NEW YORK NEW YORK – This evening we went to a celebration at the Knickerbocker Club for Words Without Boarders, a not-for-profit that Maria is involved with. Taken with my Leica Monochrom and 35mm Summicron v. 4 lens (the Bokeh King).
On this day last year: the Chrysler Building, a favorite haunt of mine.
Chrysler Building
NEW YORK NEW YORK – Our annual partners retirement dinner – our firm’s most important social event of the year – at the Four Seasons Restaurant this year. This year I decided to follow one partner around with my Leica Monochrom and Noctilux lens. Here are some samples.
David
David
On this day last year: Construction site party.
Construction site party
NEW YORK NEW YORK – Not a lot going on today except for a party for Libby Klein at the River Club celebrating her recent marriage. Manhole cover taken with M Leica Monchrom and 35mm Summilux FLE lens; Libby taken with the same camera and Noctilux lens.
Debris
Libby
On this day one year ago: Punter.
Punter
NEW YORK NEW YORK – Here we are in Williamsburg at a launch party for a book by our old friend Antonio Monda. Captures with my Leica Monochrom and f.95 Noctilux lens.
Maria
Party
On this day one year ago: Francesca has a new hat.
Francesca has a new hat
BEDFORD NEW YORK – We drove up here for a lunch of rabbit, polenta and designer carrots, and some terrific wines. Taken with my Sony Nex-7 and 24mm Leica Summilux lens.
Lunch
On the say home we passed an abandoned bus garage as the evening magic hour light started to emerge. I’ve learned to stop and shoot whatever is at hand when there is good light. Taken with the same camera and lens, two frames stitched.
Bus garage
On this day last year:Nine Main, New Preston.
9 Main, New Preston Connecticut
KENT CONNECTICUT – Passover and Easter are on the same weekend this year – a quite unusual event I’m told. We attended a Seder given by our friends Nancy and John Novogrod – I actually contributed a sous vide beef brisket to the occasion. The Seder was deeply affecting.
Unfortunately the photographs did not live up to the event. I was again plagued by bad technique Same camera and lens. I’ve resorted to a low resolution presentation here.
Seder
On this day last year: Street. Boring.
Looking for Spring
NEW YORK NEW YORK – Maria and I had dinner with Patrizia Chen, her sister and some friends. Patrizia entertains remarkably so it was, as usual, a fine evening. I took my Nex-7 and a Leica 50mm Summilux. As you’ve noticed all of my “event” style work is in available light. I find that I can simply disappear after the first two or three images – impossible with flash. Its also helpful that the Nex-7 is small and quiet (more so than my Leica M9).
Dinner at Patrizia;s
Dinner at Patrizia's
Dinner at Patrizia's
On this day last year: Chrysler Building, sort of. And a Breuer chair – the 1930s redux.
Debevoise conference room
NEW YORK NEW YORK – We hosted a dinner party for our friend Jonathan Galassi as a benefit for the Pen America Center (Maria is on the board and Treasurer of Pen). Jonathan read from his new book of poetry – not out yet but Maria had arranged for Jonathan’s publisher, Knopf, to send bound galleys out to guests before the dinner.
I worked through the party with my Sony Nex-7 and a 35mm Leica Summilux. For an event the lens worked much better for me than the Sony Zeiss 24mm: I’m familiar with the feel of its manual focus and manual focus was faster and more accurate than autofocus with the Zeiss because of its tendency to “hunt” in poor light. I didn’t get a picture that I liked of Jonathan. Here are a couple of other friends.
Steve Rubin
John Novogrod
On this day one year ago: Hello Kitty is no more.
No more Hello Kitty
NEW YORK NEW YORK – The times they are a-changing. This evening we went to a book party for an “enhanced e-book” version of a book about Bob Marley. Really fun. “I Shot the Sheriff” running in the background, a good bar, terrific food and a great looking crowd. Here’s a pose for the camera captured with my Sony Nex-7 and 24mm Sony Zeiss lens. About 20% of these are out of focus because the lens hunts so badly.
Bob Marley event
Maria and friend:
Maria and friend
One this day one year ago: a lovely image captured with my Hasselblad. Sometimes I’m pretty good.
Luke Tanner's orchard
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – Well, well, well. Here we are on Super Bowl Sunday and New York has a horse in the race. One of the great surprises of the regular season. We had a dozen or so friends over to watch the game and eat chili, corn chips, salsa, empanadas and so on, and to drink a dozen obscure varieties of beer (once again I found some Full Sail IPA) and some pretty decent wines. I shot the festivities with my Nex-7 and the 24mm Sony Schneider. As you will see from the image below ambient light was not all that low, but it still hunted like the devil focusing. A big problem at events. But the image quality is very nice.
From earlier in the day. Taken in Warren with m Alpa Max and 72mm Schneider lens. Two frames stitched.
Shadows
On this day last year: ice storm.
Ice storm
NEW YORK NEW YORK – It’s party season. Here we are at one of many annual holiday parties, this one at the Knickerbocker Club. The 2010 Knick party was my subject for December 13 last year. Taken with my Ricoh – the party animal.
Christmas Party
On this day one year ago: torrential freezing rain.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – A couple of things happened today. We spent a while with Alexander and Laura, his fiancé, preparing for their wedding, which is next weekend. Here they are, with Maria, taken with my Leica M9 and a 50mm Summilux lens:
Last minute planning
My firm had an alumni reception at Morgan Library. We had free run of the collection, assisted by docents. It had been a while since I had been there – the overwhelming impression is admiration for J.P. Morgan. Today’s billionaires build superboats, buy 747s, and collect 100,000 square foot houses. Morgan assembled a treasure trove of illustrated manuscripts, drawing and rare books. What a difference.
Morgan Library
Morgan Library
On this day one year ago: St. John the Divine.
St. John the divine
WESTHAMPTON, NEW YORK – I carried my Leica M9 with a 50 mm Summilux lens around all day. I’m often surprised and delighted by the images that this combination produces – I think that if I were to limit myself to a single camera and lens this would be it.
Still life
Party
More party
On this day one year ago: a not so magic moment.
Party
NEW YORK NEW YORK – Our friends Varya Gornostaeva and her husband, Sergei Parkhomenko, were in town from Moscow so we had a small dinner party for them in our kitchen. Varya has terrific English and Sergei very good French (as does Maria) so we had enough languages in common to communicate well. This is Sergei captured with my Leica M9 – this is less annoying than it looks because it was at the end of the meal and still mid-afternoon in Moscow.
Dinner in the kitchen
On this day one year ago: A passport photo for Maria. This very clearly demonstrates that I really could make a living at photography, doing passport photos.
Maria
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – Our friend Steve Rubin gave a “retirement” party for Phyllis Grann. Here’s an earnest discussion at the party, cpatured with my Leica M9 and a 50mm Summilux lens.
Talk
On this day one year ago: at Bar Boulud,
Dinner at Bar Boulud
NEW YORK NEW YORK – We went to the opening of Honor, Giovanna Randall’s new boutique located on Gansevoort Street in the meatpacking district. The men were noticeably better dressed than the usual grungy New York crowd. I asked Maria if this is a new (and welcome) trend – she responded “No, they’re just fashonistas.” Taken with my suitably retro Leica M9 and a vintage 50mm Dual Range Summicron. We walked on the High Line afterwords where I captured another image.
From the High Line
On this day one year ago: 289 Devonshire.
289 Devonshire Street, Boston