NEW YORK NEW YORK – Out on the street on a bright day between meetings with my iPhone. This image has been altered; I took a number of images in rapid succession; I added the shadow to the image of the walking man.
Park Avenue Pedestrian
On this day one year ago: snow drifts. This seems odd, now. This winter we haven’t had any real snow since the end of October.
Wind blown snow, Warren Connecitcut
NEW YORK NEW YORK – A pair of Bryan Hunt sculptures, Flume I and Flume II, have been installed on the island on Park Avenue between the Seagrams Building and the Racquet and Tennis Club. The look like gigantic gnarly metal cobras. Here’s one of them, captured with my ever-resent Ricoh GRD !V.
Cobra
Continuing on the theme of variations on the 24 hour self portrait series here’s one where I sliced the images into 24 slivers, and built a composite with a sliver from the earliest time starting on the left and reading hour by hour as you move to the right.
Slivers
NEW YORK NEW YORK – Walking on Park Avenue with my Leica (and 90mm lens) I caught Lever House and the Racquet Club in spectacular light. Two frames stitched.
Lever House
On this day last year: An angle on the Seagrams Building in lovely light.
Park Avenue sunrise
NEW YORK NEW YORK – A heavy day of meetings. I managed to get outside with my Leica M9 and a Voigtlander 12mm lens to catch a few images on Lexington Avenue.
Todds
On this day last year: New Milford Connecticut
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Cramer and Anderson, law firm, New Milford
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – A busy day at the office. A carried my Leica around with the 24mm Summilux strapped on it. Here’s some light and shadow on Park Avenue near my office:
Shadow on Park Avenue
On this day one year ago: Another not very good image
Theatre
NEW YORK NEW YORK – A busy week with a trip to Boston for meetings, and work preparing for the trip. I did manage to walk our dog, Basil, and caught this dog’s eye view with my Leica M9 and a 24mm Summilux lens.
Park Avenue
On this day last year: Airport in Mustique.
Mustique airport
NEW YORK NEW YORK – A new lens for my Alpa. Yesterday’s experiments finally convinced me that my 45 mm APO-Rodenstock Grandegon was just not up to the demands of a 60 megapixel back so I’m selling it and I’ve replaced it with a Schneider 48mm APO-Helvetar, which is optimized for large, high resolution digital applications. I’m experimenting to see if this longer focal length can successfully be used handheld in my Alpa TC. So far the results are mixed – it takes some time to find a working relationship with a new lens. Here’s an image of “visual noise” (and street food) on Park Avenue that came out of today’s effort.
Noise
On this day one year ago: Nan Talese at yet another party ant Antonio Monda’s.
Nan Talese
NEW YORK NEW YORK – Walking up Park Avenue late this afternoon I had a chance to spend some time shooting Will Ryman’s Roses with my Leica M9 and a Cosina Voigtlander 16mm lens. (Post updated April 25, 2011)
Roses on Park Avenue
On this day one year ago: Congregation Shaaray Tefila.
Congregation Shaaray Tefila
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – Back to Citicorp Center to point straight up with my Leica and my 24 mm Summilux lens. I come back to this subject a lot. I’m in a comfort zone here. Let me know if you think that I’m in a rut.
Citicorp
On this day one year ago: Giant purple woman.
Large Woman - Lexington Avenue
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – Park Avenue is sprouting giant roses installed by sculpture Will Ryman. Here I’m using one as a backdrop for a solitary, struggling tulip. This was captured early evening with my Leica and a 24mm Summilux lens.
Tulip
Post Park Avenue I had dinner with John Novogrod, an old friend, at an Argentinian restaurant in Alphabet City.
John Novogrod
NEW YORK NEW YORK – Back in my comfort zone. A clear, cold sunny day in Manhattan with really good light and reflections.
Comfort Zone
One of the things that I like about this is the way the the building mimics Manhattan’s grid.
Grid
On this day one year ago: Barrego badlands.
Desert in bloom
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – My second day shooting film. I’ve put a Linhof 120 film magazine on my Arca TC body. It makes an 6 cm x 7 cm negative. The film magazine is heavy and quirky – the film advance leaver is two stroke and there’s no interlock to prevent double exposures, so I made a fair number of double exposures. Here’s one shooting straight up from the Park Avenue island: Another view of the Seagrams building.
Park Avenue straight up
On this day one year ago: Blizzard.
Madison Avenue
NEW YORK NEW YORK – Here’s a surprise for you. One of the reasons that I’ve gotten behind in writing these – I’m actually writing this on February 18 – is that I’m experimenting with . . . . film. You read that correctly. The F*** word. My plan was to shoot film for three or four days. There’s a couple of days turn around on processing, and then whatever time it takes to edit and scan. Taken with my Alpa TC and a 36mm Alpa APO Switar lens. Shot on 120 size Ilford XP-2 film, a “chromogenic” black and white film that is processed with the normal C-41 color negative process.
And . . . here’s FILM:
Park Avenue Night
On this day last year: Racquet and Tennis Club.
Racquet and Tennis Club
NEW YORK NEW YORK – Weird. You take a month’s break from visiting a place, you come back, and it’s entirely changed. Tom Sachs’s sculpture, Hello Kitty, has been in the courtyard of Lever House for longer than I’ve been photographing for this blog. Now it’s gone, so it’s “bye bye Hollo Kitty”. Here are some links to some earlier Hello Kitty photographs: July 6, 2010, May 11, 2010, April 20, 2010, and March 19, 2010
I guess I really like Hello Kitty. The little gold doodad that replaced Hello Kitty appears to be a part of a much larger installation by Rachel Feinstein entitled “The Snow Queen”. Photographed with my Leica M9 and a 28mm Summicron lens.
No more Hello Kitty
On this day last year: an infrared image including the Racquet and Tennis Club, the Seagrams Building and One Park Avenue Plaza.
Racquet and Tennis Club
NEW YORK, HEW YORK – An SUV that had the misfortune to be parked on the street during the three snowstorms that hit New York while we were away. The snow quickly passes from a beautiful white blanket hiding the City’s flaws to a dirty eyesore. Taken with my Leica.
Reality
On this date last year: An infrared image from Connecticut, stitched from four images.
Warren, after a snowfall
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – So today’s post is a tale of a lens. I’m a gear head, perhaps even a gear whore, but I don’t often talk about cameras and lenses here because it’s politically correct to downplay the gear one uses – after all a great photographer can take great pictures with anything. The later statement isn’t actually true – many luminaries in the photo world have selected their gear with great care – often finding the best technical solution for the types of images they take: Ansel Adams and his 8×10 Deardorff, Cartier-Bresson and his Leica and Lee Friedlander (in his later years) and the Hasselblad Superwide. I’ve proven on these pages that I can’t take a decent picture with an iPhone.
Leica has issued a new version of it’s 35mm f1.4 Summilux. It replaces a lens that I owned but sold when the rumor of a replacement circulated – essentially to raise cash to pay for the new lens, which is bizarrely expensive. The lens it replaces is famous for being bitingly sharp and having remarkable contrast corner to corner at all apertures. The former Summicron had “bokeh”, the character of it’s out of focus image, that made it unique. Unfortunately it also had a tendency for the focus point to shift as it was stopped down, resulting in very slightly out of focus images in the range f4.0 to f5.6 or so. This trait, which was not visible with film but is visible in the more demanding digital realm, drove me nuts. The new lens retains the character of the original but has solved to focus shift issue. Here are some links to reviews: Irwin Puts reviews the 35mm Summicron. Steve Huff on focus shift. The new 35mm Summilux has been back ordered for about a year. My copy finally arrived today.
Today I’m posting a picture of a pair of Venini vases (I collect Venini) drying in our kitchen, together with a close up crop to illustrate the character of the out of focus image. This was shot at f1.4. I’m also including a picture of the building that houses the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia and a crop, to demonstrate the biting sharpness and contrast. This building was originally built as a residence for George F. Baker Jr. by Delano & Aldrich, the firm that became the ‘society architects” in New York after Stanford White’s murder in 1906. The Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia is a splinter of the Russian Orthodox Church formed after the Bolshevik Revolution – it is now reconciled with the main body of the Russian Church.
The vases:
A crop from the vases illustrating the characteristic “bokeh” of this lens (note the circular highlights):
Here’s the Synod:
A crop of the Synod – again illustrating this lens’s special character, but also the Leica’s tendency to blow saturated yellow highlights:
On this date one year ago: The day before Thanksgiving near Harlem Fairway.
Riverside Drive from 125th Street
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – I promise that I’m going to quit this. I mean the wide angle thing. Quit it real soon now. Maybe it’s becoming a crutch. Or worse. My name’s Woody and I’m a wide angle junkie. But later. Maybe. For now I had my Leica and my super wide lens in hand as I walked by the Guggenheim earlier today. If you’ve been following these pages closely you’ll know that the Guggenheim is the one icon that I’ve been struggling with. Well today with Mr. wide I caught it – the first image of the museum that I’m really happy with. Here it is (this is another one of those shot straight up images that could be oriented any of four ways, but I prefer this orientation):
On this day one year ago: Warren Congregational Church.
Warren, Connecticut
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – Feel free to go to one of those other daily photo blogs that you follow if you find that my voice is getting a little whiney. Yes, another week of all day meetings, at least through Wednesday, including a trip to Boston. You may ask “Why doesn’t Woody just quit the damn day job?” Actually I like my day job – it’s just that sometimes it gets in the way of photography – why I like it is beyond the scope of a two paragraph discussion. Today I spent some time shooting going to and from my meetings. Sometimes this is not very productive, but today it was, so I’m posting two images. They are both with my Leica and the 12mm Voigtlander lens – I’m getting more interesting results shooting wide right now. Let me know if you think it’s a gimmick.
Anyway here’s a night shot looking straight up at the facade of the New York Central building (now known as the Helmsley Building) at the foot of the North segment of Park Avenue. Wikipedia entry on the Helmsley Building. The Wikipedia entry is oddly ambiguous on who the architects were. It’s actually Warren & Wetmore, who were also responsible for Grand Central Terminal. Here’s a link to the AIA website.
November 15, 2010
Finally, patient reader, on this day one year ago: interred in the New Preston CT cemetary.
Nancy Lee Cheney Calhoun, Nov 20, 1920 - January 11, 2000
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – Another full day of meetings. The light first thing in the morning was sensational. For this image I had a 16mm Voigtlander lens on my Leica. Shooting very wide presents a lot of challenges – the wide frame assures that there are extremes in terms of dynamic range, and that either the sun or the photographer’s shadow in the frame.
On this day one year ago: Pay telephone bank in Grand Central Terminal. Here’s an example of old technology baked in concrete, plastic and steel.
Grand Central Terminal - Lower Level
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – Breakfast with my son, Alexander Campbell, at the Brasserie, the other restaurant in the Seagrams Building (besides the iconic Four Seasons). Back with my ultra wide 12mm Voigtlander lens.
On this date a year ago: Jonathan Galassi’s birthday party
Jonathan's Birthday
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – Another lunatic day. We gave a dinner party for 10, “auto catered” by me. On top of this November is typically a busy time in my day job (actually round-the-clock) so at a couple of points I’ve been hanging by my fingernails in terms of a daily photograph, and timely posting has suffered. As things ease off a bit I’m catching up on posts. Here is a guest at dinner:
Dinner at home
On this date one year ago: Grant Winthrop at an Irving Penn show at the Forbes Gallery
Grant Winthrop
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – Another eventful day. Midday found me in midtown with my Leica M9 and a very wide lens, a 15mm Voitlander. This is similar to an image that I posted last week – Park Avenue – I’ve got quite a few of these that I haven’t posted.
On November 2 last year we went to a book party for our friend Patrizia Chen at The Corner Bookstore: Patrizia tangos
Corner Bookstore
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – Back home from Chicago I attended a seminar on blogging for photographers. There were a number of important infrastructure suggestions that I’ll be implementing over the next few weeks. The hard issue that emerged from the discussions, though, is that the conventional wisdom on building website traffic is to focus. So if you want to be a successful wedding photographer you post sample work. You focus on backstories and relationships with clients. You find ways to link to you site from other wedding resources, and in fact you become a wedding resource.
If I were pressed to say what my focus is I guess that I’d say it’s the fine art market. Me and a lot of other good photographers who focus on landscape would like to sell fine prints to people. But I do think that how people consume images is changing dramatically – in the end the on-line product may be the only product. So the blog, rather than being a marketing tool, is an end in itself. I’ve got some serious further work to do on this issue.
Returning from the seminar I caught this crossing Park Avenue. Leica M9 and 15mm Voigtlander lens.
On this date one year ago: Mushrooms
Mushrooms
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – A dreary morning for weather. I decided to use the opportunity to reorganize our kitchen, which is where I spend most of my time when I’m not at the office or looking for interesting light.
Leica M9 and Wide Angle Tri Elmar.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – I’m confined to midtown Manhattan for the next several days, occupied most daylight hours in meetings. I had a chance to further my exploration of Manhattan architecture and an icon or two in early morning and late afternoon light. Here’s one in late afternoon light on Park Avenue:
Park Avenue sunset
Leica M9 and 90mm Elmarit-M.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – In an effort to get my mojo back a decided to shift gears for a couple of days and shoot infrared (using my Leica M8 and infrared filters.
Park Avenue
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.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – We’re planning a trip to East Africa in mid-August. This is an experiment with a new lens that I bought for the trip – stalking a floral arrangement in our living room.
Flowers
Nikon D700 with 70-200 f2.8 VR lens.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – This is out the window of our 11th floor apartment, looking into our courtyard. Our building is doing “Local Law 10″ work on the exterior. Local law 10, which requires periodic inspection and repairs of building facades, was enacted in 1980 after a piece of terra cotta masonry fell from the facade of an Upper West Side building and killed a passing college student.
1185 Park Avenue - Local Law 10 work
Hasselblad H3D 39 with HC 300 lens.
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.
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