NEW YORK NEW YORK – We had ten for dinner tonight. I catered it myself. The trick in this number is to minimize last-minute preparation, for example by planning on side dishes that are served at room temperature, spring veggies with a bagna cauda sauce (substituting finely chopped chorizo for the anchovies), green pea puree and a warm potato salad. The entree, a butterflied leg of lamb marinated in yogurt, was an easy last minute roast, so the only last minute cooking activity was carving the lamb. Here we are at the table taken with my Leica Monochrom and 50mm Summillux lens.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – Near the end of the busiest season of the year in my law practice. Taken on the street with my Leica Monochrom and 50mm Dual Range Summicron.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – A couple from the street today. Taken with my Leica Monochrom and 1959 Leica Dual Range Summicron. The second images is three frames stitched.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – A lot of pictures today. If you scroll down to May 17, 2013 you will see that Francesca, our daughter, graduated from law school one year ago. Well today, 368 days later, she was sworn into the New York bar. So the bar cram course, the bar exam, waiting for the results, gathering up details about her background, submitting a bunch of stuff to the character and fitness committee and getting a date to be sworn in take a year more or less. Congratulations Francesca.
After lunch I had the first session in a class at the ICP – we’ll be rephotographing iconic New York images. This is familiar territory for me starting with Mark Klett’s rephotographic survey and Douglas Levere’s rephotography of Berenice Abbott’s 1939 book, Changing New York. Abbott’s photographs are meticulously documented – many of her most famous works were done while she was employed by the Museum of the City of New York to document the City. After an hour of getting to know each other at the ICP and a half hour discussion of where to start we went down to the Flatiron Building to re-shoot Berenice Abbott’s famous 1938 image. This worked well for me because I own a print of this image – it’s in our front hall in New York.
I didn’t realize that we would be shooting so I was packing only my walk-around camera, my Leica Monochrom and a 1959 Dual-Range 50mm Summicron lens (the perfect kit to photograph Francesca earlier in the day). I needed a much wider lens for the Flatiron shot so I ended up stitching four frames. After fussing around a bit we figured out where Abbott was shooting from – it’s a traffic island now as I’m certain it was then. I’ve included a poor jpeg of Abbott’s original for comparison.
Anyway, Francesca outside of the First Department Courthouse.
Francesca outside the court
Francesca and her “Don’t mess with me, I’m a lawyer” expression.
Don’t mess with me, I’m a lawyer
My rephotographic effort of the Flatiron Building:
WARREN CONNECTICUT – This is not another cheap shot of Basil the Norfolk Terrier. It’s actually a picture of Francesca. She’s the out of focus one in the back with the top of her head cut off.
WARREN CONNECTICUT – This blog is only incidentally a diary. I’m really trying to post an aesthetically interesting picture every day. I’ve spent a lot of time looking at images on the web, an experience that’s the source my no cute pets (especially cats) and no cute kids rules. There’s another type of image that is forbidden here. I call theses photos “Aunt Alice” shots: a group of people in a line with the sun (or flash) in their faces squinting into the camera. You know . . .”That’s Aunt Alice second from the left there at Billie’s birthday last year”. I’ve completed 1.308 days of this project without, as far as I can remember, posting a single Aunt Alice shot. It may just be that I don’t have any friends or relatives worth photographing.
Well today is going to be an exception. Here is my first Aunt Alice shot – some friends of long standing facing the sunset and squinting into the camera, A Leica S with at 70mm lens.
WARREN CONNECTICUT – We drove up to Connecticut this morning. Next week is the end of the busiest season of the year in my law practice so this weekend requires some intense preparation. We also have prep work for a dinner on Saturday for two college classmates who are visiting. Once again my visual life is being crowded.
Here’s a hosta (Spring at last!) taken with my Leica S and 120mm macro lens.
Hosta
On this day last year: Francesca graduates from law school. I’ve edited this image since last year, moving Francesca to a place in the image that I prefer.
