NEW YORK, NEW YORK – Vile weather continues. This is out my office window with my Leica and a 12mm Voigtlander lens in sinister light. This lens is wide. I mean really wide. If you hold the camera normally your knuckles are in the frame. No view finder is needed – just assume you get everything. You need to keep it level or vertical lines converge wildly – sort of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. (An aside. Through the miracle of You Tube and the public domain you can now see this film on line: Dr. Caligari, which has actually had an influence on my wide angle shooting.)
Shooting digitally the Voigtlander 12mm has issues with color casts, and there is a bit of distortion, but viewed objectively its a miracle that it forms an image at all. Overall my best work is done shooting wide, and this is the outer limit on wide.
On this day one year ago: My favorite shot of the Chrysler building. I’m having “One Photo Every Day” business cards made from this one. I’ve take the liberty of reproducing it large here.
