Wednesday March 27, 2013

NEW YORK NEW YORK – A new camera. I’m shooting today with a new Leica, the Leica M, which is the successor to the M9. It’s one of the few in the country at this point. (I sold my M9 a few months back in anticipation of this.) The changes from the M9 are incremental but important. The shutter release is smoother and quieter – very similar to the Leica M3 which set the standard for smooth and discrete. It has better high ISO performance and is weather sealed. It’s a joy to shoot with.

I found my self in Foley Square this afternoon to attend the investiture of a former partner, Lorna Schofield, as a Federal district court judge in the Southern District of New York. A moving ceremony, but I couldn’t photograph it because cameras are not permitted in the courthouse. Outside, in the rain, I found this behind the New York Supreme Court building at 60 Center Street: a statue (evidently of justice) carrying a shield emblazoned with the seal of the State of New York. It’s an odd figure. Her face and posture signal defeat and depression. This is probably why she’s been placed on a little-used walkway behind the courthouse.

Justice
Justice

On this day last year: Mottled light in early Spring. This is an image from Central Park which was in full bloom on March 27 of last year. This suggests that Spring is more than a little bit late this year – it was cold today and there’s not a sign of a bloom anywhere.

Mottled light
Mottled light

Friday March 22, 2013

NEW YORK NEW YORK – A landscape day. Brilliant early Spring light reinforce’s the city’s three dimensionality. Here’s the back of a newsstand taken with my Leica Monochrom and 21mm Super Elmar M lens. The idea was to express visual clutter but not chaos.

Lottery
Lottery

On this day last year: High Line. Shot with my Alpna and Phase One 80 meg. back.

On the High Line
On the High Line

Thursday March 21, 2013

NEW YORK NEW YORK – I saw a potential image at Lexington and 51st Street that reminded me of second picture from Boston that I posted on March 13. I snapped it with my Leica Monochrom and 18mm Super elmar lens. It’s less successful than the Boston image at least in part because the light is less interesting. As I’ve said many times before on these pages: “It’s the light, dummy.” I was also able to get closer in Boston. That always works, doesn’t it.

Lexington and 51st
Lexington and 51st

On this day last year: Fresh.

Lexington Avenue
Lexington Avenue

Wednesday March 20, 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.

Clutter
Clutter
Candles
Candles

On this day last year: Leaving town.

Leaving town
Leaving town

Monday March 18, 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).

Snowfall
Snowfall

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

Fog
Fog

Thursday March 14, 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.

municipal asphalt plant
municipal asphalt plant

On this day last year: 4:30 AM.

4:30 AM
4:30 AM