Sunday March 6, 2011

NEW YORK NEW YORK – Well here we are, still in the rain. Only today it’s heavy. Actually pouring for hours. I decided not to go out except to walk the dog. For my picture for the day I explored out my window with my Hasselblad H4D-60 with an HC 300mm lens and a 1.7x tele extender giving an effective focal length of 500mm (equivalent to 330mm in 35mm terms). This combination doesn’t work very well and Hasselblad doesn’t suggest otherwise. The camera doesn’t autofocus and optical quality is just ok – it looks fine a web resolution but really can’t be printed large. Based on some testing that I did a bit later image quality is better if you use the HC 300 without the tele extender and crop to achieve the 500mm point of view. Anyway, here’s the image:

Rain, rain go away
Rain, rain go away

On this day last year: Joshua Tree National Park. I rated this image poorly last year but on reflection I like it.

Joshua Tree National Park

Friday March 4, 2011

NEW YORK NEW YORK – We stayed in New York this weekend to catch up on some personal stuff and to attend an engagement party for the daughter of some long time friends. I’ve shifted my equipment line up a bit: I sold my Nikon gear and used the proceeds to buy my Alpa and a Panasonic GH2, which I’ll use for long lenses, low light and fast moving objects – similar to the Nikon but more compact and lower cost. I spent the morning sorting out the GH2 (which is in very short supply – I bought it from an individual on ebay at a slight premium to its list price). One of the nice things about it is that it uses Leica M lenses (with an adapter) and I have a lot of these. Here’s an image out my window taken with the GH2 and a Leica 135mm APO-Telyt lens. Two frames stitched.

Out my window
Out my window

On this day last year: Salvation Mountain – right next to Slab City, California.

Salvation Mountain

Thursday March 3, 2011

NEW YORK NEW YORK – Here’s the dark underside of the photo-a-day experience: sometimes you just don’t feel like it. I found myself walking in the Village today, coming back from a meeting at the James Beard House. I just wasn’t seeing well. Here’s the best of a bad lot – a tree shadow on West 12th Street.

Tree on West 12th Street
Tree on West 12th Street

On this day one year ago: an IR image from Indio California.

Indio California

Monday February 28, 2011

NEW YORK NEW YORK – A very gray day here. I took my Leica and a few lenses out to capture something moody. Carl Schurz Park lent itself to to these explorations – it has a Victorian feel and is magnificently sited on the East River. For some reason, though I wasn’t in the moment and wasn’t really seeing. Here’s the image that I went out to capture – I liked the curving steps, the barren tree, the background and the very subdued light, but the picture is ruined because of the overlap of the light post and the tree. There juxtaposition creates a real compositional problem, probably solvable by taking a step or two to the right or left. Oh well . . . .

Carl Schurz Park
Carl Schurz Park

On this day last year: Salton Sea sunset.

This was the first evening of our Salton Sea explorations last year.

Salton Sea sunset