NEW YORK NEW YORK – It poured all day. I walked from 56th Street to 27th Street on the East Side with my Leica and a 35mm Summilux Asph. II lens. The first image is a stitch of three frames. Both are taken at f 1.4, which severely limits depth of field (in general a good thing and one of the reasons to own this lens).
Post office building
Rain
On this day last year: Waling to the office.
Lexington Avenue
NEW YORK NEW YORK – A very wet day. I went out in the rain with my Leica and a 35mm pre-ASPH version IV Summicron lens, known as the bokeh king. (Here is Ashwin Rao’s terrific article on bokeh). “Bokeh” for you non lens nuts is the causality of the out of focus image; good bokeh is creamy with smooth transitions between in-focus and out of focus areas; bad bokeh is crunchy with abrupt transitions between in-focus and out of focus. Modern highly corrected designs tend to have poor bokeh; older designs tend to have good bokeh.
S. Feldman Housewares
From 3:03 AM on February 14, 1999.
3:03 AM February 14, 1999
NEW YORK NEW YORK – More rain. Really. A lot of rain. I walked around with my Leica and a 90mm lens looking for rain themes. The Leica isn’t billed as being “weatherproof” but it does tolerate the rain, especially if you sheild it with a coat or your body when you’re not shooting. A couple of examples:
Rain
Exit
On this day last year: Andy Berkman.
Andy
WARREN CONNECTICUT – As noted yesterday we rode out tropical storm Irene in Connecticut. It rained 8 inches in a few hours, causing minor erosion damage – but no other problems. Amazingly good luck. Here’s what things looked like post storm. Taken with my Alpa TC and a 35mm Schneider XL lens.
Basil surveys Irene damage
On this day last year: Our last day in Nairobi.
An indian pastry shop
WARREN CONNECTICUT – Tropical storm Irene arrived early this morning with more rain than we’ve ever seen before. We had plenty of warning and were well-prepared – we suffered essentially no damage. This was not a bad as a typical winter ice storm. We brought some statues back from Bali years ago – here we’ve laid one on its back so it won’t be blown over. Taken with my Alpa TC and 35mm Schneider Digitar.
Ganesh meets Irene
On this date last year: we visit AmericaShare in Nairobi.
AmericaShare
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – It poured rain all day. Given the weather we had decided to stay in New York for the weekend. I didn’t get out except to walk the dog. There was no one on the streets of Cargegie Hill, our neighborhood. What do you do on a rainy Sunday? Well I spent the better part of the day updating my website with a slightly new look and much better and more flexible software.
I took my Leica out while walking the dog. The camera is a 1954 design and weather sealed cameras weren’t in the picture then (modern high end designs from Nikon and Canon are completely weather proof – I’ve taken them into the shower to clean them off after they were splashed with ocean spray). But the machining tolerances on the Leica are very tight so it’s sort of weather resistant, but you have to use common sense.
A shot a bunch of rainswept streets and a few pedestrians with umbrellas. The best of a fairly poor lot was of the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. Here’w what I said about it on November 24, 2010:
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.
Taken with my Leica M9 and a 50mm Summilux lens. Two frames stitched in Photoshop.
Rainy day
On this day one year ago: Water skiing on Lake Waramaug.
Lake Waramaug
WARREN CONNECTICUT – Back in Connecticut with my Hasselblad an the rain. This is one of my favorite images of the season.
Rain
The image below proves that dandelions aren’t the only flowers that we have. Nine images focus stacked in Helicon Focus.
Wildflowers
On this day one year ago: Maria, one year younger.
Maria
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – Have I mentioned the weather lately? I’m sort of a puffy clouds in a blue sky kind of guy. There hasn’t been much of that around here lately. We’ve had a storm system settle down on top of us, like a mother-in-law coming to visit for a couple of days but staying for a month. This was taken on Third Avenue with my Leica M9 and a 135mm APO Telyt.
Rain, rain go away
On this day last year: View from poker game venue.
New York Financial District at Night
NEW YORK NEW YORK – I’m writing this about a week after I took the picture for May 16. The one week delay in posting gives me a chance to sort through images hopefully making an non-rushed decision on what to post. The scene out my window was the same as it was then and has been unchanged all month. We’ve had the rainiest May in memory. It’s as if the weather system has its coasts mixed up – you might expect this in Seattle but not here. This is three frames stitched with my Leica M9 and 135mm APO Telyt.
Rooftops in the fog
On this day one year ago: farm stand.
Farmstand
WARREN CONNECTICUT – This was another in a seemingly endless string of rainy, foggy days. This is actually a continuation of the months of very heavy precipitation that we had during out long, hard winter. In reality the rain is a blessing. Steven Solomon’s book Water suggests that we’re on the verge of a global crisis where in many parts of the world the supply of clean water will not meet the needs of expanding population. The North Eastern United States is one of the regions of the world with a water surplus and enough rain to permit agriculture with little irrigation. Of course in Connecticut “agriculture” means digging massive stones out of the earth and fighting frost in May and October . . .
This is Lake Waramaug from the Hopkins Inn taken with my Leica M9 and the Bokeh King.
Lake Waramaug
Earlier in the day I caught this with my M9 and a 135mm APO Telyt lens.
Spring Rain
On this day last year: Trump Bar.
AT&T Building
MUSTIQUE, ST. VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES – It rains in paradise.
Mustique
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