NEW YORK NEW YORK – I explored downtown with my Leica after some meetings today. Here’s the Old Equitable Building, Thames Street, a block from the Occupy Wall Street protests. Taken with my Leica M9 and 90mm lens. Four frames stitched.
Here’s my self portrait from 7:03 PM on February 13, 1999:
NEW YORK NEW YORK – Another day on the street with my Alpa TC and 35mm Schneider lens. The Bull and Bear on Lexington Avenue in the 50s.
The next in a series of 24 self-portraits taken on February 13, 1999 with an Arca Swiss 8×10 view camera.
WASHINGTON CONNECTICUT – Perfect autumn day. I got to New Preston before the stores opened so I had an opportunity to capture some of the local building before cars showed up. Taken with my Alpa Max and 47mm Schneider lens. I used the shifts on the camera to correct perspective in the camera.
The end in a series of 24 self portraits, taken in my studio in Warren on February 13, 1999 at 3:00 PM local time.
WARREN CONNECTICUT – I got a bit confused writing the posts for October 9 and today. Today’s pictures were originally published as October 9 – probably because I forgot that I was in Warren (rather than New York) today, which is Columbus Day. (I typical write these posts about a week after the fact.) Columbus Day really isn’t a national holiday, but what the hell, I’m an adopted Italian so so it’s a good excuse not to go to the office. Anyway, here are two pictures from a walk around our Warren property, taken with my Leica M9 and a 24mm Summilux lens (I’ve stated elsewhere that this is my best friend ever, lens-wise.) Back lit ornamental grasses, and a Balinese Garuda.
On this day one year ago: Waterfall, New Preston.
WARREN CONNECTICUT – So I’ve corrected the post for today (as originally published today’s entry had tomorrow’s pictures – time travel or something). This is one of the series of 24 hour photos – this one at roughly 1:00 AM today by moonlight. There was an almost full moon today, making a 24 hour landscape study feasible (otherwise at this time of year you would get 11 black frames). This is a 90 second exposure – the IQ 180 back is supposedly limited to 30 second exposures – the longer exposures resulted in bright purple areas in each of the four corners of the image – in this particular image they were easily fixed in Photoshop. It was very still, so movement of the trees was not a big factor. Of course the earth did rotate so you will see star trails in the sky. Anyway, here’s the landscape by moonlight taken with the Alpa Max, Phase ONe IQ 180 back and 120mm Schneider lens. Changing the image has screwed up the star rating for this post – there are some things that I can’t fix. My apologies if you voted and your vote has been applied to the wrong picture.
On this day one year ago: Basil gets into the picture.
WARREN CONNECTICUT – Twelve or so years ago I did a series of projects where i set a camera up on a tripod and took an image each hour over a 24-hour period. I generally used a 4×5 view camera, but also an 8×19 view camera and a 35mm (generally my Leica M7). I typically shot images that were set up to mimic a well known piece of art, “appropriating” the organization and subject matter. For example I did a 24 hour series at our pool in Connecticut and a Balinese statue after Jennifer Bartlett’s study of her pool in Italy. (See Jennifer Bartlett pool for example.) I stopped doing the 24 hour sequences after I went digital. The fact that you can put a digital camera on a tripod and set it to take a picture every hour made it too easy and took the life out of these projects;
Enter the Alpa and the Phase One IQ 180 back. The aesthetic is similar to 4×5 or 8×10 and it’s entirely manual – you really can’t automate taking a 24 hour sequence. So I decided to give a 24-hour project a try. No reference to any only other works of art – just a shot of a tree line at our place in Connecticut. I shot 24 images, one each hour from late afternoon October 8 through late afternoon October 9. I’m please with the results and have resolved a couple of technical issues, so I’m starting work on a serious series, again borrowing from a well-known work. Here’s the image from 5:57 PM (local time). My self-imposed rule is that all images need to be taken within 10 minutes plus or minus the hour. Precision (i.e. exactly on the hour) really isn’t possible because of the vagaries of cat napping and so on. I’m pleased with the results so I’m searching for a project with a fine arts referent. By the way, I’ve also included an image of the Alpa set up to capture the tree line.
On this day one year ago: Seagrams.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – I had amazing luck today. I went to the Guggenheim Museum with my daughter and a close friend of hers; we had lunch at The Wright (a restaurant located in the Guggenheim) and walked the Central Park reservoir. I’ve been trying to take a picture I like of the museum for two years; I finally got it. I’ve also being trying to take a picture of the reservoir with the west side skyline in the background, and tall grass/reeds in spots around the reservoir in the foreground; I finally got it. Both taken with my Leica M9 and 24mm Summilux lens, more than justifying my affection for this combination.
On this day one year ago: the New School.
