Month: March 2015

Tuesday March 17, 2015

NEWBURGH NEW YORK – I drove up here today to meet with a friend, Luke Pontifell, who founded and owns Thornwillow Press, a printing business that specializes in beautiful books and perfect stationary = Luke is unique in the United States in keeping these arts alive (and in fact vibrant). I made the trip to photograph Luke’s plant and to discuss doing a gravure edition of some of my images.

Newburgh is one of the upstate towns that feels like it’s seen better days. Actually much better days. It’s only about 60 miles north of New York City and is located on a bluff overlooking the Hudson River so it’s full of potential, but it’s economically depressed, but it may be on the verge of being rediscovered (for example Dia Beacon is just across the Newburgh Bridge, a 10 minute drive from Luke’s plant.

A sensational day. I haven’t been able to edit it down to one image, so apologies for the clutter.

Day 1,979 of one picture every day for the rest of my life.

On this day five years ago (day 153): Ca$h for your Warhol. A pawn shop with a sense of humor? This image was mistakenly originally posted as March 16, 2010. It’s actually March 17. There are a bunch of images that actually were taken on March 17 so my string is unbroken.

Tags Newburgh, Thornwillow

Home Interior

Monday March 16, 2015

NEW YORK NEW YORK – It’s important, in the one photo every day world, to keep your eye out for beauty in the mundane. Here in image in our kitchen with good light striking a Venini vase.

Day 1,978 of one photo every day for the rest of my life.

On this day last year (day 1,613): Ice.

Tags Venini

Landscape

Sunday March 15, 2015

WARREN CONNECTICUT – Another cold and blustery day with a threat of snow. Not much of an incentive to gat out and photograph.

Day 1,977 of one photo every day for the rest of my life.

On this day five years ago (day 151): Citibank.

Tags Connecticut, Snow, Winter

Landscape

Saturday March 14, 2015

LYME ROCK CONNECTICTUT – I stopped here in terrible weather to take some pictures on our way to dinner in Sheffield Massachusetts. Don’t the weather gods know that it’s the middle of March? I had trouble editing these so I’m including three images from today.

Day 1,976 of one photograph a day for the rest of my life.

On this day four years ago (day 515): Bloomberg building. Converted from the color image that I showed four years ago.

Tags Connecticut, Snow, Winter

Landscape Urban

Friday March 13, 2015

NEW YORK NEW YORK – Typical distant street stuff for me today, shot with my Leica Monochrom and 50mm Leica Summicron Asph. lens. Two frames stitched.

Day 1,975 of now photograph every day for the rest of my life.

On this day last year (day 1,610): Look up through the ice. Still winter.

Tags New York, Spring, Streetscape

Landscape Out my window Urban

Thursday March 12, 2015

NEW YORK NEW YORK – I’m xperimenting today. I bought an 85mm Nikkor P f2.0 lens on eBay; it arrived today so I decided to try it out. This is a famous lens. It’s from the mid-1950s. David Duncan Douglas was on assignment in Japan in 1950s; his Zeiss Contax 85mm lens developed a problem so in desperation he bought and shot with the Nikkor 85mm. He and his editors at Life Magazine were amazed at the quality of the images; the lens became a photojournalist workhorse and Nikon’s business took off. This lens is in a Nikon rangefinder mount, which is an approximate copy of the Contax mount. I have an adapter the lets me use Contax mount lenses on my Leica gear (an extremely exotic item) but the rangefinder doesn’t couple so I attached the lens to my Leica T which focuses through the lens. There is also an issue with infinity focus that the Leica T permits me to address.

The images are crisp with terrific micro contrast in the midtones. It’s sharp corner to corner by f4.0 – it’s quite impressionistic at f2.0. Bokeh is lovely. Today’s image is a test shot out my window taken with this impressive 70-year old performer mounted on my Leica T and converted to black and white.

Day 1,974 of one photo every day for the rest of my life.

On this day three years ago (day 878): Flatiron. Shot with a Phase One IQ 180 back on a technical camera.

Tags New York

Landscape Urban

Wednesday March 11, 2015

BOSTON MASSACHUSETSS – Still here attending meetings. Not the best state of mind for photo work. Here’s a fairly pedestrian changing light at sunrise.

Day 1,973 of one picture every day for the rest of my life.

On this day last year (day 1,608): Borough Hall.

Tags Boston