Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images: Recently Added Galleries and Collections

Serendipity collection II (Monochromes)

th.hahn@gmail.com (Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images) — Tue, 07 May 2013 13:02:05 GMT

]]>A small collection of b/w (monochrome) photographs, taken over a considerable period of time, with very different equipment, such as Hasselblad, Nikon film and Nikon digital, the Ricoh GRD2 and Olympus.

The play with light and shadows is what makes the development of photographs in black and white so exciting.

For portraits and people shots in b/w please visit http://hahn.zenfolio.com/p193233205/ .

Thomas H. Hahn
Ithaca, NY

Moving on - Abandoned homes in upstate New York

th.hahn@gmail.com (Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images) — Mon, 06 May 2013 15:26:38 GMT

]]>Upstate New York is a rather troubled area. Geographically speaking, the term includes the following wider areas:
- Buffalo
- Rochester
- Syracuse
- Albany
- Watertown
- Utica
- Binghamton
This listing encompasses the scenic Fingerlakes Region; most of the photographs in this gallery originate from here.

With economic growth lagging well behind the national average, even in a good year, it is no surprise that upstate is deficient in a variety of ways. The region suffers severe job losses, transformation of good land to fallow land, scores of farms going out of business, abandoned homes, trailer parks that litter the (still very scenic) landscape, low industrial output, fragmented cityscapes, southward migration, the walmartization of its retail infrastructure, and so on. It's been that way for a while. A report by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York published in 1999 gives upstate low marks for economic performance even in times when the rest of the state and indeed the entire country was pulling ahead with much higher GDP numbers. There is no reason to be nostalgic, however. Upstate is a rugged place. People conduct their affairs in a straightforward manner. It is stating the obvious that New York state's most competitive asset in the global economy lies "downstream", in Manhattan. For those in charge, it would be wise - for once - to "look the other way" again and discover what upstate can contribute in the context of industrial and agricultural production.

Thomas H. Hahn
Ithaca, NY

Chinese nudes II (1950s)

th.hahn@gmail.com (Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images) — Thu, 02 May 2013 18:23:19 GMT

]]>Note: This is a continuation of my other gallery of early Chinese nudes!
This curious set of images of "late early" Chinese nudes came into my hands very recently. It dates to the late 1950s, and was sold in Japan to a member of the American military, for the steep price of $10 (inflation adjusted, this would be around $80 in today's evaluation). Originally there were ten transparancy slides in this little box (see image #10), but only nine have survived. This is the only set of this nature that I have ever come across. The posing is traditional and therefore can be seen as a continuation to my gallery of Chinese nudes from the Republican period. However, it is interesting to note that a) some slides are in fact in color, while b) there is a mix of indoor and outdoor shots. It is possible that they were taken by the same photographer, the original processing and the nature of the composition is very similar.

These transparancies are of rather cheap stock (vs, say, Kodachrome, which would have held up much better over the years), with the words "Color transparancy" printed on the individual slides' cardboard frame. Neither the slides themselves nor the little yellow box they came in provide a clue as to their provenance or maker. I do presume that these were Chinese models working in Japan at the time. It was too early for such material to be printed and commercialized in Taiwan, and the time had not come for mainland China to engage in the pursuit of the nude (that time arrived in the late 1980s). Another theory, one which would in fact be worth pursuing, is that this set was produced in Hong Kong, which might explain it's all-English labelling. On the other hand, where in Hong Kong could image #7 have been taken? In any event, the dates are rather firm, since the member of the American military alluded to above returned stateside from Japan around 1958, with this set of transparancies (and other, commercially available tourist-type snapshots) in his luggage.

The material did not age well. Each single slide required several steps of digital restoration. Short of using multiple layer masks in Photoshop, I cleaned up each transparancy to the degree I deemed producing acceptable results. This meant cloning out baked-in dust and debris, adjusting colors, masking, very slight cropping, defringing etc. The slides were scanned to TIF at 1200 DPI on my Epson 4990 scanner.

Thomas H. Hahn
Ithaca, NY

Serendipity collection 撒散图片库

th.hahn@gmail.com (Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images) — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 23:39:27 GMT

]]>A collection of chance encounters, accidents, and discoveries. A couple of these pictures are arranged ("staged"), otherwise things were left alone and just slightly recontextualized. Against usual (somewhat harried) practice, with these photographs I did pay a bit more attention to exposure and composition.

Taken in the following locations:
Norwich, upstate New York.
New York City, Battery Park.
San Francisco.
Beijing, China.
Sanya, Hainan Island, China.
Bar Harbor, Maine.
Rockland, Massachussetts.
Ithaca, upstate New York.
Paris, France.
Sergiev Posad, Russia.
Marburg, Germany.

In contrast to my other collections and galleries, this collection is not serialized or homogeneous in any way. Cameras and gear differ considerably, from medium format to digital.

Thomas H. Hahn, Ithaca, NY

Colors & flowers, from summer to fall 花的颜色

th.hahn@gmail.com (Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images) — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 22:45:46 GMT

]]>A gallery of transitional colors, from summer to fall. Photographs were mostly taken with the Fuji S5 and the Zeiss 100mm, with a couple of exceptions (Nikon D2X, Leica D-Lux 4, and Olympus 8080). The Zeiss does enormously well on the Fuji.

Processing was done in Adobe Lightroom or Capture One 4.

Thomas Hahn
Ithaca, NY
September 2009

Olympus 75 f1.8

th.hahn@gmail.com (Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images) — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 18:33:41 GMT

]]>A series of test photographs all taken with the same combination: the Olympus OM-D, and the 75 f1.8 lens. Although it is obvious that the processing is very different, the amount of detail retained (or augmented) by this particular lens in post is very impressive indeed. It is small, light weight (certainly when compared to my FF Sigma 150 f2.8), and very sharp already wide open (see the first two of this series). Color rendition is no issue with the OM-D, the lens doesn't add (such as it happens quite often with Zeiss glass, usually faforably, I should stress), nor does it subtract. It's a flat-out "transparent" lens as Ming Thein puts it, without being "just" clinical. Sharpness, contrast, color rendition, and - open wider than f3.2 - bokeh, all contribute in equal parts towards a very elegant and imminently usable end product. As far as my limited experience goes, this may just be the most accomplished prime lens for m4/3 on the market at this point.

Thomas H. Hahn
Ithaca, NY

Tianjin 2010 and beyond

th.hahn@gmail.com (Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images) — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 16:51:37 GMT

]]>A quick glance at the planners' vision, and the reality check when stepping out of the railway station.

The first five images are architectural renderings, seen (and captured) at the Tianjin Urban Planning Exhibition Hall in July 2009; the last five photographs stem from a visit in May 2010.

Thomas H. Hahn
Ihaca, NY
October 1, 2010

Encounters in Tibet 1986

th.hahn@gmail.com (Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images) — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 16:34:43 GMT

]]>While on a trip to Tibet with my good Japanese friend Susumu back in May 1986, we went to explore various areas in and around Lhasa. We used Leica and two Nikon F3, loaded with Kodachrome and Ektachrome slide film. After being stowed away for 20 years, the material has survived pretty well, with authentic color rendition and crisp detail.

Here is a gallery of more or less random photographs of Tibetans in Lhasa and other locations of central Tibet. Many of them are pilgrims or monks; others, such as in image 23, are Kampas, a tough folk hailing mostly from western Sichuan province.

Some of the photographs were published in German magazines in 1987.

Scanned and uploaded September 5, 2006.

Thomas H. Hahn, Ithaca, NY

Portraits & candids East-West (Fuji S5 & Sigma 150)

th.hahn@gmail.com (Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images) — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 16:25:02 GMT

]]>All images taken within a short time span, maybe 4 weeks, in two countries (China and the USA). The equipment is always the same: The Fujifilm S5 and the Sigma 150mm Macro. On DX this lens gives enough reach for close-ups, portraits and candid shots (as well as of course macros, which are not included here). It preserves colors accurately, doesn't add or substract, which the S5 has a tendency to, in JPG at least. Most of these files were developed in Lightroom 3 (final version) from JPGs in fact. At present I prefer the Sigma over my Zeiss 100mm Macro, mainly I suppose because of its responsive, completely silent AF operation and its farther reach. Image quality wise, the Zeiss still pulls away, but both are close enough in terms of IQ to achieve completely satisfactory (or even inspriring) results.

Thomas H. Hahn
Ithaca, NY
P.S.: I've appended two images taken with a Leica M9 and the completely stunning 75mm Summilux (Sep.24, 2011)

Urban renewal along the old Grand Canal in Wuxi

th.hahn@gmail.com (Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images) — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 01:26:42 GMT

]]>Pictures taken in early 2013 of one of the last old neighborhoods in all of China (ok, Wuxi it is in this case). It is slated for demolition, its residents will be moved to "higher ground", i.e.; non-descript but modern 20-story apartment blocks somewhere on the periphery of the city.

There are a number of interesting elements at play here in this area. An old bridge (actually, two), an old pier (the Silk pier)for canal barges; low-density housing right next to the waterway; pedestrian-friendly street grid (the roads are seldom wide enough for cars); an aging population; no designated public spaces, therefore life takes place outside the gate anyway and anywhere; old industrial heritage sites: a) related to a dense sprinkling of curious and perhaps unique Ming dynasty brick kilns (formerly about 120 of them, surviving to date - in various states of repair and decline - around 56); b) related to silk manufacturing.

Into this historically grown fabric of houses, kilns, factories and matou (piers) the present-day city elders found it wise to insert a number of tourist sites while sanitizing the canal and the neighborhood. Those tourist sites are quite successfully integrated I would argue (one a silk museum placed right off the old silk loading dock, the other a lovely little museum dedicated to the brick kiln enterprises of the area), but they don't carry the neighborhood in GDP terms. For that, it has to be knocked down completely, and rebuild as a new fake old village/neighborhood. Which means that Mr. Li (see pictures #9 and #10), and with him thousands of other long-term residents, has no choice but to move. Private boats are banned on the old canal in Wuxi, btw, which is firmly under the jurisdiction of a number of state agencies (well, it always was, but private boats made up the bulk of the local operations), the tourism board among them, which collects tourists at a matou (pier) downtown (at the Nanchan Si plaza, which needs a complete redesign in my view), and shuttles them along.

I selected this particular spot in dedicating its own gallery to it since it is a site of significance on account of the old Qingming Bridge, and on account of the various other characteristics and attractions mentioned above. All of which means that Mr. Li's fate is sealed. China is preparing an application for the Grand Canal to be listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2014 out of its Yangzhou office, and - in conjunction with the latest political slogan to create a "Beautiful China" - under-performing housing stock ("blighted neighborhoods" I guess in American Urban Renewal parlance from the 1960s) along the canal is being substituted with rather generic, high-income tourist attractions and consumer oriented canal-side streets, which, btw., for economic and other reasons, only extend half a block deep, they don't form a new grid at all, but remain as purely bi-directional corridors for the new money-spending, one-day-only masses.

References:
俞孔坚: 京杭大运河国家遗产与生态走廊 (2012/5, Beijing daxue chubanshe), pp.438-457;
无锡运河记忆 (Gu Wu xuan chubanshe, 2009/5)

Visited over four days in February 2013. Cameras used: Leica and Sony.

Thomas H. Hahn
Ithaca, NY

Samsung EX1 / Panasonic LX5 comparison

th.hahn@gmail.com (Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images) — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 16:50:36 GMT

]]>Comparison shots of the Samsung EX1 and the Panasonic LX5. These were all taken at the Shanghai expo (on the night ticket). The cameras had been purchased the day before. All shots taken in JPG format. Focal lengths will vary, as will ISO; shutter speeds and aperture values are remarkably similar among the EX1 and the LX5 in P-mode or Aperture-priority modes; metering mode was set to "pattern" on both. Flash performance varies widely as you will notice.

All files can be downloaded (mouse over upper left corner of the image, then follow the menu instructions).

Thomas H. Hahn
Ithaca, NY

C.E. Lemunyon's color prints, 1906-

th.hahn@gmail.com (Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images) — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 18:19:15 GMT

]]>A selection of Clarence Eugene Lemunyon's color(ized) work from Beijing and environs, about 1906-. C.E. Lemunyon (Chinese name: 雷尼诺恩) was born in Manchester Center, Ontario County, New York, on the 4th of July, 1860. He passed away in Peking, China, on April 21, 1929. The cause of death as determined by Dr. T. H. Chow from the Peking Union Medical College was empyema. He was buried on April 24, 1929 in the Medical College Cemetary, outside of Ch'i Hua Men. His sister, Mrs. Fred Stephenson (maiden name: Jeannette Lemunyon), of Phelps, NY, inquired about disenterring her brother's remains and reburying him on home soil, but further research is required to confirm if this - with a quoted pricetag of $761 very costly - plan was carried out.

In an affidavit (to Overcome Presumption of Expatriation, dated Feb.25, 1918) C.E. Lemunyon states that he left Great Falls, Montana (where he acted as a photographer with the Great Northern Railway) in October or November 1897; that he resided henceforth in Honolulu, Hawaii; Manila, Philippines; Vladivostok, Siberia; and that he arrived in Peking, China, on April 12th, 1906 (from Hong Kong, where he had worked as a photographer since 1902). In the same affidavit, Lemunyon states that "I am the proprietor of the Emporium, a photographic art store, on Hatamen Street, Peking." Taking other (anecdotal) evidence into consideration, it is probably a fair assumption that his main location of residency and photographic activity was Peking between 1906 and the date of his demise in 1929.

He died poor, btw., his outstanding liabilities outweighing his assets by a ratio of 10:1. Lemunyon was married to one Minnie Jaeger Lemunyon. The marriage lastet all but six months, and ended with Minnie Jaeger filing a petition for judicial separation in a Shanghai court on October 20, 1910. Mrs. Jaeger returned to Germany and passed away some years later. From what I can glimpse from the records at hand, Lemunyon remarried (the year is unclear), as the State Department's consular records from 1929 name a certain Georgiana Lemunyon, "to be the legal wife of the deceased and to be his sole devisee."

The data above constitute a rough biographical sketch of Lemunyon. He was a rather prolific photographer whose work is just beginning to be explored and appreciated. This introductory gallery may help in that endevor.

All images courtesy Mr. Norman Hodgson, CA. Additional images can be seen at http://xubaojun.blog.163.com/blog/static/17475138720127147511199/

Thomas H. Hahn
Ithaca, NY

Las Vegas - MLK Parade 2013 (b/w)

th.hahn@gmail.com (Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images) — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 04:31:13 GMT

]]>Pictures taken on Martin Luther King day in Las Vegas. The MLK parade included about 140 entries, and was an amazingly joyous and well organized event. It started around 10am, and went on until around 1pm, going up most of 4th street. Some of the troopes and performers showed wonderful skill and choreography (the Black Diamonds, to name one).

All photographs taken with the Nikon D800E and Zeiss ZF 100mm. Processing in Lightroom 4.2 with home-spun presets for this combo. Extremely conservative levels of sharpening applied (around +12), it was hardly needed.

Thomas H. Hahn
Ithaca, NY

Las Vegas Risqué (Cirque du Soleil - Zumanity)

th.hahn@gmail.com (Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images) — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 03:43:21 GMT

]]>This is what a ticket to Cirque du Soleil's Zumanity show yields (if you happen to carry a decent camera, that is).

All images taken at slow speed (1/60), I could (or should) have gone higher in ISO and consequently in speed, but, surprisingly, they came out alright, in fact some are bitingly sharp when viewed at 1:2 or 1:1.

Nikon D800E with Zeiss ZF 100mm. Processing in Lightroom 4.2 with home-brew D800E preset. No sharpening applied.

Thomas H. Hahn
IThaca, NY

Amoy - Xiamen 1880

th.hahn@gmail.com (Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images) — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 23:34:21 GMT

]]>A series of panoramic and other views of Xiamen (Amoy) in around 1880. The views include the harbor, the British and German Consulates, the Pasedag House, various western-style mansions, and a variety of peaks and scenic spots.

The photographs are attributed to the local (Gulangyu) Chinese studio by the name of Rui Sheng 瑞生 (Jui Shan) and Yi Fang 宜芳 (E-Fong), "Photographer, Portrait and Ship Painters". Nothing much is known about thiis studio except as is advertised in the paper in image 8. The images displayed in this gallery may count among the earliest of Fuzhou (Foochow) and environs. They are of high quality, attributed with fine tonality and demonstrate excellent mastery of the medium.

Thomas H. Hahn
Ithaca, NY

The colors of New Orleans (Leica M9 & RX100)

th.hahn@gmail.com (Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images) — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 00:54:38 GMT

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Shanghai scrapbook

th.hahn@gmail.com (Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images) — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 16:36:44 GMT

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Early photographs of Daoist sites and practice 道教舊影

th.hahn@gmail.com (Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images) — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 23:41:41 GMT

]]>A selection of photographs, original and published/printed, related to Daoist sites and practice. The time frame of this collection will extend backwards as far as technically and topically feasible, and forward - hopefully - into the 1970s (through the end of the Cultural Revolution, that is). For more current photographs related to Daoism, see the galleries under "(Sacred) Mountains and Sites in China".

Images such as these are difficult to trace. Outside of Hedda Morrison's photographs of Mt. Hua, with its Daoist cloisters and sword-wielding masters, and Anne Swann Goodrich's study of The Peking Temple of the Eastern Peak: the Tung-yüeh Miao in Peking and its Lore (1964) , there is very little coherent visual documentation of Daoism's late Qing and (post-)Republican era history, either published in print, or unpublished as unique mementos. To arrive at materials covering what was left of Daoist practice (or sites) during the CR is an even more fragmented undertaking. The photographs here represent these circumstances, by drawing from Perckhammer (1930), Osvald Siren (1924), Carl Kupfer (1911), Melchers (1921), Boerschmann (1906-09), John D. Zumbrum (1911-1929), etc. Added - and of considerable interest - is a unique pair of photographs of Daoist Associations (Baoji & Jinan), and a photograph of a Daoist turned filial son-in-mourning who, according to the photograph's description, did not utter a single word over the entire mourning period of three years.

Thomas H. Hahn, Ithaca, NY
Last update November 20, 2011

Dajue si 大覺寺 near Beijing 1897

th.hahn@gmail.com (Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images) — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 01:45:37 GMT

]]>This series of very rare photographs of the Dajuesi 大覺寺 on Xishan near Beijing was published in an architectural study by Heinrich Hildebrandt, the architect (Baumeister) of the German
government. The study went to print by Asher & Co. in Berlin in 1897. It was a very limited print run (maybe 100 to 200 copies?), therefore this book very seldom comes on the market. It includes eight photolithographies and four photogravures. The actual photographs were taken not by Hildebrandt, but by F. Henneberg and P. Gelpcke. I do not know anything about these photographers, it would be an interesting project to explore whether there are materials that have survived with their name on it. The photogravure process was done by Meisenbach, Riffarth and Co.

Note that the temple appears to be absolutely empty and deserted. However, image #5 points to an "Upper mansion on the south side of the temple compound", and has the curious phrase "Summer residency of the German Ambassador" in paranthesis. How it came about that a venerable Buddhist temple which dates back to the 11th century served as the summer retreat of the ambassador of a foreign nation is a mystery to me, and any or all explanations might defy a rational narrative. In any event, judging from the images presented here, the study leaves little doubt that the site was in disrepair and quite certainly a play thing of colonial forces. That German ambassador was Edmund Freiherr von Heyking, btw. (von Heyking served August 1896 to June 1899)

Today this is one of the most-visited and revered temples in the Western Hills, with thousands of pilgrims flocking to its doors during the calendar of Buddhist holidays. I wonder if they know (or would care) about the temple being used as a sort of bishu shanzhuang for German diplomats one hundred years earlier.

Thomas H. Hahn
Ithaca, NY
Uploaded Nov. 28, 2012

RX100 - Street photography in China

th.hahn@gmail.com (Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images) — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 03:19:35 GMT

]]>A selection of images taken with the RX100. I bought this little Sony in Beijing at the beginning of my China tour mid-October 2012, complementing the Leica M9 I had with me. It turned out to be an enlightened decision, as the versatility of the Sony proved to be extremely helpful. I used it most of the time in B/W mode, with Contrast and Sharpness bumped up to +1. Most shots right out of the box were completely usable, and so the images posted here "suffered" very little processing.

A couple of observations on using this camera in B/W for street photography (which is not something I usually engage in):

AF focussing is very quick to lock on, and usually very accurate.

Regarding "sharpness", there are some "soft" pictures posted here which I still consider useful and "athmospheric". The RX100 is capable of excellent sharpness, though, although it is compromised at times by build-in NR, which gives the files a rather digital look. Nothing like the M9 with a 28 or 35 Cron, but that's besides the point.

I used the regular B/W setting, as I found the "scene mode" High Contrast B/W missed out on all the mid-tones. The Leica D-Lux 4 has a dynamic B/W setting which is spot on (mostly), it was that sort of smooth "look" I was trying to recreate with the much snappier and more powerful RX100. Not all images posted here are representatives of that "smooth" look, but most are.

When using the Scene mode setting "Rich-tone BW", in-camera processing time would become disproportionately slow, although the results were mostly worthwhile. On some rare occasion, this particular mode created a wavy or bee-hive type patterned background which would require some heavy lifting in Photoshop to remove.

Most images posted were taken in A mode, although that's just a habit of mine carried over from the Leica I suppose. With F1.8 the A mode did manage to create some nice background blur, though.

The RX100 JPG files are of course not as malleable as the JPG files from, say, my A900, but they are quite tweakable. One has to be careful to expose properly as pulling shadows up after the fact can be a tricky endeavor. I mostly used center-weighted metering, as - again - this is what I am used to from the Leica. Overall, the metering choices are totally adequate and produce very accurate results (there's always user error, of course, especially with a new camera).

High ISO is a non-issue, at least until 1600. I did't use Auto ISO very often at all, but it's a feature one doesn't need to worry about in terms of IQ.

Thomas H. Hahn
Ithaca, NY
November 13, 2012

Upstate New York - Some buildings of note

th.hahn@gmail.com (Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images) — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 03:32:14 GMT

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Opus 40

th.hahn@gmail.com (Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images) — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 17:35:57 GMT

]]>This is a small selection of photographs taken at Harvey Fite's sculpture park Opus 40. Fite (1903 - 1976) was one of the co-founders of Bard College's Fine Arts Department. He purchased a decommissioned bluestone quarry between Saugerties and Woodstock in 1938, and projected to labor in it for exactly 40 years. An accident shortened this projection by 3 years. What he created over 37 years of toiling, tunneling, excavation and accummulation constitutes a "labyrinthine world of finely fitted stone, swirling stone ramps and terraces constructed around pools and trees and fountains, rising out of bedrock a half mile deep."

Fite's world was opened to the public in 1978. It includes the sculpture park, the Fite's private residence, and a (very interesting) Quarryman's Museum. It was designated the status of a National Historic Site, too.

Visited September 28, 2012, on a perfectly calm and cloudy afternoon. Cameras used: Fuji S5 and Samsung EX1. Files variously processed in LR4, PS5, and SFX2.

Thomas H. Hahn
Ithaca, NY

* Quoted from the official Opus 40 website at www.opus40.org

D800 and A900 "comparison" shots

th.hahn@gmail.com (Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images) — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 20:47:34 GMT

]]>Some test shots on the Sony A900 and the Nikon D800. I tried to keep the f-stops etc. in synch, which wasn't always possible. Lenses used:
Sony - Zeiss 16-35 f2.8
Nikon - 20mm f2.8 MF & 35-70 f2.8 (good copy!)

(It would have been nice to have the 85mm f1.4 for both systems at my disposal, but that was not feasable)

Files 3 to 14 were all converted from ARW or NEF with LR4, processing engine 2012. All values were left at zero (as is the default on P2012 in LR4), no sharpening. WB was left the way it was recorded, except on files 13 &14, where the Sony file was "lifted" to exactly match the WB and Tint values of the native Nikon NEF.

Note that 16 is a high ISO demo shots on the D800. 15 is an unaltered JPG of an acquaintance. #20 serves as a form of "color chart" for D800 color palette (not authoritatively of course).

Images 5 & 6 were underexposed on purpose by 3 stops to see what can be pulled up from the respective files in post.

Images 19 following are the ones which have undergone some type of real processing, and should be considered close to the "finished product".

Thomas H. Hahn
Ithaca, NY

The Grand Canal between Hangzhou and Tangxi (ca.1920s)

th.hahn@gmail.com (Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images) — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 21:21:18 GMT

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Hudson Waterfront Walkway (NJ side)

th.hahn@gmail.com (Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images) — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 21:04:21 GMT

]]>I was interested in exploring the in-development Hudson Waterfront Walkway, which will provide a contiguous riverfront pedestrian and bike pathway from lower Hoboken to the GW bridge. Planners say it will be ready within a year. What exists to date is impressive, if a bit sterile. Up to date info on the project can be gathered at http://www.hudsonriverwaterfront.org/ .

These are a couple of random images from about an eight mile tour I made on my bike beginning of June 2012. I mostly used the 21mm Super Elmar on the M9, but swapped it out for the 75mm Lux on occasion. Processing done in LR4, CS5 and SFX2.

Thomas H. Hahn
Ithaca, Ny

Feline business

th.hahn@gmail.com (Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images) — Tue, 29 May 2012 13:26:47 GMT

]]>Photographs of our cat, its heirs,and its slayings.

Letchworth Park and Canyon

th.hahn@gmail.com (Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images) — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 19:16:12 GMT

]]>Some images (postcard style) from Letchworth State Park in upstate New York. Called the "Grand Canyon of the East" for a reason, as the land is carved deep and steep by the Genesee River. A beautiful park, especially in the spring (a lot of young, crisp green and spritely yellow foliage that doesn't yet obstruct the view too much), and in the fall, when the leaves turn. Views are along the canyon from below AND above the bridge at the south end, and "Inspiration Point" at the north end of the main canyon. Access to the still operational railroad bridge (it's the Norfolk & Southern line I believe) is off-
limits and fenced in, but...

On a clear day, the (almost) straight axial view from I-Point south (towards the Middle and High Falls) is nothing short of stunning.

Sony A900 with Zeiss 16-35 f2.8 and Minolta Apo G 80-200 f2.8. Color images processed in LR4 with the 2012 processing engine; NIK SFX2 was used for the b/w conversions.

Thomas H. Hahn
Ithaca, NY

Beijing CCTV Tower - artistic renderings

th.hahn@gmail.com (Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images) — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 23:56:43 GMT

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John Zumbrun: Beijing street scenes, 1907 to 1929

th.hahn@gmail.com (Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images) — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 19:35:20 GMT

]]>Back in 1988, Catherine Curran Gamble wrote in her preface to a book which would publicize her late father's photographic work of China that it was quite by coincidence and accident that her family's visual heritage had just recently been rediscovered. It turns out that in his photographic endevors, Sidney Gamble, whose first visit to China falls in the year 1917, had a very skilled precursor, namely, John D. Zumbrun.

Comparing many of the images between the two, one discovers similar themes (the horse shoeing image for example, etc.). Zumbrun, of course, had already resided in Beijing long before Gamble arrived, and even longer before Hedda Morrison started to roam the streets of Beijing with her Rolleiflex. It is curious, then, that Zumbrun is virtually unknown, although his residency in Beijing covered over 20 mostly uninterrupted years (1907-1929). The reason for this deficit in our knowledge is similar to the one given in Curran Gamble's preface: his photographic oeuvre had been locked away for the better part of 70 years; the archival rediscovery process is just beginning. By way of a simple introduction, Zumbrun was the owner of the commercially very successful store "CameraCraft" in the Legation Quarters, the official photographer of many Chinese notables, and quite possibly Kodak's main distributor for northern China.

The street scenes presented here are but a small selection of his work. It goes without saying that he was technically astute, and had a gifted eye for composition. Looking at the printout of his archive which I have on my desk, it is clear that his interests were far reaching, from "the man in the street" to the worker in the cloisonnee factory (images 15 & 16) to the traditional trades and crafts as they were practiced in Beijing at the time. Zumbrun paints an extremely rich and diverse canvass of a quickly changing nation, covering parliamentary sessions, the signing of treaties, Puyi's wedding, student demonstrations, and many other critical events. It is to be hoped that with these pages his work will be made more public and recognized for what it is: the earliest and - barring further discoveries of the same nature - the most complete visual documentation of Beijing of the first quarter of the 20th century.

I am exceedingly grateful to Mr. Norman Hodgson and Mrs. Helen Olson (John Zumbrun's daughter, born and raised in Beijing) for making the original prints available. Scanned on my Epson 4990 to 800 DPI TIF, further processing (preliminary digital restoration) in Lightroom and Photoshop.

Thomas H. Hahn
Ithaca & Beijing

Bars! (Tsingtao - Shanghai, 1940)

th.hahn@gmail.com (Thomas H. Hahn Docu-Images) — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 18:41:01 GMT

]]>From a sailor's album (by the name of Harold - Harry - Carrico). Photographs taken between June 20 and August 24, 1940, in Tsingtao (Qingdao) and Shanghai. Carrico was a seaman on the SS Pike (aka Submarine 173), which used Shanghai and Tsingtao as a regular base, until the attack on Pearl Harbor in Dec. 1941, that is, when Japanese authorities closed the Tsingtao port to American warships and merchants.

Readings:
Andrew Field: Shanghai's dancing world: cabaret culture and urban politics, 1919-1954 (HK, Chinese University Press, 2001)