Midtown Rush

It was the Friday before the Super Bowl when I snapped this shot heading toward Times Square. The sign drawing fans to Super Bowl Boulevard looms large on a billboard above Dave & Busters. Manhattan bustles as expected throughout the day. Cabs, work vehicles and the M42 are the only vehicles on the road and everyone is off to somewhere. In contrast, I stood oddly in the street, protected by a red light, snapping pictures of all the commotion. Of course, no one cares. It’s New York, it makes you feel small, unimportant. It demands that you show and announce yourself; I was hiding behind my camera, invisible.

The most memorable event this weekend, of course was when the Seattle Seahawks (my hometown team) destroyed the Broncos. They beat them up and down the field, in every single aspect of the game. They were totally dominant. They announced themselves to New York, New Jersey, to the United States. A team of underdogs, all with something to prove, and to prove collectively.

That season-culminating event now over, everyone is back to doing it for themselves, staking out a corner of this monstrosity of an island.

Nikon D800, AF-S Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED
@ 62mm, f/6.3, 1/160s, ISO 200

 

Ice Skating in Bryant Park

 

On Christmas Eve it only seems right to post a photograph of something Christmassy. Despite the fact that I took this photo around Thanksgiving, it captures the holiday spirit quite well. here, in the center of Manhattan, an urban oasis of ice-skating to bring out families, friends, couples and non-couples to partake in one of the best pastimes we have.

The reason I think ice skating is great is because of that constant freckle of fear, that persistent worry that at any moment, you might do something wrong, lose your balance and put your butt-bone straight into the ice. Ouch! For me, this bit of excitement makes it fun, despite looking and feeling like a fool. It’s something I’ll never be great at, but that rush you get gliding at high speed across the ice, gearing for impact with the wall is always a thrill!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Nikon D800, Tokina 11-16mm, f/2.8 AT-X
@ 11mm, f/6.3, 1/80s, ISO 800

Taxis Stuck in Times Square

 

After a long afternoon wandering around the city and getting some great photos with this wide-angle lens, I walked into Times Square, where I was scheduled to meet a friend. The day had entailed a slow self-guided photo tour of Bryant Park, its ice-skating rink and Christmas shops, then a nice saunter on down to Grand Central Station, before doing a 180 and heading right back to Times Square.

As a wandered around, looking for some of those quintessential touristy shots, jam-packed with taxis, people and bright lights, I came across this scene. Traffic was completely stopped at rush hour and these old friends decided to chop it up to kill the time, which wasn’t going to pass quickly.

Nikon D800, Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 AT-X
@ 11mm, f/6.3, 1/60s, ISO 800

View of Downtown Manhattan

A friend of mine just bought his first apartment in NYC. This particular panorama was taken from the rooftop of his new building, apparently the tallest building in his neighborhood. He’s clearly a lucky guy.  It was a windy, 25 degree day, so I tried not to rush through processing the shot, but it was tough to feel the buttons on my D800. At the end of the day, I’m happy with how it came out. The lighting was about an hour from being perfect, but I was able to get some nice clouds to liven up the sky. I love a clear, crisp winter day.

The original image came out to be 120″ x 30″ and took about an hour to fuse from the Camera Raw-adjusted NEFs. I considered eliminating the parallax which creates the pincushion-like effect in the image but I decided to keep it, as it guides the eye in an intriguing way.

Grand Central Bustle