KENT CONNECTICUT – I dropped by to see my friend Greg at RT Facts here, picking up a side table and a fixed stand for our fire pit. Greg is an antique dealer specializing in architectural debris, much of it very large. I got a new camera body: a Sony Nex-7, a very compact little item with 24 megs of resolution from a sensor that’s about 2/3 the size of a standard 35mm frame. The idea is that I would use it with my Leica lenses. (A lot of people think like this – this is why Leica lenses are currently sold out at every dealer in the world.) This is with the Nex-7 and 24mm Summilux lens – these look like they were removed on the demolition of a 1930′s Federal building.

RT Facts

On this day one year ago: Mustique sky – three frames stitched.

Grenadines morning

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WARREN CONNECTICUT – I had a chance to try out my new Sony Nex-7 camera. This is a very compact body offering 24 megs of resolution with a sensor that’s about 2/3 the size of a 35mm frame. The crop factor is 1.5x – in other words a 24mm lens becomes the equivalent of a 36mm. It’s possible to use my Leica lenses on the camera (with an adapter). Here’s an image with the Nex-7 and my 90mm Leica Elmarit lens.

More Warren in good light

On this day one year ago: a friend on Macaroni Beach.

Judy Hamilton

I edited this post on February 8, 2012.

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MORRIS CONNECTICUT – I drove over to Morris this morning to catch the Morris Congregational Church in good morning light. I got a late start – we had house guests so I needed to attend to breakfast. By time I got to Morris it was too late – the light was flat and dull – but I saw these school buses on the way back and they seemed unusually vivid. Taken with my Alpa Max and 72mm Schneider.

School Buses, Morris CT

On this day last year: a snow covered barn in Milton CT.

Barn Milton Connecticut

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WARREN CONNECTICUT – So . . . . still relying on my little bitty Ricoh GRD 4. There was some splendid light this afternoon. This image (and some others) prove that good light trumps poor equipment choice. Three frames stitched.

Good light

On this day one year ago: winter in Warren. Another tree line, no more than 200 yards from where this year’s image was taken, but with a radically different angle and lens choice, and radically different light.

Warren Connecticut

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KENT CONNECTICUT – We took a walk today along a segment of the Appalachian Trail that runs through here. I thought that I had left my Alpa in Connecticut; it turns out that it was in New York, so I only had the camera that travels in my pocket, my Ricoh GRD 4. Not the best tool for landscape. Here’s a branch off of Ten Mile River taken with the GRD 4, three frames stitched.

Ten Mile River

On this day one year ago: a really crappy day.

1185 Park Avenue in snow storm

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WARREN CONNECTICUT – I love it when in mostly cloudy weather clear patches illuminate bits of the Connecticut countryside. Here’s an example. It lasted for a few seconds. I was lucky to capture it with my Leica and a 90mm Elmarit lens. One of my best landscapes of the year.

Baby Cloud

On this day last year: Blizzard redux.

Blizzard

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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

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WARREN CONNECTICUT – Christmas Day. I went out with my Alpa TC today to capture some winter landscape.

Northeastern winter landscape

Our sign

On this day one year ago: Maria scores a Pucci.

Maria and her new Emilio

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WASHINGTON CONNECTICUT – I went out with my Alpa Max today to add to my collection of Litchfield County churches. In reviewing my progress to day I realized that I hadn’t yet taken a full frontal image of the iconic Washington Congregational Church with high res medium format gear. I wasn’t satisfied with the image that I captured so I’m not showing it today – I’ll have to go back to try again – but I caught this as a set up the tripod and did a test image to assure that all was in order.

Washington Congregational Church

On this day one year ago: Frnacesca trimming the tree.

Francesca trimming a tree

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TORRINGTON CONNECTICUT – This afternoon I drove to this former mill town on the Naugatuck River to photograph churches. The light was right to collect two of the large Catholic Churches in town, St. Peter Church and St. Francis Assisi Church. The light was wrong for the Central Congregational Church – I’ll be back tomorrow morning for it. The large Episcopal Church, Trinity Church, is very tight to a narrow street and accordingly very hard to photograph. Anyway here are St. Peter and St. Francis Assisi, taken with my Alpa Max and an 80 meg Phase One back. These subjects require full use of the camera’s rise and shift features. The St. Francis Assis (the second image) is two frames stitched.

St. Peter Church Torrington

St. Francis Assisi Torrington

On this day last year: Marty gives us a sinister look.

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