Urban – Page 106 – Woody Campbell

Thursday August 15, 2013

NEW YORK NEW YORK – A very busy day so I approached the photo-a-day aspect of my life by putting my Sony RX100 in my pocket. I snapped away with it as I went about my business and was disappointed by the results. One tends to treat a small camera casually. Actually, to get good results you need to do everything that you do with a larger camera: see the opportunity; stop; pre visualize; consider depth of field and exposure; focus and compose carefully; wait for the magic moment; expose, minimizing camera movement. All of the foregoing steps take a few seconds but if you skip anything you get nothing of any worth. Here’s the one image that I liked.

On this day last year: Rain at dusk. A lovely image in lovely light.

There's probably a rainbow somewhere — There’s probably a rainbow somewhere

Wednesday August 14, 2013

NEW YORK NEW YORK – Some nice results today with my Leica Monochrom and 50mm Summicron Asph. lens. Abstractions. Let me know if you get tired of them. This is turning into a major thread in this long-term project, maybe the best in my eyes, but self-editing (like self-surgery) is not totally reliable.

On this day last year: Marble Cemetery.

Tuesday August 13, 2013

NEW YORK NEW YORK – There’s an unfriendly and disused public plaza on 57th Street between Madison and Park Avenue. Why do some of these work and others not?

Taken with my Fuji X100s.

On this day last year: Basil shakes it off. Another violation of my “no cute dogs” rule. This is actually my ninth shot of Basil since I started this project roughly 1,400 days ago. Nine violations is a lot; if the DMV were in charge of this blog I would loose my license to photograph. On the other hand it’s an error rate of well less than one percent, which I guess I can live with.

Tuesday August 6, 2013

NEW YORK NEW YORK – Here we are again with my Leica Monochrom and 50mm Summicron Asph. lens on a walkabout in Manhattan.

On this day last year: God.

Wednesday July 31, 2013

NEW YORK NEW YORK – Marvelous light today makes everything look wonderful – even shot with the baby Sony RX100 II.

On this day last year: Nikki de Saint Phalle in front of the Racquet Club.

Monday July 29, 2013

NEW YORK NEW YORK – I’m giving the Sony RX100 II a rest. Today I returned to my Leica Monochrom and 50mm Summicron Asph. lens – the best camera and lens combination for me ever. Really. Here we are looking up at Papa. Not a great image but it’s a step toward getting back to using a real camera.

On this day last year: Quilt.

Tuesday July 23, 2013

NEW HAVEN CONNECTICUT – We drove down to New Haven for the day – Maria is speaking at a publishing symposium and I’m catching up on the culinary wonders of New Haven and the redone Yale Art Gallery. Food-wise I decided to go for historical significance – I had lunch at Louis’ Lunch, where the Hamburger sandwich was invented in the late 1890s – there seems to be some confusion over the date. It’s still in a parking lot on Crown Street, but its now a tourist destination. No kidding. A tour bus was standing in front of it when I arrived. There are exactly three places at the counter, one table that seats six (that seemed to be occupied permanently by locals) and three pew-like contraptions with tiny tables. The burgers are still cooked on unique vertical cookers and served on lightly toasted wonder bread. The meat quality was indifferent. Not a place to return to.

Louis' Wonder Bread — Louis’ Wonder Bread

Louis' Lunch Cookers — Louis’ Lunch Cookers

Behind the Yale Gallery:

On this day last year: Erie Canal towpath.