Landscape – Page 663 – Woody Campbell

Tuesday January 24, 2012

NAPLES FLORIDA – Back here again, on a mission that’s unrelated to last week’s board meetings: attending the annual MFDF directors’ conference. Today is the first day of the conference and is thus busy, so I’ve limited myself photo-wise to my iPhone and what I can photograph within an easy walk. I caught this from a boardwalk through a local park with my iPhone. The image is my new lock screen image on my iPhone and I’ve adapted it to serve as one of this blog’s rotating headers. The over cooked quality is what comes out of the iPhone. I could dial it down in Lightroom or Photoshop, but who said this process needs to be serious. The image looks very good on a small screen. It demonstrates (again) that great light trumps every thing else (including limited equipment) when shooting landscape.

Another iPhone image from the top of the bar where I had dinner.

On this day last year: an immense image – three Hasselblad frames stitched – of the Mustique sky. I’m using a cropped version of this as one of my rotating headers. It turns out that fabuolous skies are my theme for January 24 in whatever year.

Sunday January 22, 2012

WARREN CONNECTICUT – It snowed yesterday and last night, for the first time in a long while. I put on my snow shoes and spent a couple of hours out in the fields around our house in poor, overcast light. This with my Alpa TC and 35mm Schneider lens.

On this day last year: Flying SVG, a not-quite-scheduled “airline” operating between Barbados and Mustique.

Saturday January 21, 2012

WARREN CONNECTICUT – Last month I set my Alpa Max up to demonstrate its “tilt” capacity (the ability to tilt the focus plane to increase the appearance of depth of field) and got an somewhat poorly visualized image of our sundial. It’s snowing today (at last) so I set up trying to do a better of seeing and imagining the image:

On this day one year ago: a long skinny Third Avenue from my office.

Friday January 20, 2012

NEW YORK NEW YORK – Out with my Leica and 90mm lens I caught this in the failing light.

On this day last year: 9-11 memorial.

Thursday January 19, 2012

BROOKLYN NEW YORK – At last a good day of photography. I met a friend for lunch a Peter Luger, still the best steakhouse in New York (and maybe in the universe). It’s just over the Williamsburg Bridge in Brooklyn, so after lunch I explored the bridge and Williamsburg in lovely winter light. Williamsburg is an interesting melange of Lubavitchers, hipsters and young urban types – it has a very good subway connection to midtown. The day was good enough to warrant treatment as a mini-gallery in this post. All images are with my Leica M9 and a 24mm Summilux lens. Lets start with an image of a lone runner in the shadow of the bridge overpass:

I’ve done this a lot. For a long time. The distant, solo figure is a recurring theme in my work. Here’s one from 1970 (taken with a
Rollei 2.8 F in Luxembourg):

Since 1970 the cells in my body have replacement themselves many times; I’ve had a world of experience but I still identify with the lonely, isolated figure. Another thought is captured in the comparison of these two images: my work is often symmetrical with correct prospect (which takes a certain amount of control when shooting with a wide angle lens) or is wildly askew. Anything in between just feels like a mistake to me.

One of the advantages of living in the Northeastern US is the brilliant winter light. It was very much in evidence today giving the graffiti a visual kick.

Kind of mixed use real estate here, with car repair shops and the like tucked in among buildings undergoing major renovations.

Here’s the bridge. It wasn’t easy to get this angle. The East River has no accessible waterfront here. I had to trespass through a bridge and tunnel authority parking lot and climb a fence. There are some excellent early 19th century warehouses along here that look like they are in early stages of being renovated.

Finally, the scene under the El for the M train back to Manhattan could have been from 1954.

On this day one year ago: parking space.

Monday January 16, 2012

NAPLES FLORIDA – I flew down here from New York this morning for two days of client board meetings. I managed a long walk on the beach today. Beaches aren’t great for photography (at least when I’m pushing the shutter button) I suspect because they are all similar, if not the same. Here’s a sea bird admiring its shadow, taken with my Panasonic.

A few hours later, a sunset from my hotel room.

On this day one year ago: snow.

Sunday January 15, 2012

MORRIS CONNECTICUT – I drove over to Morris this morning to catch the Morris Congregational Church in good morning light. I got a late start – we had house guests so I needed to attend to breakfast. By time I got to Morris it was too late – the light was flat and dull – but I saw these school buses on the way back and they seemed unusually vivid. Taken with my Alpa Max and 72mm Schneider.

On this day last year: a snow covered barn in Milton CT.