Tag: Manhattan

Times Square – New York City

Posted under New York

After posting several black & white images, I thought it was time for something in color. Last year I had the opportunity to visit New York City to hear my son perform at Carnegie Hall with the Ann Arbor Pioneer High School Symphony Band. It was a terrific performance and a great trip. Naturally one of the places we visited on the trip was Times Square. While definitely a touristy destination, it is also a terrific place for photography.


Atlas – Rockefeller Center

Posted under New York

I recently received a request from a potential client for an image of Atlas that they might want to use in their lobby. The customer was looking for something that would ‘pop’. I had a few shots of the Atlas statue located in Rockefeller Center and I looked them over for one or more that might meet the client’s requirements. The main problem I was having is that most of the shots I took were taken at night which limited the color palette available. When looking over my catalog, I came across this image taken earlier in 2012 that I thought might have possibilities.


Helmsley Building Clock

Posted under New York

This is a shot of the clock which sits above the Park Avenue entrance to the Grand Central Terminal area. The clock belongs to the old New York Central Building, now called the Helmsley Building. The final image was created by blending a sepia toned layer with a color layer in Photoshop, using about 75% of the sepia layer. I wanted to have just a hint of color, especially in the hands of the clock.


Grand Central Terminal

Posted under New York

Today (Feb 2, 2013), is the 100th anniversary of Grand Central Terminal in New York City. In honor of this anniversary, I present this shot of the main terminal area that I took in 2008. I wanted to capture the ‘active’ feeling of the terminal area so I chose to shoot this with a long exposure. Unfortunately I did not have a tripod (or tripod permit) so I ended up shooting this with my camera resting on the railing of one of the end stairway landings. The recorded exposure was 3.6 seconds which gave the image some nice blur, what is a bit confusing to me, however, is the repetitive feet that you see in the image. I’m not sure exactly how those were captured. Certainly people were moving so I would have expected blur, but these almost look like they were captured from a stroboscopic effect which I definitely do not remember.


Cabs in Midtown Manhattan

Posted under New York

One of the most common sights to see in New York City are the ubiquitous yellow cabs, they can convert the streets of Manhattan into a river of yellow. On a recent visit to New York I had to opportunity to wander around. I had a 28-300mm lens on my camera and with the lens racked out to 300mm I snapped this shot of group of cabs in the Midtown area. I like the compression you get out of a telephoto lens as well as the shallow depth of field and I like the look of the cabs and the repetition of their roof top signage.

For those who don’t know, the High Line in New York City is a wonderful linear park created out of an abandoned rail line. The elevated tracks that used to service the various warehouses and industries in the Meatpacking and West Chelsea neighborhoods now offer a wonderful view of New York for pedestrians. If you ever get to New York, I highly recommend spending some time visiting this park. The shot above was taken during my visit to New York this past April.


View from the High Line

Posted under Travel

The High Line is a linear park in New York City. It was created from an old elevated train line which was used to service the warehouse and meatpacking areas of Manhattan. A couple of years ago a major effort was undertaken to convert the blighted rail line into something nicer. The result is a long, narrow stretch of parkway which gives the visitor a great view of the lower West Side of Manhattan. More details can be found on the park’s web site: www.thehighline.org. My favorite part of the High Line was being able to walk amongst some great old buildings with great character. I also enjoyed the slightly elevated view of the city which is available from the park. If you get a chance to go to New York, I definitely recommend a visit.


This is a shot of Grand Central Terminal in midtown Manhattan. The image was taken at 7 am, just as the morning rush hour was getting started. I didn’t have a tripod with me (and the transit police probably would have hassled me anyway) so I just set my camera on the staircase railing. I wanted to use a relatively slow shutter speed to capture some movement, but I didn’t want everything to be blurred. I really like the fact that there is a mix of people who are blurred, and others who aren’t. This images is a toned black & white converted from a color image, but in reality the color image doesn’t look that much different.