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

Share

WARREN CONNECTICUT – Back to photographing in the actual world (as opposed to taking pictures of cameras). There was a lovely, fleeting moment at sunrise in Connecticut to today when the first rays of the sun caught the ground fog. I grabbed my Alpa TC with the IQ 180 and Schneider 3mm XL attached and captured the moment.

Later in the morning I went to the town of Warren to experiment with my new 120mm lens, capturing the Warren Congregational Church from a slightly different angle.

Fog at sunrise

Fog at sunrise

Warren Congregational Church

On this day last year: The beginning of our safari in East Africa. One year ago things start getting really interesting for the next week or so. The Cliff Notes version of our safari is the top gallery on the right of this site.

Sunset Chyulu Hills

Share

NEW YORK NEW YORK – I took my Alpa TC to meetings downtown. I caught this view of Hoboken New Jersey across the Hudson River. Three frames stitched.

Hoboken New Jersey

On this day last year: Madison Square at night.

Madison Square and the Shake Shack

Share

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – So I find myself walking around New York with a battery in my inside coat pocket and a wire snaking down my sleeve. It connects to the digital back on my Alpa TC. It’s flexible and is highly compatible with my style of shooting but at some risk that I’ll be mistaken for a suicide bomber. I take a fair number of images like this at extreme angles, but this is one of my favorites.

The lady wears red

Here’s another take on the sunrise out our dining room window with my Alpa Max:

Sunrise out my window

On this day one year ago: Another cold day in Connecticut.

Warren sunrise

Share

NEW YORK NEW YORK – So my Alpa TC has a companion camera: an Alpa Max, which uses the same lenses and the same digital back but is designed for tripod use and allows full shifts in both the horizontal and vertical directions. It’s a so-called technical camera. It permits making compositions by shifting the back up, down, right or left while keeping camera level so vertical lines don’t converge or diverge, an effect that is especially evident when shooting wide angle. So here we are shooting with the Max out of our dining room window at dawn, shifting the back downward to obtain this composition.

Sunrise out my window

On this day one year ago: Episcopal Church, Morris Connecitut.

Episcopal Church Morris Connecticut

Share

WARREN CONNECTICUT – We had a very quiet day with our family, making, then eating, turkey hash. My recipe comes from the Old Drovers Inn in Duchess County New York, which was justifiably famous for it. The Old Drovers Inn is, alas, no more: RIP Old Drovers Inn.

The day started with a light rain and ground fog. I got this with my Leica and a 135mm APO-Telyt on a tripod.

On this date last year: Thanksgiving 2009.

Thanksgiving 2009

Share

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

Share

NEW YORK, NEW YORK and CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – Well I’m two for two on out the window shots for the day. I started the morning in New York with a lovely sunrise. Yes, I’ve said that I don’t do sunrises and sunsets but this seemed sufficiently spectacular to warrant and exception. Out our dining room window with my Leica M9 and 28mm Sumicron Asph. lens.

Manhattan sunrise

Midmorning I left for Chicago to attend an two day mutual fund directors’ conference. By the time I got to my hotel and registered for the conference the day’s rather poor light was failing. I took a walk along the Chicago River but didn’t take anything that I liked. When I got back to my hotel I got this out the window. Leica M9 and 90mm Elmarit lens.

Chicago River Tour Boat

On this date one year ago I was in Portland Oregon at a farmers market: October 25, 2009

Farmers Market Portland Oregon

Share

QUITO ECUADOR – We’re back in Quito getting ready for the flight home. I woke up early to capture the city waking up in lovely light. The man near the center of the frame is wheeling his shoeshine stand toward Plaza de La Indepenencia where he will set it up for the day.

Shoe shine man

Leica M9 with 28mm Summicron

Share

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS – Up early to prepare for meetings, I made this panorama of sunrise over Boston harbor. I’ve written elsewhere that I don’t have much use for photographs of sunrises and sunsets, They do, after all, happen every day: its unlikely that I or anyone else is going to create great or unusual work by pointing a camera east in the early morning. I doubt that any artist since Joseph Mallord William Turner has made much of a contribution to our understanding or appreciation of sunrises and sunsets. I’ve pasted a copy of Turner’s Sunrise with Sea Monsters below.

One also has to consider the burden at this time of year of getting up very early to photograph a sunrise: sunrise today in Boston was at 5:06. That’s actually why I’ve posted a sunrise – I had a very busy day in Boston so I got up early to capture my image for the day. The first frame of this image was time stamped by the camera as 10:00:50 because I set the clock in all of my cameras to UTC so I don’t have to worry about whether they are on correct local time when I travel.

Sunrise Boston Harbor

Leica M9 plus 35mm Summicron Asph.

Turner Sunrise with Sea Monsters

Share