Woody Campbell – Page 755 – 16 years of one photograph every day for the rest of my life

Friday April 13, 2012

NEW YORK NEW YORK – Hmmmm . . . Friday the 13th. I took a walk on 11th Avenue in the morning light. 11th Avenue is great for urban landscape. There are Hopperesque blocks. There’s a tenderloin vibe. This sort of thing has mostly disappeared in Manhattan. Hell’s Kitchen might as well be renamed “Dante’s Catering”. I captured a couple of images with my Alpa TC, 32mm Rodenstock and Phase One back, a setup that I use hand-held — it works like a digital Hasselblad Superwide C.

We stayed in the City – rare for a Friday night – because I and a friend hosted an “Edwardian Dinner” at the Knickerbocker Club. The image is from my iPhone – I’m in the picture (but I set it up) so there’s obviously a guest photographer.

Here’s 11th Avenue:

The Edwardians:

On this day last year: Dinner at the James Beard Foundation popup.

Thursday April 12, 2012

NEW YORK NEW YORK – I periodically go back to school on photography. It’s a great way keep to technical skills fresh, to get work critiqued and to meet new friends. Today I started a ten week class on landscape at the International Center for Photography taught by Benjamin Dimmitt, a landscape photographer who does a variety of subjects and has a particularly lovely body of work on primitive Florida. The first assignment was to shoot “out your window”, literally or figuratively, in a comfort zone, at various times and in various lights. Of course I shot out my window, something that I’ve done frequently here, at various times over a 24-hour period. You’ll be seeing more of these over the next few weeks.

So . . . I put my Alpa Max on a tripod, selected a 72 Schneider lens (the “normal” formal length for this format) and fired away. The results where ok, but the most interesting thing going on seemed to be the sky so I switched to a wide lens (the 32mm Rodenstock) to get more of it. Because of accidents of meteorology the night images came out as the most interesting.

On this day one year ago: Citcorp. I photograph the Citicorp building and its neighbors a lot: Citicorp Center images. I love their bulk and the surprising angles and reflections. It’s also convenient for me. My advice to urban landscape artists: Look up!

Wednesday April 11, 2012

NEW YORK NEW YORK (yes it’s that place again) – I took the big guy out today (my Alpa) hoping for landscape. The light was a disappointment – the camera is heavy so it’s really no fun to lug it around all day and come home empty handed. Well not quite empty. The playground near the 96th street subway stop was momentarily suffused in curtain filtered sunlight so I caught this (Alpa with Phase One IQ 180 back and 32mm Rodenstock lens).

On this day one year ago: James Beard Foundation popup restaurant.

JBF Ltd. - James Beard Foundation restaurant pop-up

Tuesday April 10, 2012

NEW YORK NEW YORK – All day meetings. I mean starting at 8:30 and ending at 6:30. These tend to be crumby photo days but once again I got lucky and captured this with my Sony Nex-7 and 24mm Leica Summilux at the subway entrance at 59th and Lexington.

On this day last year: Another good flower shot. The 24mm Summilux does its magic again.

Monday April 9, 2012

HARTSDALE AND NEW YORK NEW YORK – We went with Alexander to look at a house in Hartsdale that he and Laura are interested in buying. Remarkably I got an ok image from the trip. I’m on a roll. Sony Nex-7 and 15mm Voigtlander lens.

This from later in the day back home. Taken with my iPhone, which doesn’t handle the saturated yellows very well (or for that matter saturated reds), possibly as a result of jpeg compression. I wish Apple gave us a raw files option.

On this day one year ago: White birch. Weird. I shot a group of white birches yesterday. Maybe its an early spring thing. Or maybe there are only about 10 species of tree than can survive Litchfield County’s savage climate so the same subjects come up over and over again.

Sunday April 8, 2012

WARREN CONNECTICUT – Easter. At long last, a good picture. From a technical standpoint I’ve been operating with two left feet this weekend (really stagnating), probably because I’m the cook in the household and I’ve been distracted making sous vide brisket for the Novogrods’ Seder and smoked, roast leg of lamb for Easter dinner today. But enough whining and excuses. There was a moment this morning, right after the rising sun broke out above a low rim of clouds, when the birches looked positively radioactive. Really. Amazing. It didn’t matter where I stood or what I shot. This was done with my Sony Nex-7 and Leica 50mm Summilux lens.

On this day one year ago: In the Conservatory Garden. Pictures from gardens in the Spring usually suck. At least mine do. That wasn’t the case last year – I managers a nuanced effort on a rainy day. This shows the Leica 24mm Summilux at its best. Maybe there’s an April 8 phenomenon.

Saturday April 7, 2012

KENT CONNECTICUT – Passover and Easter are on the same weekend this year – a quite unusual event I’m told. We attended a Seder given by our friends Nancy and John Novogrod – I actually contributed a sous vide beef brisket to the occasion. The Seder was deeply affecting.

Unfortunately the photographs did not live up to the event. I was again plagued by bad technique Same camera and lens. I’ve resorted to a low resolution presentation here.

On this day last year: Street. Boring.