounge in Hell’s Kitchen – at 11th Avenue and 48th Street – for sunset. This area of Manhattan, which is primarily where people come to buy cars or have them serviced, is changing rapidly. So this is Hell’s Kitchen in the foreground and the midtown skyline in the background. Very basic urban landscape, but in terrific light.
Hell's Kitchen and Midtown skyline
Leica M= and 50mm Summilux lens. Three images stitched, and then cropped to square format.
Monday July 26, 2010
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.
Thursday July 22, 2010
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – At last a decent landscape image. I’m primarily interested in landscape, which for me often means urban landscape because I live in New York. You can’t dress, stylize or direct landscape. You have to wait for it. The best light is often around sunrise or sunset. Sometimes when it happens no one is looking. Sometimes you wait for it and it doesn’t arrive. This is my 281st daily post since i started this project last October. About half of the images are in New York. No more than a dozen of them are landscapes that are actually of interest.
This was an unusually productive sunset, looking East out the windows of our apartment. I’ve posted my favorite out of the group. Some of the outtakes are interesting enough that I’m posting them in a comment – click on the date above to see and add comments.
Moonrise over Lexington Avenue
Nikon D700 with 70-200 f2.8 lens.
Tuesday July 20, 2010
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – I walked back through Central Park from lunch on 59th Street with a friend. It was absolutely late-July frying hot. Here’s The Mall (sometimes called Poets’ Walk).
Poets' Walk
Leica M9 with 28mm Summicron lens.
Thursday July 15, 2010
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – Had lunch with an old friend at Savoy on Prince Street. Here’s a link: Savoy. We had heard that Savoy has a fabulous burger, which turned out to be true. The patty was perfect aged, grass fed beef, not overworked; the brioche bun was just right; it was cooked to perfection. After lunch I spent an hour in Washington Square exploring some of the same themes that I explored in Ecuador.
Washington Square
Leica M9 with 28mm Summicron lens.
Posted in Icon, Landscape, Monuments, Urban
Tagged New York, Parks, Washington Square
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Wednesday July 14, 2010
BOSTON MASSACHUSETTS – Boston is not Barcelona. There is plenty of public art in Boston, but the quality overall is just ok. Here’s a part of a sculpture – the tail of what looks likes the Loch Ness monster that runs down the middle of the stairway that I’m standing on.
Nessie
Leica M9 and 28mm Summcron lens.
Monday July 12, 2010
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – Dinner at Centolire with an old friend, Steve Rubin. Here’s the view out the window across 86th Street.
East 86th Street
Nikon D700.
Posted in Landscape, Out my window, Street, Urban
Tagged New York, Stores, Upper East Side
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Tuesday July 6, 2010
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – A truly beastly day. We’re suffering under a record heat wave in the Northeast. I sought refuge in the shade of the plaza of Lever House and shot passers by against the backdrop of Hello Kitty. Not a good day to be outdoors.
Leica M9 with 28mm Summicon lens.
Monday June 21, 2010
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – A walk in the East Village in the evening of the longest day of the year.
East Village
Leica M9 with 35mm Summichron Asph
Friday June 18, 2010
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – I spent the late afternoon stalking reflected sunlight out the window of our dining room.
Out my window
Hasselblad H3D with HC 300 lens.
Thursday June 17, 2010
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – Midday found me in midtown on my way to a lunch date. Here’s one of my favorite spots, the plaza in front of the Seagram Building.
Seagram Building New York
Leica M9 and 35mm Summicron Asph.
Posted in Icon, Landscape, Urban
Tagged Flags, New York, Park Avenue, Seagram building
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Wednesday June 16, 2010
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS – Up early to prepare for meetings, I made this panorama of sunrise over Boston harbor. I’ve written elsewhere that I don’t have much use for photographs of sunrises and sunsets, They do, after all, happen every day: its unlikely that I or anyone else is going to create great or unusual work by pointing a camera east in the early morning. I doubt that any artist since Joseph Mallord William Turner has made much of a contribution to our understanding or appreciation of sunrises and sunsets. I’ve pasted a copy of Turner’s Sunrise with Sea Monsters below.
One also has to consider the burden at this time of year of getting up very early to photograph a sunrise: sunrise today in Boston was at 5:06. That’s actually why I’ve posted a sunrise – I had a very busy day in Boston so I got up early to capture my image for the day. The first frame of this image was time stamped by the camera as 10:00:50 because I set the clock in all of my cameras to UTC so I don’t have to worry about whether they are on correct local time when I travel.
Sunrise Boston Harbor
Leica M9 plus 35mm Summicron Asph.
Turner Sunrise with Sea Monsters
Tuesday June 15, 2010
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS – I made my monthly trip to Boston. Here’s a facade of a building that proudly announces its address as 289 Devonshire Street.
Link to Google map
289 Devonshire Street, Boston
Leica M9 with 35mm Summicron Asph. Three frames stitched.
Monday June 14, 2010
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – Back home. The Lipstick building.
Lipstick building
Leica M9 and 35mm Summicron Asph.
Monday June 7, 2010
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – A very busy day as I prepare to go to Mustique tomorrow. I caught this view of Citicorp with my Leica on my way to a lunch date.
Citicorp Center
Leica M9 and 35mm Summicron Asph.
Sunday June 6, 2010
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – Back from Connecticut and a rainy weekend. I had spent the weekend putting a relatively new (to me) camera through its paces, a Nikon D700. I plan on using the D700 primarily for available light photograph in poor light, so I’ve put it back in its bag to wait for the next party, wedding, dinner or whatever. For street use I’m back to my trusty Leica M9, which I prefer as long as there’s enough light to manually focus. This picks up on my “Look up – don’t worry of it makes you look like a tourist” theme.
Lexington Avenue and 93rd Street
Leica M9 and 35mm Summicron Asph.
Posted in Food, Landscape, Urban
Tagged Lexington Avenue, Restaurant, Upper East Side
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Wednesday June 2, 2010
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – While walking on East 68th Street today I stumbled on a fashion shoot in progress – probably for a catalogue based on the wardrobe.:
Catalogue shoot, East 68th Street
Hasselblad H3D 39 with HC 100 lens.
Tuesday June 1, 2010
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – This from the very early evening on Park Avenue. The sculpture is newly-installed. I don’t have any information on it but I’ll keep looking and revise this post accordingly. Of course the background is Mies van der Rohe’s Seagram Building, one of the icons that I stalk. The perspective is from the front door of the Racquet and Tennis Club.
Park Avenue Island
Shot with a Hasselblad H3D 39 and an HC 100 lens. Three exposures stitched. This produces a very large file.
Posted in -Woody's Picks, Icon, Landscape, Urban
Tagged New York, Park Avenue, Seagram building
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Wednesday May 26, 2010
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – Back in New York. While walking back from the west side (where I had left my car for service) a came across Carnegie Hall in dappled light. This is a side-on view from Sixth Avenue. From the Wikipedia entry on Carnegie Hall:
“Designed by architect William Burnet Tuthill and built by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie in 1891, it is one of the most famous venues in the United States for classical music and popular music, renowned for its beauty, history and acoustics. . . . Carnegie Hall is one of the last large buildings in New York built entirely of masonry, without a steel frame; however, when several flights of studio spaces were added to the building near the turn of the 20th century, a steel framework was erected around segments of the building. . . . A venerable story has become part of the folklore of the hall: A New Yorker (or in some versions Arthur Rubinstein) is approached in the street near Carnegie Hall, and asked, “Pardon me sir, how do I get to Carnegie Hall?” He replies, “Practice, practice, practice.”"
Carnegie Hall
Leica M9 and 35mm Summicron Asph. Three images stitched.
Sunday May 23, 2010
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – I dropped the car off at our garage after driving back from Connecticut. That’s me, and our Norwich Terrier Basil, in the mirror. I’ve vowed never to post a picture of Basil on my blog (remember all of those pitiful posts on online photo forums to the effect: “Here is my cat Midas shot with my Nikon SuperUltra 9700 – you can see every whisker) but this seemed to be a reasonable exception.
95th Street Parking
Leica M9 with 35mm Summilux lens
Friday May 21, 2010
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – Caught this walking back to my office from lunch with a friend at Alto.
Manhattan
Leica M9 with 24mm Summilux lens at f1.4
Posted in Landscape, Urban
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Thursday May 20, 2010
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – I play poker with a group of old friends on a roughly quarterly basis. This was the night. No pictures of the game – what happens there stays there. But here’s the view from the terrace of our host.
New York Financial District at Night
Leica M9 with a 24mm Summilux lens. Two frames stitched together.
Friday May 14, 2010
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – Late afternoon on East 56th Street – a reflection of the AT&T building off of the facade of the Trump Tower. Shot with my Leica M9 (it found its way back to me) and a 24mm Summilux.
AT&T Building
Thursday May 13, 2010
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – Fabulous late afternoon light in midtown, with light reflected from buildings adding nuance. I’m shooting with my backup Leica, and M8.2, because I left my M9 at Gary and Diana’s the previous evening (symptomatic of wine consumption). I had a number of good images to choose among. This is Mies van der Rohe’s iconic Seagram building – part of my effort to do a new take on iconic structures. I have an ongoing project on the Seagram building and the plaza formed by it and the Racquet and Tennis Club (McKim Mead and White) and Lever House to the northwest (the “Hello Kitty’s” come from there). Image taken with my M8.2 and a 90mm lens – three images stitched in Photoshop.
Seagram Building
Posted in -Woody's Picks, Icon, Landscape, Urban
Tagged New York, Park Avenue, Seagram building
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Tuesday May 11, 2010
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – My meetings are at Park Avenue and 53rd Street so I managed to commune with my old friend Hello Kitty for a few minutes. You will remember from previous posts that Hello Kitty is Tom Sach’s statue in the sculpture garden at Lever House. See March 19 blog entry and April 20 blog entry. There may be enough going on at Lever House to make a project out of it.
Hello Kitty
Posted in -Woody's Picks, Icon, Landscape, Urban
Tagged Hello Kitty, Lever House, New York, Park Avenue
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Monday May 10, 2010
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – This is going to be a rough week in the photo-a-day department. My day job is invading this space. I’ve got round the clock meetings Tuesday through Friday and heavy preparation for them on Monday. I won’t have much time for posts, so they will be delayed for a few days. Mostly work dinners that I can’t photograph. I managed to walk a couple of blocks in the morning on Lexington Avenue I got this.
Lexington Avenue
Friday May 7, 2010
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – This afternoon I walked over to the Guggenheim Museum to take a look at the new restaurant there, The Wright (get it!). The Wright and its architect, Andre Kikoski, won best restaurant design at the James Beard Awards earlier this week. Link to James Beard Award winners. I ended up not photographing the restaurant, but caught a detail from the Church of the Heavenly Rest (occasionally referred to as “the church of the overly dressed” referring to its Fifth Avenue location) a block north of the museum. Image taken with a Leica M9 and a 24mm Summilux f1.4 lens. I took more details of the Guggenheim – I’ve attached one of the images in a comment.
Church of the Heavenly Rest
Posted in Landscape, Urban
Tagged Church of the Heavenly Rest, Fifth Avenue, James Beard Foundation, New York, Upper East Side, Urban
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Thursday May 6, 2010
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – From a sunset walk on the High Line. Here’s a link for more information about the High Line: Link to High Line site. Leica M9 and 90mm Elmarit. I’ve changed the image on this page after having second thoughts on the selection of the May 6 image.
From the High Line at sunset
Friday April 30, 2010
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – My birthday. This image is of the 59th Street Bridge and a pylon for the Roosevelt Island tramway at sunset. As of this post I’m adding information about camera and technique, not because it matters (the images speak for themselves) but to provide a bit more traction to search engines, which look for words, not pictures. S0 . . . Leica M9 with a 28mm aspheric Summicron lens.
59th Street Birdge
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