NEW YORK NEW YORK – A busy week with a trip to Boston for meetings, and work preparing for the trip. I did manage to walk our dog, Basil, and caught this dog’s eye view with my Leica M9 and a 24mm Summilux lens.
On this day last year: Airport in Mustique.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – Another session trying to optimize the performa of my Hasselblad digital back on my Alpa TC technical camera. I shot the fireplace in our living room fussing with varius settings. I’ve included a crop to give an idea of what the image looks like printed large. The glass is mostly Venini
On this day one year ago: Macaroni Beach Mustique.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – I had tea today with Peggy Anderson who told my about her interest in the International Center for Photography. Otherwise a pedestrian day of preparing for meetings being held next week.
On this day one year ago: Party on Mustique.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – Some days I go out to photographs a specific project (often after having scouted it); other days I try to meet my phot0-a-day by carrying a camera as I go about my other business. This was one of the latter kind of days. The risk of course is that I don’t see anything of interest, never get in the moment visually, and have to settle for an image that’s only ok or worse.
This, by the way, is my 608th daily post, without having missed a day.
Today the James Beard Foundation had an event for members at Lincoln, Jonathan Benno’s fabulous restaurant at Lincoln Center. This was was with my Panasonic GH2 and a 20mm pancake lens.
On this day one year ago: Citicorp Center.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – I’m spending a lot of time trying to get my Hasselblad back to produce acceptable images in my Alpa Max. Hasselblad claims, accurately, that their “closed” system creates a high level of integration between the camera, lenses, the digital back and software. The system produces sensational images but Hasselblad is evidently not committed to doing the work to make their digital back work on a “technical” camera, like the Alpa Max. Most Hasselblad shooters don’t care about this – technical cameras are of primary interest to landscape and architectural shooters, people who want the highest performance wide angle lenses and those want to create immense high resolution images with a technique called “planar stitching”. It turns out that a technical camera like the Alpa Max (and its little brother the Alpa TC) fit my style and interests perfectly.
Putting a digital back on a tech camera general results in undesirable color shifts across the frame, which within limits can be corrected by software. The Hasselblad files also show a line down the center of the image ( a phenomenon called “centerfolding”) when the lens is shifted relative to the back on the tech camera. I spent most of the day shooting out my window trying to find the limits to this issue and looking for a solution. Here’s the view from my dining room window – it’s a two frame planar stitch. I’ve cropped the sky out because that’s where the centerfolding issue is most evident. Not a distinguished photograph but this view out my window is very useful for testing lenses, backs and techniques.
On this day one year ago: Portrait at Martha McPhee’s party.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – More icons. A twofer. The Flatiron Building in the foreground and Empire State in the background. Shot with my Panasonic GH2.
On this day one year ago: Woody stumbles into a catalogue shoot.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – A walk around in Manhattan with my Panasonic GH2.
On this day one year ago: My favorite architectural icon.
