WARREN CONNECTICUT – A perfect day for a lovely party put together by some neighbors. As you scroll down you’ll see an Aunt Alice shot – a lineup of people squinting into the setting sun. I object to these in principle but have decided to start taking them as a documentary record. Complain to my editor if you don’t like it. All images take with my Leica S2 and 70mm lens.
JohnMariaAunt Alice
On this day last year: Urban poetry. A construction site in Manhattan. Proof that color has a function, despite by bias toward black and white.
WARREN CONNECTICUT – I had busy day work-wise in Connecticut. Client confidentiality and my natural reticence preclude any discussion of what I’m doing, but I can say that there seems to be a lot of it. I had time for a couple of snapshots with my Fuji X100s. Before I leave the house or apartment I always pick up a camera take a test exposure or two to make sure that there is a memory card and that the battery is charged, and that the camera’s setting aren’t off somewhere in outer space. I delete most of these in editing, but occasionally a test shot is the best image for the day. Here you go with our dining room in Warren. Later in the evening we had dinner with our friends Barbara and Charlie Robinson. Charlie is a painter and for some reason he’s used the top of a wood burning stove in their kitchen as a palette.
Dining RoomPaint
Taken with my iPhone at a point when I was concerned that I might not have another picture for the day.
On this day one year ago: La Pizza Fresca, my favorite pizza joint in New York. It’s actually not a joint: ingredients are first rate and they make Neapolitan-stile thin crust pizza (the only style that I tolerate) in a wood fired oven. The wine list is remarkable. Here’s a picture of the key actor in the Pizza Fresca drama:
NEW YORK NEW YORK – It’s time for a picture of cameras. I obviously can’t put all of them in the picture because then I wouldn’t have a camera to take the picture. Actually I took this with my iPhone, which I use quite regularly. So here are four the the six cameras that I’m currently using. The biggest is a Leica S2, a Leica medium format camera. Wonderfully suited for landscape and any thing else you want to render with perfect lenses and a lot of resolution. Sensational huge viewfinder. Downsides: heavy and poor high ISO, s problem endemic to the CCD sensors that all medium format cameras use. Next in size is my Leica Monochrom. A unique camera that shoots digital but only in Black and white. It produces remarkably detailed files and highly nuanced gray scale images. But it’s essentially a 1954 design (albeit a famous one) – it’s like driving a 1954 Porsche. Completely manual. People love it or hate it – I’m in the former category. Next is the highly-praised Fuji X100s – probably the best non-zoom (it has a fixed focal length 35mm equivalent lens) in its price and size category. The Fuji lens is outstanding and the level of intelligence built into the camera is comparable to a much larger SLR. Amazing performance in near darkness. Great for snapshots in situations where you can’t miss. Images are very good but lack the mojo that Leica delivers for much more money. Finally the little Sony RX100 II which some have called the best pocketable point and shoot ever. Images quality is comparable to the Fuji but it’s not quite as reliable in terms of focus and exposure. Not included in the picture is my Leica M which looks like the Monochrom but takes pictures in living color.
I’m a nut on image quality – each of these cameras delivers in its own way.
Cameras
On this day last year: Dull image in the “take at least some kind of damn immage every day” camp.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – I spent a couple of hours today messing around with the Fuji X100s. With a new camera there is always a process of getting it dialed in to my shooting style and practicing so that managing the controls becomes second nature. It’s also important to explore its limits: what’s the practical highest ISO and the lowest-hand held shutter speed, for example. Here’s a 12,500 iso shot in a dark hall in our apartment. The Fuji’s autofocus is reasonably good under these difficult low light circumstances (even much larger SLRs have a tendency to hunt a bit in near dark conditions). From the hall in near darkness with a secret selfie in the form of my shadow.
High ISO
On this day last year: Perar 35. Experimenting with a tiny triplet 35mm lens called the Perar on my Leica M9. I ended up selling the lens – I really don’t have much use for lenses with a lot of “character”. Here it is on my M9 (which I subsequently traded for my Monochrom).
NEW YORK NEW YORK – Back in the saddle with my Leica Monochrom. I promise to write a post about why I mess around with other equipment. Later. When I get around to it. Next week. We’ll see. The Monchrom is my best friend.
I’ve decided to make time to walk where ever I happen to be going in Manhattan. Briskly. The theory is that this mode of transportation will relieve me of the need for other forms of exercise.
Today, while walking, I looked for abstractions with my Monochrom and 50mm Summicron Asph. lens. I’ve already posted a less effective color image of the first site below.
