NEW YORK NEW YORK – Tax return day for the multitude of people like me who don’t get it together to file tax returns by April 15 and file extensions. This means that I’m cranky and out of sorts and not very well in tune with my visual surroundings. But of course I took some pictures anyway with my typical (for me) Leica Monochrom rig.
Day 2191 of one photograph every day for the rest of my life.
On this day two years ago (day 1461): Schloss Elmau
NEW YORK NEW YORK – Not much going on today. A few images from the sidewalks of New York from my Leica Monochrom and Luxocron lens.
Day 2190 of one photograph every day for the rest of my life.
On this day last year (day 1826): Skyline Drive, Virginia
NEW YORK NEW YORK – I found myself on Fifth Avenue early this evening with my Leica Monochrom and a 50 mm Summicron Asph. lens. Those of you who follow this site know that I’m usually a wide angle shooter and of course the 50mm is not a wide angle lens.
I get wide images with a norma focal length lens by shooting multiple overlapping frames and stitching them in Photoshop. I typically shoot three, four or six frames. This gives me very large, very good files to work with, so I can make perspective changes without unacceptable quality loss. In effect this technique turns the 50mm into a wide angle zoom. Good technique is important: all frames have to be exposed consistently and a single mistake in one frame ruins the whole image.
I don’t use a tripod, even at night. I brace against a street light or other structure and take advantage of the Leica lens’s good wide open performance and the camera’s good high ISO performance.
Here you go. The third image, by the way, is an iPhone shot of a platinum print of an image taken in May 2010. This was a three frame stitch of images taken with a smaller-sensor camera, a Leica M8.2
Day 2189 of one photograph every day for the rest of my life.
On this day two years ago (day 1459): Schloss Elmau. Taken with the same camera and lens combination (Leica Monochrom + 50mm Asph. Summiocron).
NEW YORK NEW YORK – I found an angle today that juxtaposes Citicorp Center and the 345 Park Avenue Tower (standing in the middle of a busy street). Two frames stitched with my Leica Monochrom and 50mm APO Summicron lens.
Day 2188 of one photograph every day for the rest of my life.
On this day four years ago (day 727): Hearst Tower
WAAREN CONNECTICUT – I strapped my 1945 Carl Zeiss Sonnar lens onto my Leica Monochrom today and went out into the blazing fall landscape shooting . . . black and white of course. This is a remarkable lens that renders the Fall light beautifully, providing greater transparency into shadows than a modern lens, and slightly diffused highlights.
Day 2187 of one photograph every day for the rest of my life.
On this day last year (day 1822): New Milford Congregational Church. In the rain.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – I drove up to Warren this morning, shooting with my Monochrom in good light as I went.
Say 2186 of one photograph every day for the rest of my life.
On this day last year (day 1821): Black and White. Ok, it wasn’t a great day.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – What a crappy day. I could have gone out and captured images in the pouring rain, but I didn’t. Here’s an image of the RFK (nee Triborough) Bridge captured with a very long Leica R lens adapted to my Sony 7Rmii.
By the way, I’ve been putting up two posts a day for a while, catching up from the period when I was in Japan, China and San Francisco. Today I’m officially caught up (only a week behind which his my usual process) so I can go back to posting once a day.
Day 2185 of one photograph a day for the rest of my life.
On this day last year (day 1820): LUNCH. One of my favorite images of last year.
