Here in New York the city is all but shut down as we wait the arrival of hurricane Sandy.  All public transportation is stopped and the bridges and tunnels are closed.  There isn't much to do but stay home and photograph raindrops on the windows.

This was taken up close with a 60mm macro on a Nikon D600.  I used the lens wide open to throw the background buildings completely out of focus.

As darkness approached the city lights began to come on giving a nice contrast in color between the warm glow of the city lights and the blue cast of the storm.

I had a little experimental fun with this one.  I attached a 60mm Leica R macro lens to the Fuji X-Pro1 using an adapter I found on Ebay.

For this dusk shot I stopped the lens down a bit to help define the background silhouette.

I took these photos today with the Sony RS100 while I was tooling around Manhattan on my bike.

More information and further images are available by following this link to my new blog:  ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHY.

This is a 1932 Leica Standard camera with an accessory carrying case that held the camera, collapsible lens, rangefinder, and two rolls of 35mm film.  It is the first Leica model with interchangeable lenses.

For more images and description of this camera, click here to visit my other blog: ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHY.

This stock image was photographed under available light on a Nikon D800 and 85mm tilt-shift lens.

The same scene was shot as a stock video on a Nikon D4:

I found this leaf on the street and photographed it for a book I am doing on found hearts.  This is a case where I happened to have the Sony RX100 handy in my pocket, and I was able to grab this shot.

Today in the studio we photographed a series of seasonal stills representing October and Halloween.

...and we were shooting video at the same time:

There was a dense fog in the harbor of lower Manhattan when this ferry boat was coming into the dock. Fortunately I had the Sony RX100 with me and was able to access it quickly enough to capture this one image.  I particularly like the very muted color palette.  It almost appears to be monochrome except for the very subtle yellow light on the lamp post.

I took this photo in Times Square today.  I wanted the people to blur and silhouette against the lit up flag so I used a shutter speed of 1/10 second on a Nikon D600 with a 24-120mm zoom.

A fog was lifting early this morning in lower Manhattan.  The clouds swirled around the new World Trade Center as they were lit by the rising sun.  I was riding my bicycle in the area and picked up several variations of the scene with the Sony RX100 camera.

The technical details on these images is provided on my other blog accessible by clicking here: ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHY.

 

Two different technical treatments of a similar concept.  For details on how each shot was taken, visit my other blog by clicking here: ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHY.

In this scene the background is sharp and the moving man is blurred.

Here I froze the man and blurred the background.  Both images were taken with a Nikon D4 and 70-200mm zoom.

This is a Kodak Bantam Special made around 1936.  I have a collection of important old cameras and have been photographing them using a close-up filter on a 50mm f/1.4 lens shot wide open to give a very shallow depth of field.

You can read more about the history of this camera on my other blog at: ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHY.

I found this little restored AMC Metropolitan circa 1960 parked in the garage where I keep my car and snapped a couple shots with the Sony RX100.  The softening technique was added later by running the images a few times through Alien Skin's Exposure 4 software.

More information on how these images were altered in post-processing is available on my other blog at:  ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHY.

One of my favorite stylistic devices is shooting directly into the sun, especially when I am capturing autumn images.

You will find more information on the technique used to create these images by visiting my new blog site at: ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHY.

The warm colors of October are showing up at the farmers market.

I happened to have the Sony DSC-RX100 with me when I was passing though the farmers market and was able to grab this shot of rustic apples.

The scene in the market was so full of autumn color that I then went home to pick up my Nikon D800 to take even more photos of the October produce.  For this shot I the corn at an angle so I could single out one ear and leave the rest out of focus.  I used the Nikon 70-300mm zoom wide open to blur the highlights.

A polarizing filter eliminated the glare and brought out the intensity of color in this gourd.

If you are interested in reading more about the techniques used in taking these photos, follow the link to my other blog: ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHY.

Sony's new Cyber-Shot DSC-RX100 camera may be the answer to a pro photographer's dream.

To capture the leaf and rock sharp with the background water in motion required a slow 2-second exposure.  I held a variable neutral density filter in front of the lens and dialed it until it was dark enough to gave me a reading for 2 seconds.  This photo was taken with the Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-RX100 camera pictured below.

 

This camera is the answer to the pro photographers search for a simple carry-around camera that fits easily in a pocket but provides RAW images of sufficient quality to be used professionally.  A large 1" 20.2MP sensor coupled to a Carl Zeiss zoom lens is the secret behind the quality.  To read a complete hands-on review of this camera, visit my other blog, About Photography by clicking here.

Both of these images of early morning dew drops were taken with a Nikon D800 and Sigma 50mm macro lens.

The first signs of autumn -- a few leaves turn color in a field of green.  Photographed with a Nikon D600 and 24-120mm zoom.

Sometimes you just get lucky, as when I came upon this spider web balanced within the frame of an ornate wrought iron fence and covered with an early morning dew.  I photographed it with a Leica M9 and 90mm Summicron lens set for a shallow depth of field to throw the background out of focus.

This view of the Curtis Island lighthouse in Camden, Maine was taken with a Leica M9 and 135mm Leitz APO-Telyt lens.  The panorama was put together from two images and later converted to an infrared black and white image.  The infrared technique darkened the blues in the sky and sea allowing the bright whites of the lighthouse and two schooners to stand out in high contrast.

Maine is lobster country.  This is a cell phone image of my dinner one night.

This guy was just pulled out of a lobster trap.  I photographed him with a Leica M9 and 50mm Summilux lens.

The misty day helped mute the colors in this scene of the back end of a lobster market.  I particularly liked the gulls on the roof looking out to sea for their next meal.  Taken with a Leica M9 and 90mm Summicron lens.

Here are a few more photos I did of the Portland Head Light.  These were taken on a trip to the lighthouse on a foggy day.

I used my favorite wide angle lens, the Leitz 21mm Elmarit on a Leica M9.  The extreme wide angle includes the important foreground detail of the rocky Maine coast.

This was taken at a greater distance from the lighthouse using a 135mm Leitz Apo-Telyt lens on the M9.  The long lens and distance emphasizes the fog.

I liked the juxtaposition of two forms of the birdhouse and lighthouse tower.  Taken with a 28mm Summicron lens on the Leica M9 with the focus on the birdhouse to bring out its detail.

While in Portland, I am attending a conference of The International Leica Society (LHSA).  In addition to photographing with the Leica M9 I brought along several older Leica film cameras to use.  Here are a couple of them.

This is a Leica III made in 1937.  The lens is a 2.8cm Leitz Hektor having a maximum aperture of f/6.3.  This was the extreme wide angle of its day. 

One of my favorite film cameras to use is this 1968 Leica M4 in black paint.  It has been retro-fit by Leica with a later M6 viewfinder that includes an extra viewing frame for a 28mm lens.

Another image to utilize a rainy day.  Here a schooner is seen through a rain splattered window.  Focusing on the rain leaves the schooner outlined in a soft silhouette.

An overcast day in the rain is a good time to photograph the Portland Head lighthouse.  This view from the water was taken with a Leica M9 and 21mm Elmarit lens.  The super-wide angle lens gives a greater sense of space and emphasizes the concept of the lighthouse as a lone beacon in an empty landscape.

The Old Port section of Portland, Maine is known for its cobblestone streets.  This image is lit by the night lights reflecting in the street.  Taken with a Leica M9 and 35mm Summilux lens at ISO 640.

...and this morning it was raining on the Portland cobblestones.

I am traveling today and grabbed this shot from the airplane window using my cell phone.

Remember the first time you learned to ride a bike?  You never forget.  This photo was taken with a Nikon D4 and 24-70mm zoom, and later processed with Alien Skin's Exposure 4 program to add the nostalgic technique.

New York has such a distinctive profile with the Empire State and Chrysler Buildings that even in this blurred image the city is easily recognizable.  Shot with a Nikon D4 and 200mm focal length lens.  The camera was moved up and down to create the blur at a shutter speed of 1/6 second.