Categories
Landscape Urban

Thursday April 26, 2012

NEW YORK NEW YORK – A rainy day, but the wetness made the colors delicious. Here’s the Zen of Citibank. Two frames stitched taken with my Sony Nex-7 and a 24mm Leica Summilux lens.

The Zen of Citibank
The Zen of Citibank

On this day last year: Nan Graham.

Nan Graham at Pen Gala
Nan Graham at Pen Gala
Categories
-Woody's Picks Culture Icon Landscape Urban

Wednesday April 25, 2012

NEW YORK NEW YORK – I’ve been thinking about what it is to photograph landscape (whether urban or otherwise). Let me describe the experience. There comes a moment when you physically experience some remarkable aspect of the light. For me the world seems to grow quiet and I work without thinking, intuitively. Time seems suspended. I reach this state of mind on those rare occasions when the light is very special and combines with the scenery in front of me to create a heightened sense of reality. It’s good to have a camera in hand when this happens. I’m not wildly successful seeking these moments out with a tripod.

there was one of those moments this morning in the space between the Seagrams Building and the Racquet and Tennis Club.

Racquet and Tennis Club
Racquet and Tennis Club

Rafael Barrios sculpture “Acrobatic”.

Rafael Barrios
Rafael Barrios

More of the same:

Acrobatic
Acrobatic

Seagrams Building lobby:

Lobby
Lobby

On this day last year: Forsythia in the shape of Italy.

Forsythia
Forsythia
Categories
Food and wine

Tuesday April 24, 2012

NEW YORK NEW YORK – Lunch at the Shake Shake on East 86th Street. Taken with my Sony Nex-7 and a 24mm Leica Summilux lens.

French Fries!
French Fries!

On this day one year ago: Lounge Terminal 3.

Lounge Terminal 3
Lounge Terminal 3
Categories
Landscape Urban

Monday April 23, 2012

NEW YORK NEW YORK – I walked around midtown with my iPhone and the 645 Pro app. I guess the name of the app is supposed to suggest medium format capabilities. Well it doesn’t turn the iPhone into a medium format camera, but its “raw” format may add a stop or so of dynamic range. Here’s an example. Note the slightly unpleasant bokeh in the out of focus portion of the image.

Dio du
Dio du

Still tends to clip highlights.

Rock Center
Rock Center

The saturated blues are pretty good.

Blue foot
Blue foot

On this day one year ago: The Great Wall.

Great Wall
Great Wall
Categories
Garden Landscape

Sunday April 22, 2012

WARREN CONNECTICUT – I tried a new iPhone app today called 645 Pro. It offers “raw” files, actually tiffs, that appear to me to have a stop or more of dynamic range that the iPhone jpegs and present fewer digital artifacts. It eats battery life so I’m waiting for a new release before I press it any further. A couple of examples in a “rocks and trees” vein.

Pebbles, leaves and trees
Pebbles, leaves and trees
Leaves and trees
Leaves and trees

On this day last year: 798 Art District Beijing.

Kendall Geers at Galeria Continua in 798 Art District
Kendall Geers at Galeria Continua in 798 Art District
Categories
Garden Landscape

Saturday April 21, 2012

WARREN CONNECTICUT – I spent some time today working with my Questar telescope as a close up lens. The Questar is a Maksutov-Cassegrain design – the first of these that was available in the US commercially. It was an object of lust in the 50s and 60s – some number of years ago I found that they were still being made in New Hope PA, so I bought one. These are inherently long focal length, small aperture designs that are good for planetary observations but poor for deep space objects. It’s focal length is 1280mm. My Sony Nex-7 is fairly easily attached to it via a Rube Goldberg combination of adapters. The Sony works well on the Questar because the camera is light and its resolution matches that of the telescope fairly well. Here’s a leaf shot with the Questar. Depth of focus at this focal length is paper thin. Note the funky bokeh (the out of focus portions of the image) – this is a common issue with folded optics which have central mirrors partially blocking the exit pupil.

Leaf
Leaf

Here’s the Questar set up to take the above image taken with my iPhone.

Questar
Questar

Here’s the new boat, re-cropped to exclude Roger. With Roger in it it was a snapshot. Excluding Roger and moving to a square (almost) format leaves a composition of circles and angles and to my eyes makes the picture more important.

Roger's gone

On this day last year: Outside the Forbidden City.

South gate of the Forbidden City
South gate of the Forbidden City
Categories
Recreation

Friday April 20, 2012

NEW MILFORD CONNECTICUT – Over the past two years I have occasionally included on these pages pictures of a 1954 Chris Craft that I own with a friend (neither of us get enough use out of it to justify sole ownership). It was having some reliability problems so we have traded it for a new old boat, another Chris Craft. I drove up here this afternoon to check the new boat out with Roger, our friend who restores Chris Crafts. Feels like a silly indulgence, but Maria told me this evening that a very close friend has been diagnosed with breast cancer (which appears to have been treated successfully) so repeat after me: “carpe diem, carpe diem, carpe diem . . .” Images taken with my Sony Nex-7 and 24mm Summilux lens.

Here a corner of Roger’s shop. I got dozens of images like these today. Where to start? Do a project on shops?

Roger's shop
Roger's shop

The boat’s engine looks great.

Marine engine
Marine engine

More boat. I’m going to try a crop of this to exclude Roger (I often crop to square format – probably as a result of my long experience with a Rollei 2.8 F and Hasselblad film cameras). I’ll post it tomorrow.

Chris Craft
Chris Craft

On this day last year: Hongqiau Airport. A travel day between Shanghai and Beijing.

Hongqiao Airport
Hongqiao Airport
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