This interview is part of a series in which Olaf Willoughby talks with Leica Meet members about their photographic projects, their stories, goals and learnings along the way. Here, Olaf meets Ed S. Goldberg, an internist and gastroenterologist with a fascination for New York City at night, which he shoots without a tripod.
Q: To start can you give me an overview of your project, its title and its main theme?
A: I live in New York City and I take pictures everywhere I go. The big project is New York City, a section of which (featured here) is called “New York City Night.”
Q: And how does that theme develop as a story throughout the project?
A: The story starts a few years ago, and is inspired by a trip to Paris where I spent the whole of a week walking, everywhere, anywhere. I’ve lived in New York City since 1991. I now realize that before that trip to Paris, I was a lazy New Yorker, driving most places for transportation. (As a medical doctor, my license plate allows me to park rather easily). After the Paris trip I was committed to walking as much as possible in New York. I live on West 60th Street, my office is directly across the south end of Central Park on East 60th Street. Come rain, sleet or snow, I walk home every night. It is on these walks through Central Park that the night project began. It started simply as Central Park at night and grew, more generally, into “New York City Night.” When I lived in NYC in the early ’90s I don’t think I would have taken my evening constitutional walk home through Central Park as casually as I do now but the park, and all of the city, has become much safer since that time.

Q: Is the project purely for yourself or do you have a commercial or cause related end in mind?
A: I take pictures mostly for myself, as a challenge to find the beauty and surprise in everything I see. Photography informs the way I relate to the world. I produced one book on Blurb, but I did not have any dreams of large scale sales. However, recently I was able to apply my passion for photography to my medical practice with the creation of a new website, using my photographs of New York City throughout.
Q: What Leica equipment do you use and how is it particularly suited to the needs of this project?
A: I am lucky enough to use a Leica M with three lenses: a 35 mm f/1.4 Summilux, a 50 mm f/0.95 Noctilux, and a 90 mm f/2.0 Summicron. I mostly shoot with the 35 and 50 mm lenses. The Noctilux often lives up to its name for use in the nocturnal hours.
Q: What photographic choices have you made: color palette, composition, use of flash, tripod, etc.
A: I started out with an X1 and I now shoot a Leica M. For these nighttime photos I depend on longer exposures and higher ISOs. I find that with the M I can push the ISO up to about 1000, slightly higher under certain conditions but rarely above 2000 for anything useful. One of the more challenging issues with shooting New York City at night is the contrast ratio between the dark shadows and the bright (often times flared) highlights. For my ideal nighttime settings, I look for darkness with indirect light that provides enough contrast while avoiding direct, bright lights … and I don’t find my ideal nighttime settings often.
I work in both color and black-and-white. My camera is usually set to capture both RAW images and JPEGs which I set to black-and-white. This setting is useful for two reasons. Firstly, the ability to see the image in both formats when I’m reviewing my photos in Lightroom. Secondly, I find it easier to use the screen on the back of the camera in black-and-white, rather than color, to assess exposure. While I like both and despite the fact that all the images featured here are in color, I’m usually happier with a great black-and-white image than I am with a great color image. It’s just a matter of personal preference.

Q: What’s your vision for the project and how will you judge if you’ve been successful?
A: Although I do feel that my overall body of work is approaching success, it is rare that I find a specific image that makes me feel I am successful as a photographer. Each session of shooting, teaches me something I use in the next shoot. I will never stop learning when it comes to creating an idealized version of what I am seeing, which makes me a successful student, but not necessarily a successful photographer.
Q: Did any particular person or body of work influence or inspire you?
A: I would like to think that I was influenced to love photography and to be a photographer by revisiting the work of certain, particular photographers. Among my favorites are Sebastião Salgado, Gilles Peress, Ansel Adams, and Michael Massaia.
Q: Not all projects are smooth sailing. Have you had any setbacks and what were your learnings?
A: My biggest challenge in this project was brought to my attention during my last project entitled “New York In Four Seasons.” I made a book on Blurb only to discover that by failing to adequately use soft-proofing, the printed images in the actual book were much duller and lacking in dynamic range, in contrast to the eBook version. I haven’t yet begun the process of soft-proofing for “New York City at Night.” It’s the kind of task that’s all too easy to put off, but now I realize it really is worthwhile.

Q: Are there any technical or workflow challenges you’d like to mention?
A: There are two issues. The first one, as already mentioned, is the issue of printing images or creating a book. My workflow is to have two versions of each photo, one for use on a computer screen or hand-held device, and the other for print. Soft-proofing has become essential for me to get the printed images to look as close as possible to the images on a screen-based devices.
The other issue relates to the simple act of clicking my shutter at slow speeds. When shooting in low light in NYC I don’t use a tripod. I may sometimes prop my camera up on a rock or a fence, then, using the self-timer set to 2 seconds, I am able to get a stable photo in low light with a relatively low ISO. I have worked hard to improve my technique in shooting with slow shutter speeds and I’ve been fairly successful at improving my steadiness. This is undoubtedly helped by the way I hold the camera.
The last time I visited my wonderful Leica dealers, Tom and Bob Gramegna of Bergen County Camera in Westwood, NJ, Bob was watching me try out some lenses on my M and kept saying, “Hey, hold the camera the right way!” I’ve included a photo showing how I hold my camera (I am right handed): My thumb supports the weight from below; my middle finger controls the shutter release while my forefinger is free to control the shutter speed dial; my ring-finger and pinky wrap around the front of the camera. This is the most natural way for me and I feel that it provides much more stability and security when I’m holding the camera with one hand. I should add that my Leica style is to adorn as little as possible, or I’d consider the multi-functional hand grip with GPS, which would change everything.
I also find that deliberately steadying my body and synchronizing my breath works best for hand held long exposures.
Q: How did you come to how you came to hear of the Leica Meet?
A: I enjoy browsing various Leica pages on the web. When I saw The Leica Meet I felt that, simply by the name of the group, it would be for me. I really enjoy meeting other photographers and knowing that wherever I travel I can always find a kindred spirit and connect.
Thank you for your time, Ed!
– Leica Internet Team

 Connect with Ed on Facebook and his website.
Olaf Willoughby is a photographer, writer and researcher. He is co-founder of The Leica Meet, a Facebook page and website growing at warp speed to over 2,000 members. In June, Olaf will be co-teaching a creative photography workshop with Eileen McCarney Muldoon at Maine Media College in Rockport. If you have an intriguing project or body of work, completed or in progress, that we might feature contact Olaf at: olafwilloughby@gmail.com and www.olafwilloughby.com