NEW YORK NEW YORK – This really was a New York New York day. After morning in the office I decided to treat myself so I took the subway to Brooklyn Heights, walked around a bit, ended up in Brooklyn Bridge Park, caught a water taxi, ended up at 46th street and the Hudson River via the Statue of Liberty, walked up the extended Riverside Park to the 79th Street boat basin, and took a taxi home. All in about four hours. I love this place. Both images with my Leica S2 medium format camera and 24mm lens.
Riverside ParkRiverside Park
On this day last year: Jeans. Whatever. No one’s perfect.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – Maria took me to the theatre and dinner tonight to celebrate my birthday. This on Broadway with my Leica Monochrom. This light was interesting but I didn’t capture it and the angle is weak. The downside of one picture every day.
Broadway
On this day last year: Maria in a taxi on the way to a benefit. She’s reviewing notes for a speech.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday dear me, Happy Birthday to me.
With that out of the way we can move on to pictures. I spent the day walking around New York in lovely spring light. What better birthday present could one ask for.
All images with my Leica Monochrom and 24mm Summilux lens. The first is from the “No Limits” installation by Alexandre Arrechea on the Park Avenue islands.
Wiggly buildingCentral ParkLight on the street
On this day last year: The Ranble in Central Park. Oddly, last year on my birthday I did roughly the same think that I did this year.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – We stayed in town today (it’s pretty unusual for us not be be in Warren on a weekend) to celebrate a dear friend’s birthday. I shot folks at the party with my iPhone. Here you go:
WARREN CONNECTICUT – We haven’t been here for a while. We love Warren so I actually resent (a bit) our recent travel that has made it hard to get here. Basil the Norwich Terrier stays up here we we travel so I drove up today to fetch him. We’re actually going to be in New York this coming weekend for a vey close friend’s Birthday.
I’ve got a Leica lens from the 1950s called a Dual Range Summicron. The DR is an iconic lens that has produced thousands of iconic images in the hands of the most famous photographers of its era. It has two focusing ranges, near and far, and an eyeglass-looking doodad that clips on to activate the close focusing range and adjust the view through the viewfinder for close focus. Very cool, except that on digital Leica Ms the DR can’t be mounted because the close focus cam on the lens doesn’t fit through the opening in the camera body. The solution (which I’ve adopted) is to send the lens to a machine shop to have the close focus cam machined off. It then fits a digital M but in the close focus range the lens lo longer links with the rangefinder so the close focus feature really can’t be used.
Enter the new Leica M, a rangefinder camera that also permits focusing through the lens with an “electronic viewfinder” attachment. I strapped the DR on the the M, set the lens to close focus range and fired up the electronic viewfinder and voila it worked. This brings the focus distance down to .5 meter. Here are a couple of images taken in Warren with this combination.
