Sunday December 26, 2010

WARREN CONNECTICUT – The leading edge of the Boxing Day blizzard. We stocked up on food in the morning on the theory that the blizzard would leave us snow bound for a couple of days, which turned out to be the case. Here’s an image from the early hours of the storm, taken with my Hasselblad H4D-60 and a tilt shift adapter that permits view camera-like movements, that I’ve used here to enhance the shallow depth of field. The image is in color but the weather froze the color out of the landscape.

Blizzard
Blizzard

On this day one year ago: San Miguel de Allende.

Shipping

Saturday December 25, 2010 Christmas Day

WARREN, CONNECTICUT – So on Christmas Day I abandoned exotic gear and manual settings. I set my Panasonic GF1 in idiot mode, with face recognition focus and the flash turned on. Guess what. This really works for family events where you want snapshots without fail. I’ve put some of them up on my facebook page. These pages are supposed to be about serious photography. But in any event here’s Maria, evidently pleased by her Christmas present.

Maria and her new Emilio
Maria and her new Emilio

Once year ago today: Christmas prickly pear, San Miguel de Allende.

Prickly pear

Friday December 24, 2010 Christmas Eve

WARREN CONNECTICUT – We’re spending the Christmas holiday in Connecticut. We haven’t done this for a while – last year we took our family to San Miguel de Allende for the Holidays (as you will see from the “on this day last year” photos). I caught this view of our daughter, Francesca, trimming our Christmas tree. Leica M9 and a 35mm Summilux II lens.

Francesca trimming a tree
Francesca trimming a tree

One year ago on this date: Monarch butterfly migration. I’m taking the liberty of reproducing this one at full blog size – it’s one of my favorite images since I’ve started this project.

Monarch butterflies

Wednesday December 22, 2010

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – I carried my Leica around as I went about Holiday preparations. I stopped at a costume rental place on West 38th Street to pick out costumes for a New Year’s Eve party. Here is a portion of a wall of photographs, sent to the shop by clients, showing their costumes. Of course I had the Walker Evans image Walker Evans Studio in mind.

Costumes
Costumes

On this day one year ago: Dolores Hildago, Mexico.

Christmas greetings from the Cathedral at Dolores Hidalgo

Tuesday December 21, 2010 revised

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – I’ve revised this post (on January 5, 2011). The red lobster images originally posted was actually taken on December 23. I’ve included a copy of it for the record. The real post is from my office with my Leica M9 and a 35mm Summilux II lens:

AT&T Building
AT&T Building

Herels the original red lobster, which really belongs to December 22.

Lobster on 7th Avenue
Lobster on 7th Avenue

On this day one year ago: Fountain – San Miguel de Allende

San Miguel de Allende

Monday December 20, 2010

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – We had a casual dinner at home in the kitchen with two friends of long standing, Bill and Bunny Beekman. Here’s Bunny Captured with my Leica M9 and the 35mm Summilux II lens, my new favorite lens on this camera.

Bunny Beekman
Bunny Beekman

The out of focus portions of the image are particularly interesting. I shot Bunny at f/2.8, where the lens has the creamy out of focus character typical of the pre-aspheric Leica lenses; wide open at f/1.4 it has a more edgy character typical of the current generation of highly corrected fast lenses. The following is an example. In effect this is two lenses in one – how it draws the out of focus portions depends on f stop.

Brick Presbyterian Church
Brick Presbyterian Church

On this date last year: Gallery in San Miguel.

Statue
Statue San Miguel