Timeless Bus Rider
So I take these occasional images on the subways and even the bus, usually on the way home from work. For some reason I don't seem to do it in…
Crosswalk No. 24
I wish I had captured both of these women in equally sharp focus, but you don't usually get second chances on the street, and shallow depth-of-field is the price you…
Twenty-Twenty Vision (20 Exchange Place)
Some photography tips are technical, involving settings on your camera or post-processing software. Others involve craft, such as compositional methods. Still others involve locations. It has long been an open secret that the best time to shoot in downtown Manhattan is very early on a Sunday morning. This is true both for still shots and video – almost any advertisement or commercial that shows the Wall Street area was shot on an early Sunday morning. As the area has traditionally been completely commercial for decades, there is usually almost nobody on the streets at that time except for photographers. The last weekend in May, I woke at 4 am to do just that, and did see very few people except for other photogs, some fishermen hanging out in Battery Park, plus a few cops and private security people. That might be changing, as more buildings in the area convert to residences. Somebody walked out of this doorway about 7 seconds after I shot this bracket. This building, at 20 Exchange Place, is undergoing a restoration as parts of it are converted to residential use.
And here’s a bonus compositional tip: narrow streets with tall buildings look cool shot on a wide-angle lens in portrait (vertical) mode.
Jersey City Skyline and Manhattan City Pier A Building
This shows the Exchange Place section of the Jersey City skyline opposite lower Manhattan, shot from Battery Park. In the mid-foreground is the City Pier A building. The…
Sixth Avenue Shoe Shine 2010
In the Rockefeller Center complex, there is an underground concourse lined with various stores and restaurants. One of the tenants is a shoe repair store that also does a very…
Crosswalk No. 23
One of the first things that drew me to these crosswalk shots was that I noticed how people assemble themselves into these impromptu line-ups, as if they were cooperating…
West on 22nd Street
This shot was a throwaway. I was heading south from Madison Square to try to capture some side street character when it started to rain. I decided to stop venturing…
Stone Street Umbrellas, Morning
Stone Street in lower Manhattan is a Historic District of old buildings now populated with restaurants. As such, it is one of the few areas of extreme downtown Manhattan filled…
Vacant Lot
You do not often see a completely empty parking lot in Manhattan. Even when a lot is closed, as this one apparently was, people will take advantage of the opportunity…