WARREN CONNECTICUT – Here we are in Holiday recovery mode – making concentration on the visual present tense difficult. So . . . here are some backlit ornamental grasses.
Day 1,898 of one photo every day for the rest of my life.
On this day two years ago (day 1,168): Night blizzard. One of my favorite images from the past five plus years.
WARREN and BANTAM CONNECTICUT – Christmas Eve. The process that I’ve adopted for this project presents a real challenge around holidays. In the course of my one picture every day project I generally shoot the equivalent of a roll of film a day. So over a 365 day year I end up with 10,000 to 11,000 images. I post about a week after each shot, which gives me a chance to edit with a bit of detachment. But as a result of the delay these posts are never breaking news. For typical landscapes, cityscapes and people this isn’t a problem, but it is with holidays. Here I am on New Years Eve (when I’m writing this) posting Christmas Eve. The solution is simply to avoid holiday themes on holidays, which makes me look Scrooge-line, which I’m not.
Anyway here are some non-Holiday images taken with my Leica M Monochrom and an 18mm Super-Elmar lens.
Day 1,896 of one photograph every day for the rest of my life.
On this day five years ago (day 70): Monarchs. This is rare color for me these days. It was taken near Tualpujahua Mexico. Here we witnessed a remarkable phenomenon: there is huge annual migration of Monarch butterflies from Canada and the Northeastern United States to this mountainous region of Mexico, about a three hour drive from Mexico City. The Monarchs arrive in early November, which coincides with the Day of the Dead – the pre-Spanish people resident in the area believed that Monarchs were the souls of their ancestors. They cluster in very high density (estimated at about 20 million butterflies per hectare) at very high altitude. It’s possible to visit them by driving deeply into the the mountains and riding a horse for about a half hour from a nomadic base camp. It’s possible to walk, but not advised because the elevation is very high, 11,200 feet (3,400 meters) and the half day one is there is too short a time to become acclimatized to the altitude. The Monarchs cluster quietly on every surface until the temperature goes above 50 degrees F at which point they take to the air in breathtaking density, The Monarchs we see in Connecticut take part in this migration.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – I got my shot for the day at 6:51 AM on my way to a breakfast meeting. I saw the opportunity and took two exposures. that was it for the day. I knew that I had it so a could stand down on December 23 and worry about more pressing matters, like Christmas shopping. The image is taken with my Leica Moncogrom and 28mm sum micron lens, a classic combination.
Day 1,895 of one photo every day for the rest of my life.
On this day last year (day 1,530): More fog.
WARREN CONNECITCUT – I stopped on College Farm Road today and shot stubble fields in a very light dusting of snow. College Farm Road takes its name from the fact that it passes through the Tanners’ farm; the Tanners hold the farm under a 500 year lease, dating from 1798, from Yale College. The lease is the first recorded instrument in the Warren Town Hall.
Day 1,893 of one photo every day for the rest of my life.
On this day two years ago (day 1,163): Subway. This image was taken with my 1945 Carl Zeiss Sonnar f1.5 lens. More on this in a later post: reviewing this image inspired my to strap this lens onto my Monochrom again.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – I’m actually writing this on Christmas day – remember that I post with about a week’s delay to give me some breathing room for editing. I found a number of good images today but only one of them, the facade of the Waldorf Astoria hotel, is even vaguely Christmas-oriented so I’ll lead with the Waldorf. There was odd (for here) diffuse rather Flemish-looking sunlight today which gave familiar sights softer features.
Day 1,890 of one picture every day for the rest of my life.
On this day two years ago (day 1,891): Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church from the second floor of the Fendi shop across the street.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – Another gray day with flat light and bright sky. Ugh. Not a good environment for cityscapes. I plod onward.
Day 1,889 of one picture every day for the rest of my life.
On this day two years ago (day 1,159): Grumpy Santa. Kinda says it all. I’ve done a tighter crop of this for my twitter feed.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – Here’s one of my favorite views of New York at one of my favorite times of day to photograph.
Day 1,887 of one picture every day for the rest of my life.
On this day five years ago )day 61): Brooklyn.
