WARREN CONNECTICUT – You may have noticed that its been a while since I posted an urban image here. That’s because we came up to Connecticut on December 24, 2014; we’re staying here through January 4. This is what my life would look like if we moved to Connecticut full time. Note the prominence of local Congregational meeting houses. This part of Connecticut really is New England, and these structures dominate town greens.
Day 1,901 of one photo every day for the rest of my life.
Hopkins VineyardWarren Congregational Meeting House
On this day two years ago (day 1,170): Litchfield. Three frames stitched, using a vintage 1954 Dual Range Summicron lens.
WARREN CONNECTICUT – Here we are in Holiday recovery mode – making concentration on the visual present tense difficult. So . . . here are some backlit ornamental grasses.
Day 1,898 of one photo every day for the rest of my life.
Yawn
On this day two years ago (day 1,168): Night blizzard. One of my favorite images from the past five plus years.
WARREN and BANTAM CONNECTICUT – Christmas Eve. The process that I’ve adopted for this project presents a real challenge around holidays. In the course of my one picture every day project I generally shoot the equivalent of a roll of film a day. So over a 365 day year I end up with 10,000 to 11,000 images. I post about a week after each shot, which gives me a chance to edit with a bit of detachment. But as a result of the delay these posts are never breaking news. For typical landscapes, cityscapes and people this isn’t a problem, but it is with holidays. Here I am on New Years Eve (when I’m writing this) posting Christmas Eve. The solution is simply to avoid holiday themes on holidays, which makes me look Scrooge-line, which I’m not.
Anyway here are some non-Holiday images taken with my Leica M Monochrom and an 18mm Super-Elmar lens.
Day 1,896 of one photograph every day for the rest of my life.
GardenCabbage
On this day five years ago (day 70): Monarchs. This is rare color for me these days. It was taken near Tualpujahua Mexico. Here we witnessed a remarkable phenomenon: there is huge annual migration of Monarch butterflies from Canada and the Northeastern United States to this mountainous region of Mexico, about a three hour drive from Mexico City. Â The Monarchs arrive in early November, which coincides with the Day of the Dead – the pre-Spanish people resident in the area believed that Monarchs were the souls of their ancestors. Â They cluster in very high density (estimated at about 20 million butterflies per hectare) at very high altitude. Â It’s possible to visit them by driving deeply into the the mountains and riding a horse for about a half hour from a nomadic base camp. Â It’s possible to walk, but not advised because the elevation is very high, 11,200 feet (3,400 meters) and the half day one is there is too short a time to become acclimatized to the altitude. Â The Monarchs cluster quietly on every surface until the temperature goes above 50 degrees F at which point they take to the air in breathtaking density, Â The Monarchs we see in Connecticut take part in this migration.
WARREN CONNECITCUT – I stopped on College Farm Road today and shot stubble fields in a very light dusting of snow. College Farm Road takes its name from the fact that it passes through the Tanners’ farm; the Tanners hold the farm under a 500 year lease, dating from 1798, from Yale College. The lease is the first recorded instrument in the Warren Town Hall.
Day 1,893 of one photo every day for the rest of my life.
Terry Tanner’s fieldWoodville Road
On this day two years ago (day 1,163): Subway. This image was taken with my 1945 Carl Zeiss Sonnar f1.5 lens. More on this in a later post: reviewing this image inspired my to strap this lens onto my Monochrom again.
WARREN CONNECTICUT – We spent the better part of the daylight hours today working on Christmas decorations. I’ve included three views of our Christmas tree process. There’s a link to a video below, which I don’t know how to actually include as a video on this site.
WARREN CONNECITCUT – Have I mentioned that it’s winter here. I often shoot long on days like today – the flattened perspective appeals to me in the flat light. Here I’m using a relatively recent acquisition, a Leica M 90mm Summicron, on my Leica Monochrom camera. This lens consistently delivers outstanding results.
Day 1,886 of one picture every day for the rest of my life.
Terry Tanner’s stubble fieldLow tech political messageGas
WARREN CONNECTICUT – More snow. This weekend I’ve been shooting almost exclusively with my Leica f.95 Noctilux lens. Today I used a 1.8 neutral density filter, which provides six f-stops of darkening and permits me to shoot wide open at f.95 in the brilliant snowy landscape. This provides for a distinctive look that can’t be obtained any other way. The first image is two frames stitched.
Day 1,871 of one picture every day for the rest of my life.
