HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Well, the Christmas break was nice and quiet.

The kids were great. Like two little angels in their school Christmas Pageant.




The day after Christmas -- Mikey learned how to shoot with his Daisy BB rifle. Rica on her new bike.

We went to see "Night at the Museum." The day after, a day trip to NYC, to the Museum of Natural History. It seems a lot of other families had the same idea. Good for the Museum.



Walked around Central Park, winding up at Rockefeller Center to see the tree. It is beautiful at night. The line for ice skating was, oh, three hours long. The kids agreed to a raincheck, which they did friday back in Connecticut.

Oh, and the boy learned to ride a bike.


Not a high-tech toy in sight this Christmas, well, except for Daddy's video ipod.

It is close to midnight, and the champagne (and apple juice) is waiting to be toasted. Goodbye to 2006. May we all have a blessed and peaceful New Year!

The Classic Look

There must be quite a few ways to achieve the old-fashioned classic look you see in black and white portraits from the 50's. Personally, the most fun and authentic way is to use classic equipment.

This was taken with an uncoated Leica Summar 50mm lens from 1934. A leica medium yellow filter was used. The camera was a 1950's vintage Leica IIIF. Shot wide-open, the Summar is known to give a soft, dreamy rendering.



The film and process are equally important. I used Kodak Plus-X rated at EI 64, plus one stop for the filter. This was souped in HC-110, pulled by 25% less on the developing time. The negative was a little too thin for my taste. I will try 10-15% next time.

In Memoriam

An Old Family Holiday Recipe

There are certain things that transport you back in time to Christmases long ago, to family gatherings of your childhood. Nothing does that better than an old family Christmas recipe. This one I learned from my mother, who in turn learned it from my grandmother, and so on. An old Spanish dish which we prepare for the holidays. Here is our old family recipe for Callos. If you are not squeamish.

Ingredients: *

*quantities are as found in a U.S. grocery

2 packs ox tripe
2 packs ham hock
1 can or pack chorizo de bilbao, diced. Substitute other chorizo (not as good) if you cannot find this, but DO NOT do without.
2 cans garbanzos. Discard liquid.
2 cans tomato sauce or 1 small can tomato paste
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced

Place tripes and ham hocks in large pot, with enough water to cover. Boil in low to med heat until soft, when ham hock meat is beginning to fall off the bone. Strain and save stock.

Remove ham hock meat from bone and cut into approx 1/4 to 1/2 inch cubes. Slice tripes thin, about 1 inch long by 1/4 inch stips.

In a new pot, saute garlic and onion in olive oil. Add red pepper.

Add tripes and ham hock, tomato sauce. Add in enough stock to cover meat. Salt and pepper.

Boil in low heat until the tripes are soft. I mean melt-in-your mouth buttery soft. If you press a stip against the side of the pot with a fork, it should cut easily without having to jerk the fork back and forth. This is crucial. Tripes are not good chewy.

Add chorizo, garbanzos and cook another 5-10 minutes.

Salt and pepper to taste. I usually add one bullion cube (in place of the salt), and a dash of tabasco.

By this time, the callos stew should be thick. If you want it thicker, add a little bit of corn starch or toasted flour if you prefer, and sprinkle a little olive oil on top. You can add your choice of herbs, but we have always prepared it as is.

Best (for me) served in a soup bowl with your choice of bread. In fact, I will go heat myself up some leftover right now. Enjoy!

770: Willy Ronis: Photographs 1926-1995

I enjoy Willy Ronis' photographs - warm, honest, unstaged. This is the first comprehensive collection of his work, published in english by the Oxford Museum of Modern Art.

770: Crosstown

One of my favorites. THE retrospective of Helen Levitt's long career, with amazing street photographs of Manhattan, full of tiny little details that you discover each time you crack the pages. Beautifully produced. It is very quickly getting expensive.

770: Inferno

This is the largest and heaviest book I own.

In the same way DDD's book, "War Without Heroes," is about the soldiers' at war, "Inferno" shows us the ravages of war. The hell that is war, especially for the civilians in these war-torn places. This opus was taken over a 20 year span, by the greatest war photographer of our time.

770: War Without Heroes

The first and only edition of DDD's book on the Vietnam war. Some say the best book of the Vietnam war. Beautifully made, with rich gravure reproductions.

“This book is simply an effort to show what a man endures when his country decides to go to war, with or without his personal agreement on the righteousness of the cause . . . In their own eyes, they were participating in everyday events while serving in a foreign land where their country was at war . . . a war without heroes.”
— David Douglas Duncan

770: Koudelka

Here's a nice pair of Koudelka books. The first gives a broad range of Koudelka's work, including his early work in the theater, to the Prague 1968 events, as well as photos from his books Gypsies, Exiles and Chaos. A small book, published by Torst, the reproduction quality is nonetheless above average, especially for an inexpensive book. The size is perfect for reading on the plane or train. A good introduction to the work of the famous Czech-born photographer.







Josef Koudelka's latest book, shot entirely in panoramic format. The book is definitely for larger coffee tables. The reproduction is excellent, with beautiful deep rich tones. Judging from the prices of Koudelka's past books, buy this while you can. Photo courtesy of digital journalist.

770: Andre Kertesz His Life and Work

The most comprehensive retrospective of the Hungarian-born photographer. Another big book, with 335 duotone and 15 color photographs.

For me, this is a must-have. The original publication was in 1994. I could not resist grabbing the last remaindered copy of the 2000 reprint by Bulfinch in paperback for a $7 and change.

World Travel Map

Here's a cool way to keep track of your travels. I have travelled to 26 countries, 11% of the countries in the world as of today.




We plan to see 10 new countries in 2007. Morocco in March, and cruise along the Baltic Sea in September.




create your own visited country map

770: Robert Doisneau: a photographer's life

The first authorized autobiography of the French photographer, this large book is his only comprehensive monograph. This is the 1st edition, published in 1995, and recently went out of print. Doisneau is one of my favorite photographers.

770: Paris by Night

1987 Pantheon reprint of Brassai's Paris de Nuit from 1933. The reproductions are beautiful, in heliogravure, as was the original. A must for anyone interested in night photography, this book is becoming collectible. I was lucky to find one in excellent condition from a book dealer in Michigan (gotta love the internet) for only $25. It was listed with the wrong title! Photo courtesy of ebay.

770: Japan

When someone asks "How do I improve my photography?" the answer that is surely soon to follow is to "Shoot, shoot, shoot." While that may be true, I think that looking at photographs is equally valuable in enhancing one's craft.

Just as there is so much misinformation on the internet, you must also be discriminating in the photos you look at and try to learn from. Especially when browsing galleries and yes, photoblogs. At least in print form, there is some kind of editing process, that what you see in books and magazines have gone through some critical sifting.

I thought I would start a series of posts highlighting any new or favorite books in my modest and evolving photography book library. Not really meant to be reviews, but rather a few lines about why it is in my modest collection. Not recommendations by all means. We all have our own tastes. Just books that I enjoy.

770? In case you haven't figured it out yet, that's the Dewey Decimal Classification number for Photography and Photographs. I figure that in the future, it would similarly help search for these blog entries.






Possibly the most beautiful book of photos I have ever seen. Enough said. The printing is exquisite. The binding, and even the folio, are first-rate.

The photos I take are mostly of people. But I think there is something to be said about turning away from society and focusing on the beauty of nature.

Not AA's grand vistas. More simple. Moody. Serene. Not an epic. More a haiku.

Poifect

My wife bought our 7 year-old son, Mikey, a cheap film camera for our last vacation. He loses things, you see. Boy, did he have a blast. He took a close up photo of his "eyeball." He took pictures of his new friends on the cruise. He crept up behind me and shot "daddy's butt."

And after each shot he would exclaim, "poifect!"

Some were blurred. Many were unsharp, due to the camera's lens. But boy, his smile was ear-to-ear when he got the prints off his 3 rolls.

Monochrome Landscapes

Canopy of the Costa Rican rainforest.
This was shot suspended by cable just above the canopy, 160 ft high.

I don't shoot much landscape. Maybe it is because of this month's issues of Lens Work and B&W Photography, but I found myself experimenting with landscapes in mono. And liking it.

Landscapes always looked nicer (to me) in medium or large format. It never looked right in 35mm. And boring in color. For some reason, landscapes shot digitally look closer to MF. Look at the current issue of Lens Work if you don't believe me. And notice as well that close to half of the images in the issue were shot with digital. Unheard of just a year ago.

Here are my humble efforts. I think I will be giving this more thought.

Rainforest

Bromeliad

Rock formations, Aruba

Queue of ships waiting to cross from the Pacific, Panama.

Broccoli tree

Purely Digital

For the first time, I went traveling with not a single roll of film. Or film camera. The recent cruise was completely digital.

Why? I thought it was what I needed.

I anticipated I would be shooting a lot of:

Action - especially with the kids along.

the Beach - so I wanted a superwide, and a polarizer.

Landscape, maybe wildlife (not something I like doing). I also knew I would be shooting a lot FROM the ship, while going through the Panama Canal. So I wanted to have a longer lens with me.

I have to say, the D50 was convenient to use. I must have taken more than 400 shots, and have edited to about 45 or so. I will probably be printing 5 or 6.

Of course every nikon shooter on the ship had a D200 with kit lens. A couple asked me what I was shooting. "This is just a D50. I am only a beginner."

One elderly man was nice though. He also shot with an old Nikon SP.




The Sigma 30/1.4 (45mm equivalent) was nice.








One drawback of digital or electronic vs manual is when it started to rain in Panama City. I was just waiting for the smoke to come from the D50. On the other hand, I do not think I would have shot in the rain with my leica.



Well, it held up its own. Otherwise I would have needed to get a D200. Oh well.



The Tokina 12-24/4 (18-36mm equivalent) was a blast as well.



With the squinty D50 finder, less than 100% VF, and the superwide lens, you may miss things in the corners, especially in less-than-bright light. This would NOT have happened with a rangefinder. The shot below is not bad, but still, you must agree that the couple in the lower right corner would have made the photo. If I had actually SEEN them in the viewfinder!





The decision to bring the heavy Nikkor 80-200/2.8 (120-300 equivalent) paid off in the Panama Canal and on the aerial tram in Costa Rica. It worked out perfectly for my back too, since I did not have to lug that animal around for much. The lens truly is stellar.






You can even see the outline of the tugboat pilot!




The GRD was handy for keeping in my pocket around the ship at all times. It was also my only back-up.



The novel thing was, all my editing was done a few days after coming back home. None of the usual processing delay or expense. The long hours of scanning and removing dust spots.

Our next trip will be to Morocco. I still think I will just bring an M body and couple of small lenses. It will be a land trip so weight and bulk are important. And I expect mostly people shots while walking the streets for hours.

Or I could do with the GRD...

Cruise Log

MS Amsterdam

Guests: 1,380
Crew: 590

Commander: Capt. Dirk van den Berg
Cruise Director: Jill Tasker
Guest Relations Manager: Grace Zerna
Executive Chef: Peter Kolfer
Dining Room Manager: Iman Sugondo
Our La Fontaine Waiter: Oka
Our La Fontaine Wine Steward: Romy
Cabin Steward: DB

Panama Sunfarer Cruise
November 9-19, 2006

Day 1: Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Day 2: Half Moon Cay, Bahamas
Day 3: At Sea
Day 4: Oranjestad, Aruba
Day 5: Willemstad, Curacao
Day 6: At Sea
Day 7: Panama Canal, Panama
Day 8: Puerto Limon, Costa Rica
Day 9: At Sea
Day 10: At Sea
Day 11: Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Oka and our Baked Alaska

The holiday was great. The cruise itinerary was very relaxing, less hectic than the european cruises we had done. Best of all, the kids had a blast. Read Rica's blog entry for a first hand report!

The Amsterdam had an impressive facility for kids, called Club HAL, with activities for the children to keep them busy and active. What I did not expect was the way the crew took to our children. Many of them knew rica and miguel by name. They helped them carry their trays at the buffet line. The guy at the poolside grill would already have the burger and fries plated when he saw mikey coming. The kitchen would specially prepare anything they wanted outside of the menu during the sit-down dinners. DB, our cabin steward, even made the kids a different surprise animal with towels and chocolates every evening when he turned down the beds.

And all of them would then tell us of their own stories. How each of them had little children of their own left back home, and how they have not seen for many months. See, these guys work for 6-12 months straight. I mean 12 hour days, 7 days a week. Then they get to go home for 2-3 months, until they sign up aboard again.

Where is home? The Holland America ships are manned by a handful of Dutch officers. Of the rest of the crew, half is from Indonesia, and the other half, from the Philippines.

Well, back to the cruise. The obvious highlight is the passage through the Panama Canal. I enjoyed the ride across to the Pacific side to Panama City as well. But personally, my favorite was Costa Rica. Specifically, the one-hour cable car (6-person open "gondolas") ride along the canopy of the lush rainforest. Suspended 160 feet above the floor of the jungle, the sights and sounds are breathtaking. A once-in-a-lifetime experience. I had only imagined this ever since I saw, as a biology major in college, Sean Connery's movie "Medicine Man," where he played a botanist who discovered the cure for cancer while hanging from bungee cords high up in the Brazilian rainforest.

Enough talk. Click HERE for a flickr slideshow of the cruise highlights. Enjoy!

Lunch with the Skinheads

I grabbed a quick lunch in the hospital breakroom today. On the same table were four nurses that I knew and worked with. They were engrossed in some conversation about Bush and the Republicans. Somehow, in between bites of my horrible, microwaved frozen panini, the conversation turned to the war in Iraq. Then to the Middle East in general.

My nose was buried in a newspaper when one of them declared that she had been taking a Western Civ course recently, and decried how middle easterners were all "uncivilized barbaric fur traders who never evolved." I almost choked. More so when the other three pitched in their approval.

"And which middle eastern country did you visit that you came back with such an impression?" I wanted to say. "Uncivilized? You are talking about people who were reading, writing, and counting (ever heard the term hindu-arabic numerals?) a thousand years ago, when your ancestors in europe were still eating uncooked meat with their bare hands," I buried my nose deeper in the newspaper to keep from blurting. Maybe she was referring to their poverty, and the consequences of it. But one really ought to differentiate being poor from being uncivilized. Heck, they were soaking everyday in turkish baths back in the day of your louse-infested forebears.

Then the conversation shifted to bashing the Islamic religion in general.

Soon, probably because of unfamiliarity with Islam beyond watching Chuck Norris movies, the direction swerved back closer to home. "I was at a minimart the other day, and an elderly hispanic lady kept pointing at something and talking in spanish. The sales clerk shouted at her, in front of everyone there - "Speak English!!" Why cant these people learn english? Why do we have signs in both english and spanish? My grandparents learned english when they came here."

I had been successful at holding my tongue until she pointed to me and said, "like him, he had to learn english when he came here." I said, "I knew perfectly well how to speak english UNTIL I came here. Funny, I have not seen store clerks scream at little old italian women who cant speak english. Have you?"

There was a bewildered look in their eyes, then I guess they decided to target their attack at some racial group that they could be certain I could not be part of.

When they started with the anti-semitism, I stood up and left.

Frankly, I would not have been surprised to hear that banter in a barbershop, but among healthcare PROFESSIONALS? That may sound naive, but sorry, I have a hard time envisioning Florence Nightingale in a white hood rather than a white cap.

I had always thought that knowledge and education were the antidote, as it were, to bigotry and racism. I guess I was mistaken. Anyone is capable of hate.

Shooting Colors

Two Saturdays ago, I met up with Peter, Ralph and Chris BEFORE SUNRISE for the RFF New England Chapter autumn shooting drive. The previous day's storm clouds had given way to a bright, crisp New England fall morning. Ralph had planned the route, and we drove along scenic CT-49.








I had never shot fall colors with a rangefinder before, and it was certainly a welcome change. It was also my first with slide film. These were taken with Velvia 100.

Looking at the slides through a loupe, I was completely blown away. Scans with the KM Scan Dual IV were disappointing, and now I am starting to doubt whether I am fully realizing the potential of the lenses with scanning or even having prints made by the lab. The results I have gotten for b&w - scans, cn-41 lab prints, and wet prints I have done myself (I admit, I have not tried b&w slides yet) - I think are fairly comparable. But color?