NEW YORK NEW YORK – Out with my Leica and 90mm lens I caught this in the failing light.

East 86th Street in good light

On this day last year: 9-11 memorial.

9/11 memorial

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MEW YORK NEW YORK – Well here I am outside the headquarters of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. I’ve written a couple of other posts on this subject: August 24, 2011 and November 24, 2010. I’m standing here because this is the only place within blocks where any sunlight is hitting the street. I loaded a bunch of camera apps on my iPhone and went looking for a scene with a long dynamic range and some bricks to test the apps. Here’s the one taken with an app called Pro HDR, which takes two images at different exposures and combines them in a “high dynamic range” images. The HDR feature is only so-so. Without a tripod the camera moves between shots. The app compensates for movement but the image appears less sharp than a non HDR image. It does give you the two exposures, though so you have a choice of which to use – here I used the under-exposed shot.

So the iPhone camera is working well for me. We’re planning a trip to DC this weekend. I’m taking the iPhone as my only camera.

The Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia

On this day last year: shot with very cool wide angle lens.

Third Avenue and 54th Street

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NEW YORK NEW YORK – Another hectic day as we stuff five adults, a Norwich Terrier and food for four days into the car for the trip to Connecticut. Here we are at our parking garage waiting for our car. Taken with m Leica M9 and 12mm Voigtlander lens.

Mirror, mirror on the wall

On this day one year ago: Kimball declaims on a bottle from Gaja,

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NEW YORK, NEW YORK – While I was in Africa Phase One released a firmware update to the IQ 180 back that enables “live view”, the ability to view on the back’s lcd screen what the camera is seeing in real time. Live view is commonplace in consumer cameras, which use CMOS technology, but is difficult to implement in medium format cameras which use CCD technology. I downloaded the update and installed it and voila it worked. Live view is a boon to technical camera users because it permits composition on the back’s lcd monitor while using shifts. I set the back up on my Alpa Max with my 72mm Schneider Digitar and took the following out my window (with the back shifted up 15mm and to the right 17mm),

New York Rooftop

On this day last year: Trancoso at night.

Trancoso

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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

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NEW YORK NEW YORK – I have better days and worse days. This was one of the better. Sometimes it is enough just to go through your routine day with a camera in hand. It helps that it’s Spring. I met Francesca (our daughter) at J. McLaughlin where she was picking up a birthday present for her fiance, and for a coffee.

the way regular visitors (thanks to all of you) may notice that I’ve changed the galleries to the right. I’ve added a collection pulled together from the Litchfield County Connecticut churches that I’ve been exploring for the last 16 months, and a series of timed exposures taken out of the window of a high speed train in China. Let me know what you think.

These were taken with my Panasonic GH2 and the wonderful 14mm pancake lens

J McLaughlin

Same setup. I’m using a crop of this as my blog header.

East 95th Street

On this day last year: Bill Cohan and Maria at the Pen gala.

Maria Campbell and William Cohan

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NEW YORK, NEW YORK – I took a walk this morning looking for signs of Spring in Manhattan. Not much luck on the Upper East Side. A few flowering trees in early stages of their Spring displays. Not impressive. This with my Leica M9 and the Bokeh King.

Looking for Spring

On this day last year: Fort Green near the Brooklyn Navy Yard

Fort Greene near the Brooklyn Navy Yard

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NEW YORK NEW YORK – I spent a few hours sorting out my Alpa Max today. Alpa provides the ability to shim the back adapter to achieve perfect focus. This requires an object to focus on that’s a long ways away; I used the Triboro Bridge out my dining room window. I was also able to work out corrections for the color shifts across the frame that result from putting a digital back on a technical camera. Late in the afternoon the light and the sky turned interesting so I captured this (a two frame panorama):

Out my window

On this day one year ago: a truly uninteresting IR image of the World Trade Center construction site.

World Trade Center Construction Site

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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

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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

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