NEW YORK NEW YORK – I had lunch at the Barking Dog Cafe. A burger at the bar and a glass of IPA. The beer turned out to be a mistake – it predictably brought on an overwhelming need to nap. Anyway in the morning I got some work done and in the PM I did all of the prep work for a dinner party for 11 that we’re having in Connecticut on Saturday night.

Anyway here are the iPhone stills from the Barking Dog. One grunged up and the other modified with an app called Percolator, which overwrites the image with patterns of circles that are straight out of Benoit Mandelbrot.

Barking Dog

Barking Dog

On this day one year ago: musicians at the Union Club.

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NEW YORK, NEW YORK – So I spent part of the day walking around with my iPhone in video mode. I isolated stills from the video using a “frame grabber” app on the iPhone. Here’s an example from the Shake Shack on 86th Street.

Shake Shack

On this day one year ago: Statue in our garden.

A better print:

Garden in winter

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NEW YORK NEW YORK – We had dinner with some friends at Pino Luongo’s new restaurant, Morso. The “we” in this case is the editorial me; Maria is in Brazil on business. Taken with my ever ready Ricoh GRD IV.

Gil

As promised I’m stopping with the self portraits. I’m expecting traffic to skyrocket. That means I’m going back to “On this day one year ago . . .” Too bad that on this day one year ago I did a pretty pedestrian shot out my window. Note that a year ago I was whining about being busy. November is a tough month. Anyway . . . .

On this day one year ago: Out my window.

November 13, 2010

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NEW YORK NEW YORK – More fussing around with my new iPhone 4S. I tried my classic out my window brick wall torture test, shooting with the phone braced against a window sill to approximate the effect of being on a tripod. I used the “HDR” (high dynamic range) mode given the phone’s tendency to blow highlights and the long dynamic range of the scene. It turns out that this was a mistake – on close inspection there are ugly white bands where the buildings meet the sky. After a bit of digging online I came to the conclusion that Apple dramatically over sharpens in HDR mode – so for future reference I’ll be avoiding it. Later in the evening I shot a Martini at the Monkey Bar – odd that this famous bar serves a Martini in a sherry glass. Whatever . . .

Out my window

Martini

The next installment in my 1999 24-houe self portrait project – this one from 12:08 AM on February 14, 1999. As always taken with an Arca Swiss 8×10 inch view camera.

12:08 AM February 14, 1999

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NEW YORK NEW YORK – We had lunch today at the relatively new Shake Shack on 86th Street. Here’s a diner at a neighboring table, taken with my Leica M9 and a 28mm Summicron lens.

Punter

The next image in the continuing series of hourly portraits, this one taken at 6:04 PM, local time on February 13, 1999.

6:04 PM local time February 13, 1999

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BROOKLYN NEW YORK – Today is Maria’s birthday. We had a small dinner at Frankies Spuntino in Brooklyn (that’s not a typo – it’s owned by two guys named Frankie). Shot with my Leica M9 and 50 mm Summilux lens.

Maria has a birthday

On this day one year ago: Citicorp.

Citicorp

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NEW YORK NEW YORK – I took my Leica to the office today and captured Ray Bari Pizza in pretty good light. In the late afternoon I was back uptown with my Alpa, a 47mm Schneider XL lens, experimenting with a center filter on the lens. A Center filter is a glass filter that’s darker in the middle – it compensates for the natural light fall-off that wide lenses have, but requires increased exposure. I found that the necessary 2 stop increase in exposure made the Alpa much harder to hand hold so when I need the center filter I also need a tripod.

Master Tutor and Homework Coach

Ray Bari Pizza

On this day last year: Second Avenue Subway construction.

Second Avenue Subway

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WEST CORNWALL CONNECTICUT – We had dinner at the Wandering Moose cafe here in West Cornwall. Alexander, my son, observed that West Cornwall feels more like New York state than Connecticut – it has a slightly funky Adirondack vibe. This with my Leica M9 and a 28mm Summicron lens. Local businesses consist of the Wandering Moose Cafe, a simple place that we rather like, Ian Ingersoll, a brilliant cabinet maker who specializes in Shaker-inspired designs, and RSVP, a restaurant that offers French bistro food – Zagat gives the food a 28 but that’s nowhere near correct – we’ve been fairly underwhelmed there.

Wandering Moose Cafe

On this day last year: Out my window.

Out my window

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NEW YORK NEW YORK – We had dinner at Ze Cafe, a neighborhood restaurant near my office, with Linn and Bill Jackson, friends of long standing. Here’s Bill with my Leica M9 and a 50mm Dual Range Summicron lens. Bill is older than the lens, but not a lot.

Bill Jackson

On this day one year ago: Blond stalks bride.

Stalker

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NEW YORK NEW YORK – I had tea today with Peggy Anderson who told my about her interest in the International Center for Photography. Otherwise a pedestrian day of preparing for meetings being held next week.

Tea with Peggy

On this day one year ago: Party on Mustique.

Party at Yamanjá

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