WASHINGTON CONNECTICUT – I went out looking for barns this morning and found a local farm with a really nice collection. Here’s a sample taken with my Alpa and 35mm Schneider XL lens. It was late for this sort of shot and the light was not noteworthy. Have to get up earlier as longer days approach.
Barn
On this day one year ago: Petco.
Petco
WARREN CONNECTICUT – Winter is closing down here, which means that the days get longer, which means that you have to get up earlier to get the best morning light, which means that you’re probably going to see more sunsets from me. Nonetheless I managed to get up early enough today to catch some very nice light at the construction site near us. Taken with my Alpa TC and a 35mm Schneider lens.
On this day last year: Tulips.
Dinner with Phyllis Grann
NEW YORK NEW YORK -I went to the Armory Show today. There was very little in the two vast halls that I could pass off as interesting so I’ll spare you (I did see some nice pictures at Yancy Richardson’s but I’ve done plenty of photos of photos here so I’ll spare you). Walking back through Hell’s Kitchen with my Alpa I caught this:
It's called a tree
On this day last year: Ze Cafe.
Ze Cafe
NEW YORK HEW YORK – Taken with my iPhone at the end of a long, hard day. My first approach to this image was half-hearted – it’s the second image below. I revisited it in Lightroom and Photoshop to even out the background (antique linen that’s framed above our bed) and resaturate and adjust the color on the gummy plastic heart. It’s sort of a gummy plastic treatment of the subject, but overall not bad. I’m no longer embarrassed by the image.
Heart
Heart
On this day last year: House of Brews.
Duvel Green?
NEW YORK NEW YORK – I spent most of today at Harvard Business School, where the turn-around of the James Beard Foundation was discussed by a class as a case. Very, very bright kids, who over an hour and a half identified most of the issues that we actually dealt with and thoroughly debated all sides. Very interesting – these students are well-qualified to take on the world and all of its problems. We were rushed the whole day with not many opportunities for photography. I captured this at home after I got back from Boston, as I was leaving for dinner. Basil looking irritated. Taken with my Sony Nex-7 and 24mm Leica Summilux lens. The photograph on the wall is by Lalla Essaydi.
The dog scolds me for leaving
On this day last year: River Club.
Engagement party at the River Club
NEW YORK NEW YORK – We got home from Connecticut and had a quiet dinner with our daughter, Francesca, who is pictured in context here. Sony Nex-7 and 24mm Leica Summilux.
Francesca
On this day one year ago: out my window with a 135mm Leica APO tele-elmarit.
Out my window
WARREN CONNECTICUT – A scary moment. I took my pictures for the day and this evening uploaded them to my computer, imported them to Lightroom, put the CF card back in the camera and formatted it, sorted through the files; cleaned a couple of items up on the computer and deleted the trash to free up disc space. After dinner and a movie I returned to the computer to make a selection for the day, and found out that I had accidentally deleted the files. They were gone. Period. Too late to take another March 3 picture. What to do? Write a post that says “no picture today because the dog ate my homework?” Ruin a perfect record now 30 months or so long?
After puzzling over alternatives for a bit I realized that I had enabled automatic Time Machine backups from the laptop to this little white Apple box hidden under my desk. I opened Time Machine, paged back a couple of pages, and there they were. Lesson: even seasoned veterans can make stupid mistakes. Automatic backups are a very good idea.
Anyway, here is one of the recovered files taken with my Alpa TC, 35mm Schneider lens and Phase One IQ 180 back.
Ice Storm
On this day last year: Tree on West 12th Street.
Tree on West 12th Street
NEW YORK NEW YORK – I had lunch with Francesca at one of our favorite places near Columbia: Luncheonette. A diner at the next table captured with my Sony Nex-7 and 24mm Leica Summilux lens. Minor pixel level edits – I’ll leave it to you to find them.
Luncheonette
On this day last year: Armory Show.
Mature guys and nuke
NEW YORK NEW YORK – Many of you know that I’ve been closely associated with the James Beard Foundation over the past half-dozen years and that I’m a foodie. James Beard had a long-standing commercial relationship with the McIlhenny Company so Tabasco Sauce shows up in some unexpected places in his recipes. Here’s a modest example from the James Beard Foundation website: diver scallops with tabasco. I actually like the stuff and keep a bottle in my office to add some kick when the offerings from our cafeteria are too bland. Taken with my Sony Nex-7 and Leica 135mm APO Tele-Elmarit lens. Unlike Beard I haven’t been paid anything for the product placement.
Hot
On this day last year: city scape.
Comfort Zone
NEW YORK NEW YORK – It’s leap day. Also known as Sadie Hawkins Day. Another busy day at my day job but I managed to get out to incorporate a new sculpture in the garden of Lever House into a straight up cityscape. Shot with my Sony Nex-7 and a 24mm Summilux lens.
Lever House
If you are expecting a picture from this day last year of course you will be disappointed because there wasn’t a February 29, 2011. But I decided to look back four years in my archive to 2008 (before I started the one photo every day project), and I found some images from a wine tasting hosted by Christian Moueix at Dominus vineyards in California. Christian owns Chateau Petrus and a number of other Pomerol and Saint-Emilion properties. Here are the wines that were served at the tasting. Taken with my Leica M8 and a Leica Wide Angle Tri-Elmar lens.
A not too shabby wine tasting
NEW YORK NEW YORK – I find myself stalking the Chrysler Building . . . again. This time from the north with a moderately wide lens. I’ve done the thing with the lamp post before, but honestly they are everywhere; rather than dodge it I just thought that I’d work it in. If you want to see more Chrysler Buildings you can pull down “Tags” in the space to the right, scroll down to “Chrysler Building” and click. You’ll find that no fewer than 11 posts have featured this icon, 12 counting this one.
Why? Because it’s fabulous. Ever changing. And it’s a real challenge to come up with a fresh point of view on a major icon. Taken with my Sony Nex-7 and a 24mm Leica Summilux lens.
Chrysler Building
On this day one year ago: poor composition. Interesting. Both today’s post and last year’s post feature lamp posts. They’re ubiquitous and some of them are attractive. As I said it’s hard to keep them out of the New York landscape.
Carl Schurz Park
NEW YORK NEW YORK – So there’s a camera app for the iPhone called Percolator which I’ve used occasionally to perk up my daily photo. See for example here. I’m pretty restrained using it. Here’s a more radical example. Walking down Lexington Avenue I passed a store front that had be decorated with circles in more or less exactly the percolator proportion using more or less percolator colors. Is this an iPhone app influencing the real design world, or do they have a common antecedent? Taken with my Sony Nex-7 and Leica 24mm Summilux lens.
Percolated?
On this day last year: Snowy day.
More snow
WARREN CONNECTICUT – I took a break from organizing AV on this very, very cold and clear day, capturing sunrise across a cornfield at the bottom of the valley that defines our view, and a rambling house that was an inn 80 years ago. Taken with my Nex-7 and 50mm Leica Summilux lens.
On this day last year: New Milford.
St. John's Episcopal Church New Milford
WARREN CONNECTICUT – Woke up with a headache and general fuzziness. Not a supper interesting day from a visual standpoint with a high, overcast flat sky so I spend most of the day in the house laying out a new AV setup. When I took my Sony Nex-7 and a 50mm Leica Summilux to the fish trailer on 202 to buy dinner the sun cooperated with a brief breakthrough.
On this day last year: Statue of Liberty in amazing light.
Statue of Liberty and Hoboken
NEW YORK NEW YORK – A dreary rainy day. I finally got out with my Nex-7 and a Leica 50mm Summilux lens in the early evening. Grim.
Rainy night
On this day last year: Central Park reservoir.
Central Park Reservoir
NEW YORK NEW YORK – You may have noticed that I’ve been shooting with a Sony Nex-7 and Leica lenses for the past three weeks. I decided today to return to my Leica M 9 for a quick comparision. The first thing I noticed was that the Leica seemed heavy and the shutter release seemed rough and noisy compared to the Nex-7 (!!). No kidding. The Leica. But it’s also a pleasure to focus in good light and the frame lines are really a terrific way to see – not a surprise since I’ve been shooting Leica Ms for most of my life. I spent the day looking up at facades with a 35mm Summilux lens. What I noticed when I got the images home is the files are supurb. Mostly in focus and well-exposed. Beautifully detailed and nuanced. The old M9 body still has some life in it. I really do like the 18 meg files produced by the Leica more than the 24 meg files produced by the Nex-7. Here are a couple of examples.
Madison
Park Avenue
On this day last year: attractive woman at the Knick.
Dinner at the Knick
NEW YORK NEW YORK – Back home. A longish day at the office but after five days on the road I thought that we deserved a home-cooked meal so I stopped at Fairway where I found a nice piece of swordfish, decent tomatoes, and miraculously very nice basil and fresh peas. I combined these items and the usual stuff from the larder, and a good pinot grigio, into dinner at home for two. Taken with my Sony Nex-7 and 24mm Leica Summilux lens (and a stepladder).
Dinner for two
On this day last year: cigarette butt. A walkabout with a wide lens.
Cigarette butt
BOCA GRANDE FLORIDA – A sad morning. We’re packing to go back to New York. We took a pre-breakfast walk down to the beach. We’re on the Gulf of Mexico facing West, so phnotography is better in the evening here than in the morning. This is what I got at the beach club with my Sony Nex-7.
Gasparilla Inn Beach Club
On this day last year: Caboose Gallery.
Kent Caboose Callery
BOCA GRANDE FLORIDA – We spent today on the beach. Maria could do this all day every day forever. One day is about the limit for a month or so for me. This a long beach – 7 miles or so. I took off walking with my Sony Nex-7 and a 35mm lens. Here are three images from the day. Sunset at the Gasparilla Inn beach:
Sunset
The Gasparilla range light. These structures are only called light houses when there is an actual house for a tender to live in. The Gulf of Mexico (and the bay behind the island) are shallow here making navigation tricky for large boats. Three frames stitched.
Gasparilla Range Light
A portion of Maria’s horde of shells from the beach.
Shells
On this day last year: Washington CT Congregational Church.
Washington Congregational Church
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
GASPARILLA ISLAND FLORIDA – The beach club at the Gasparilla Inn provided a demonstration today by a professional sand castle builder. That’s right. A guy who makes a living on the beach making castles (or whatever) out of sand. Makes the rest of us feel like we’re kind of doing it the hard way. Given that it’s Presidents Day weekend (for those of you outside the US we used to celebrate Washington’s and Lincoln’s birthdays separately, which happen around now, whenever they fell; more recently Presidents Day is celebrated for both of them on a Monday in February, making a three day weekend), a Presidential theme is appropriate.
Our sand castle architect chose an image of a Purple Heart because it incorporates a silhouette of Washington. The Purple Heart is a democratic decoration: it’s given to all who are wounded or killed in action. I received one during my Marine Corps service in Vietnam. It is the only decoration received by most Marines, soldiers and sailors who are killed in action. At the start of the Gulf War I started wearing a Purple Heart lapel pin (which I continue to wear today). I can’t articulate why. It’s with some difficulty that I write these sentences. Anyway, here is the Purple Heart rendered in sand, captured with my Sony Nex-7 and a 24mm Leica Summilux lens.
Purple Heart
On this day two years ago: Vietnam Memorial. I’ve looked back two years here (rather than my usual one) because on February 18, 2010 I photographed my shadow on the Vietnam Memorial (shooting infrared) in DC. The juxtaposition is a coincidence and I understand that it borders on the maudlin.
Vietnam Veterans Memorial
GASPARILLA ISLAND FLORIDA – I spent the afternoon looking for non-beach, non-bird, non-sunrise, non-sunset images on this barrier island on the west coast of Florida. As noted in a previous post I’m packing my Sony Nex-7 and a variety of Leica lenses. Today I stuck with the 24mm Summilux, which is roughly the equivalent to a 35mm on the Nex-7 – a good all around focal length. This island is a colorful place so I’ve indulged my typical lack of editorial discipline and included three images:
Small pleasures
Good gas
Boca Grande Baptist Church
On this day one year ago: Out my window.
Out my window
NEW YORK NEW YORK and GASPARILLA ISLAND FLORIDA – We woke up today in New York, boarded a morning flight to Ft. Myer Florida, arrived there and drove to Gasparilla Island in time to be on the beach in the late afternoon. There is a lot of Florida that we don’t much care for but a 1980 legislation has protected Gasparilla from high density development – it’s like Nantucket with palm trees. I took my Sony Nex-7 and a selection of Leica lenses. Here is sunrise in New York (taken with a 135mm APO-Telyt lens) and a sunset on Gasparilla (taken with a 24mm Summilux lens).
Sunrise New York
I’ve done a number of these, including a sunrise on February 14 last year.
Sunset Gasparilla
On this day last year: Hoboken taken with my Alpa TC.
Hoboken New Jersey
NEW YORK NEW YORK – Well. Another long day at my day job. I managed to get out for a few minutes and catch this at Lever House with my Sony Nex-7. Not brilliant (the light was flat and ugly today frustrating my attempt to get something decent on the street at sunrise, but it’s a picture and I’ve promised you a picture a day.
Lever House
On this day last year: the lady wears red.
The lady wears red
NNEW YORK NEW YORK – A busy day of meetings. II got home and still hadn’t taken my picture (except one iPhone image from a meeting but I decided that it would be unprofessional to post it to the web. So I set up my Sony Nex-7 on a tripod in the dark with a wide lens (the 15mm Voigtlander) and did an image of out living room, draped with drop cloths, illuminated only by the light coming through the windows.
More paint
On this day last year: sunrise out my window.
Sunrise out my window
NEW YORK NEW YORK – I had lunch with Alexander at Gallaghers so I found myself in the Broadway Times Square area after lunch. The light was magnificent. I had a very good several hours so I’ve made a mini gallery. All taken with my Sony Nex-7 and Leica 24 mm Summilux lens.
After a few weeks use I’m convinced that the Nex-7 and cameras like it (“mirrorless” designs with good ergonomics and build quality) are the way forward for owners of Leica lenses. Fuji has announced a similar design.
Big skates
Big Girl
Reflection
Dramatic light
And finally
On this day one year ago: Dirty snow.
New Preston Stone Church
WARREN CONNECTICUT – I took a drive this morning in the good morning light in a random direction. I ended up at the Hopkins Vineyard, nice people at a lovely site who not surprisingly make not so great wines (the climate here is closer to Greenland than Bordeaux). I carried my Nex-7 and a variety of Leica lenses. These images are taken with the Leica 90 mm Elmarit. The second image is three frames stitched.
Hopkins Vineyard
On this day last year: A lot of snow. Told you so.
Snow drifts
WARREN CONNECTICUT – We had a very light snow here. Very light indeed. About a quarter on an inch. 6 mm. The last big storm was the freak blizzard in October. I captured it in process with my Son Nex-7 and a Leica 90 mm Elmarit lens. Compare and contrast with last year – a Connecticut winter shot from 2011 will be last year’s picture tomorrow.
Very light snow
23rd Street
Twitter