Friday February 8, 2013

WARREN CONNECTICUT – We drove up here last night ahead of a predicted blizzard, hoping to get snowed in for the weekend. On the first day of the storm high winds, light snow and dull light. Blah. Not much going on. And it’s cold. Taken with my medium format Leica S camera and 35mm lens.

Blizzard
Blizzard

On this day last year: Steve.

Steve Rubin
Steve Rubin

Tuesday February 5, 2013

NEW YORK NEW YORK – We had a party this evening in honor of a visiting German friend. I shot it with my Leica Monochrom and a 1837 Carl Zeiss Jena 8.5cm Sonnar lens. The Sonnar was designed for a pre-war Contax rangefinder camera, not for a Leica, so it took two adapters (one of them is quite complex) to fit it on a modern camera. It’s the classic small camera portrait lens of its era and has lovely rendering, but focus is flakey so I adjusted it so that focus was accurate at its close focus distance and focused by moving my body. I bought it in anticipation of the Leica M, which permits through-the-lens focusing without relying on the rangefinder, which doesn’t couple accurately with this lens. Here are some samples:

Friends 2
Friends 2
Friends 3
Friends 3

On this day last year: Superbowl.

Superbowl
Superbowl

Monday February 4, 2013

NEW YORK NEW YORK – Another very old Carl Zeiss Jena lens on a adapter. This one is a 1937 Carl Zeiss Jena 8.5cm Sonnar f2.0. It’s consider one of the great portrait lenses of all time.. Very nice but on the adapter focus is a bit flakey. It should work better with the Leica M that I have on order which permits focusing through an electronic through the lens viewfinder. Once you sort out focus the images that it produces are lovely

Venini
Venini
Out my window
Out my window

On this day one year ago: small barn.

Small barn
Small barn

Sunday February 3, 2013

NEW PRESTON CONNECTICUT – Here I am shooting with my Leica Monchrom and Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 5cm f1.5 lens from 1936. The lens was designed to be mounted on a Contax rangefinder camera so it requires a complex adapter to be attached to my modern Leica. Infinity focus is OK; close focus is a little flakey. Here are some samples. Interestingly the images look like they come from the 1930s.

Falls New Preston
Falls New Preston

Three frames stitched:

Bantam Lake
Bantam Lake
New Preston
New Preston

On this day last year: Citicorp.

Citicorp
Citicorp