Landscape – Page 667 – Woody Campbell

Saturday December 10, 2011

TORRINGTON CONNECTICUT – This afternoon I drove to this former mill town on the Naugatuck River to photograph churches. The light was right to collect two of the large Catholic Churches in town, St. Peter Church and St. Francis Assisi Church. The light was wrong for the Central Congregational Church – I’ll be back tomorrow morning for it. The large Episcopal Church, Trinity Church, is very tight to a narrow street and accordingly very hard to photograph. Anyway here are St. Peter and St. Francis Assisi, taken with my Alpa Max and an 80 meg Phase One back. These subjects require full use of the camera’s rise and shift features. The St. Francis Assis (the second image) is two frames stitched.

On this day last year: Marty gives us a sinister look.

Friday December 9, 2011

NEW YOEK NEW YORK – I spent some time this afternoon at Yancey Richardson looking at photographs, primarily by Andrew Moore. The experience was energizing. When I started this daily photo effort over two years ago I expected that a number of longer term projects would emerge. Looking at Andrew’s work and paging back through mine I’ve decided to push on the churches of Litchfield County project. I see a couple of phases, starting with taking an inventory of facades, making high quality prints as a means to get closer to the ministers/rectors/priests, doing more in depth studies (which I’ve only done at the Washington Congregational Church at this point), teasing out the narrative (which I have some ideas on but need further work to refine) and then more follow through studies.

But today I’m not in Litchfield County so I point my Alpa Max out our window into good light. I’m working to achieve technical mastery with this tool – it’s the key to creating the kinds of images that I’m looking for in Litchfield County. By “technical mastery” I mean that my hands do the right things without an need to think about anything but composition.

On this date one year ago: Urban landscape.

Wednesday December 7, 2011

NEW YORK NEW YORK – I met Francesca at Columbia for afternoon tea. I caught this image of the Italian Academy. Not a brilliant piece of work on my part. I struggle on overcast and rainy days. It’s a matter of disposition, I suppose.

On this day last year: A Sugimoto show at Pace.

Saturday December 3, 2011

WASHINGTON DC – So today I’m presenting an iPhone gallery. We spent the weekend here, having a memorable lunch at Zaytinya, Jose Andres’ remarkable Lebanese/Turkish/Greek restaurant, visiting the National Gallery for the Harry Callahan show, and going to a musical in Arlington that was written by a friend. Altogether a fabulous weekend. I decided to travel only with my iPhone, but at the last minute I chickened out and brought my Leica and three lens kit (a 35, 50 and 90 – the Leica holly trinity). It turned out that I managed just fine with the iPhone. Here’s a selection:

And finally, not an iPhone – take with my Leica M9. It was too dark and too far away for the iPhone.

On this day one year ago: Delancey Street

Thursday December 1, 2011

MEW YORK NEW YORK – Well here I am outside the headquarters of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. I’ve written a couple of other posts on this subject: August 24, 2011 and November 24, 2010. I’m standing here because this is the only place within blocks where any sunlight is hitting the street. I loaded a bunch of camera apps on my iPhone and went looking for a scene with a long dynamic range and some bricks to test the apps. Here’s the one taken with an app called Pro HDR, which takes two images at different exposures and combines them in a “high dynamic range” images. The HDR feature is only so-so. Without a tripod the camera moves between shots. The app compensates for movement but the image appears less sharp than a non HDR image. It does give you the two exposures, though so you have a choice of which to use – here I used the under-exposed shot.

So the iPhone camera is working well for me. We’re planning a trip to DC this weekend. I’m taking the iPhone as my only camera.

On this day last year: shot with very cool wide angle lens.

Tuesday November 29, 2011

NEW YORK NEW YORK – It poured all day. I walked from 56th Street to 27th Street on the East Side with my Leica and a 35mm Summilux Asph. II lens. The first image is a stitch of three frames. Both are taken at f 1.4, which severely limits depth of field (in general a good thing and one of the reasons to own this lens).

On this day last year: Waling to the office.

Monday November 28, 2011

NEW YORK NEW YORK – Back at it in the office with a number of pressing projects. I often stop at Citicorp Center to see what’s going on, visually. This is a four frame stitch with my Leica M9 and a 35mm Summilux Asp. II lens, shot at f 1.4.

On this day one year ago: Another building in New Preston Connecticut.

Harry O Erickson Pavilion Hall, New Preston Connecticut