Woody Campbell

Wednesday March 20, 2013

Post author By Woody
Post date Tuesday March 26, 2013

NEW YORK NEW YORK – So here I am out on the street (actually a side street in the 80s on the East Side) with my Leica Monochrom trying to take a serious picture. This is with my 18mm Super Elmar lens and a yellow filter which does nice job of darkening the sky. And of course the second image is a shot around the house with my iPhone and the kitCam app, which I actually think is a better picture.

On this day last year: Leaving town.

Tags 1185 Park Avenue, New York, Upper East Side, Urban

Abstract Landscape Urban

Tuesday March 19, 2013

Post author By Woody
Post date Monday March 25, 2013

NEW YORK NEW YORK – Here’s a major difficulty that I’m having with this photo a day gig. I’m basically a landscape shooter. Cityscapes are landscapes so most of what I’m doing here in New York counts toward my landscape quota. (This is where I live; if I lived in Indio California I’d be doing sand dunes.) The problem is that landscape photography is about finding light. It’s like trout fishing. When you see great light stop what you’re doing and shoot. It actually doesn’t matter much what’s in front of the lens. When you don’t have good light the trout aren’t biting so you pack up your gear and go home.

But some days (maybe most days) sensational light doesn’t come along. If you try to force the case in dull light you get junk. Period.

So on those dull days I’ve decided to do something different. Shoot with my iPhone. Close. Real close. Or odd. Funny angles. Dark. Indoors with poor light. Push things a bit. After experimenting with dozens of camera apps I’ve finally found one that I like: kitCam. Try it. Anyway here are some kitCams from today. You’ll be seeing these whenever crap light makes landscape a challenge.

On this day last year: Las Vegas.

Tags iPhone

Landscape Urban

Monday March 18, 2013

Post author By Woody
Post date Sunday March 24, 2013

NEW YORK NEW YORK – I’ve shot the cityscape out of our dining room window thousands of times. Most often as a brick wall torture test of a lens or camera. But sometimes because the light is perfect or interesting or whatever. Today there was a lovely “Time and Again” moment when the snow muffled the sound of the city and buffed the visual edges down, simplifying the scene. This is with my Leica Monochrome and an 18mm Super Elmar M lens. The look that I’m getting with this camera reminds me of medium format film (such as the Rollei 2.8F, one of my favorite cameras ever).

On this day one year ago: foggy day. We seem to get a lot of these here.

Tags Fog, New York, Snow, Winter

Food and wine

Sunday March 17, 2013

WARREN CONNECTICUT – We had dinner at home last night with David Young, a friend of long standing who is relocating to London (which makes some sense because he’s English). We opened a couple of spectacular wines: a 2004 Cheval Blanc and a 2003 Hosanna. Cheval Blanc is a St. Emilion; St. Emilions are classified and Cheval Blanc is one of two Premier Grand Crus. Because of this it has gotten expensive – out of reach of most mortals – but I happened to have a bottle lying around. Hosanna is a Pomerol, but is adjacent to Cheval Blanc just across the border between Pomeral and St. Emilion. Christian Moueix bought the Hosanna vineyard in 1999 (it was then called Château Certan-Giraud) and since then has been producing a wine similar to Cheval Blanc.

This was my first side-by-side tasting of these wines. Both are inky dark; both are powerful wines, both have tannins that are fully under control at this point; both have a wonderful rounded and complex nose and long finishes. The Cheval Blanc came out of the bottle slightly acidic and tasted unfinished. We decanted it and as the evening went on it become softer and rounder with a finish that went on forever. Both were lovely wines.

We finished up the dregs in three single malt bottles after dinner.

Here are the remains of the day photographed this morning with my medium format Leica S and 120mm macro lens.

On this day last year: Small barn.

Tags Cheval Blanc

Landscape

Saturday March 16, 2013

Post author By Woody
Post date Saturday March 23, 2013

NEW PRESTON CONNECTICUT – Spring is almost here. Spring runoff swelling the Aspetuck River. Taken with my medium format Leica S camera. Two frames stitched.

On this day last year: Dinner at the Red Rooster. Here we are taking part in Harlem Renaissance II.

Tags New Preston, Spring

Home

Friday March 15, 2013

Post author By Woody
Post date Saturday March 23, 2013

WARREN CONNECTICUT – I dragged my Leica S medium format camera up to Connecticut for the weekend. Here I’ve taken a detail from our house with Leica’s 120mm macro lens.

On this day last year: Home. Shot with my Alpa Max.

Tags Connecticut, Country House, Houses

Icon Landscape Urban

Thursday March 14, 2013

Post author By Woody
Post date Thursday March 21, 2013

NEW YORK NEW YORK – this post is dated March 14 but as is typically the case I’m actually writing this about a week later (it takes me that long to edit, upload and write a post). My web hosting service, Bluehost, had had some major service issues this week and last week (including a couple of periods of total shutdowns). They now appear to have things under control. I apologize for any bad experience that you may have had in terms of page loading times and so on.

I went out today with my Leica S and a 35mm lens. This is four frames stitched, with a lot of overlap. This is the Municipal Asphalt Plant, an architectural icon that now serves as an indoor swimming pool. As you can see it is being renovated.

On this day last year: 4:30 AM.

Tags Manhattan, New York, Sculpture, Upper East Side