NEW YORK NEW YORK – Fotocare had a sample Leica Monochrom so I borrowed it for an hour to give it a spin. Very interesting camera. It’s a Leica M9 with a grayscale only sensor. The absence of a Bayer filter in front of the lens roughly doubles resolution. It forces thinking and seeing as if one is shooting black and white film. I’ve ordered one. Here are some results from my walk with it.
One more film shot from Milan:
On this day last year: Public Library.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – A friend who’s the Head of the Browning School took us on a tour of a major construction project that the school has undertaken. This from the boiler room; taken with my Leica M9 and an 18mm lens.
So I was walking down the street and spotted a big shrub that was in bloom and it looked like a lilac. Same shape leaves. Same color leaves. Similar shape bush. Small lilac-colored flowers brow in grape-like clusters, but have a yellow center. No real scent. But it’s late July and lilacs bloom in the late spring, so what is this thing. I shot it with my iPhone. Any ideas?
More film scans from Milan. One thing is clear: as I’ve previously noted this project (a daily photo blog) would be something between very hard and impossible shooting film. Here I am still posting from Milan two weeks after our return. The fact is that my Imacon scanner grinds through one frame at a time so a roll of film is a lot of work. I do love the scans that it produces, though.
On this day last year: Carnegie Hill.
AMTRAC TRAIN SOMEWHERE IN CONNECTICUT – I took the train back to New York and had a chance to catch up on editing photos and writing posts. Here’s from my seat on the train with my Fuji Xpro-1 and an 18mm Fuji lens:
More film scans from Italy, all taken with my Leica M3 and 50mm Summilux lens on XP-5 film.
On this day last year: Home sick.
BOSTON MASSACHUSETTS – I had a couple of hours fee this morning in Boston, and actually did pretty well with my Fuji Xpro-1 and an 18mm lens (28mm equivalent). In the evening we were guests of a client at their box at Fenway Park – I caught the Green Monster with my iPhone – five images stitched in photoshop. The Red Sox lost to the White Sox (who in Chicago actually follow this team – I’ve never met a Chicagoan who isn’t a Cubs fan), but we had the pleasure of watch balls carom off of the wall.
On this day last year: Centerfold.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – I traveled to Boston today but caught some details of our life at home at sunrise. As I’ve noted in the past that we have collected some Venini glass – some of it is in the photos that I took before leaving. I stopped at the Venini store on Via Montenapoleone in Milan on our recent trip – prices have doubled since I last looked at them a year or so ago. This is ruinous. Most of the stuff on eBay now is junk being held out by sellers as Venini or like Venini.
Here are the pictures, taken with my Fuji Xpro-1 (my in-a-hurry camera – I saw the light as I was running out the door to catch a plane) and 18mm Fuji lens.
More scanned film from an earlier date. Have I commented before that a photo-a-day blog would be very difficult shooting film because of the time lags developing film and scanning? Taken with my Leica M3 and a 50mm Summilux lens.
On this day last year: Portland Maine.
WARREN CONNECTICUT – This is the one thousandth day in my one photo-a-day journey, which started on October 16, 2012. Actually I’ve made 1012 posts because on our trip to the Serengeti there were so many images that i put up more than one post a day.
I’ve learned a lot in a thousand days. Actually quite a bit about the innards of a blog because I maintain this site myself. I’ve had to learn about servers, WordPress, HTML and a lot of search engine optimization. The design is my own. It hasn’t changed much since I started – the original concept of a white background and dark gray and Leica red text has proven to be robust.
I hadn’t intended this as a diary but it inevitably is. Looking back brings floods of memories of the Serengeti, the Masai, the Swiss alps, Lyme disease, dinners with friends, grown children, family holidays, quiet moments at home, Italy and more Italy. And of course the icons of New York. Sometimes the accidents were the best, sometime carefully worked out compositions are. There are may themes – threads for real shows. The solo figure. The Chrysler Building. Litchfield County churches. Change on the street. The evolution of family members and close friends. Alexander is flecked with gray now, there was no gray when I started.
When I started this project in October 2009 I didn’t have a clear vision of its purpose or where it’s going. I still don’t steer it but in terms of purpose it seems to me that it simply is what it is. The important thing it to get out there and do it every day. I plan on continuing indefinitely. The work is the ensemble. I don’t have to print it or commercialize it. It will get interesting as I start to decline (a point not actually in sight but inevitable). I hope that I have the courage to continue it.
It’s clear that I’m a better photographer than when I started. The constant pressure to shoot and self-edit over a three-year period amounts to a graduate degree. My work feels more purposeful and muscular. A vision is emerging. With my previous experience I’m probably approaching the 10,000 hours level of experience – a level that Malcolm Gladwell believes brings competence.
Changing technology will make this obsolete in a few more years and unintelligible (except to specialists with legacy equipment and software) in a decade or two. So enjoy in now. This is like chalk painting on a sidewalk.
For today here are some trees captured with my Leica M9 and an 18mm Leica lens.
[Editorial Note: It turns out, on the basis of more careful calculation, that this was actually day 1,004.)
On this day last year: Chain link,
GOSHEN CONNECTICUT – We visited some friends, Henry and Celia McGee, in Goshen for lunch – Goshen is the site of a country county fair in August – we’ll be back. Taken with my Fuji X Pro-1 and a Fuji 35mm lens.
In this day last year: Moonrise over Manhattan. I probably won’t see this juxtaposition again. Ever.
