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Archive for April, 2014

New York City – Day 3…

by on Apr.29, 2014, under Life, Photography

Day 3 in New York saw us head down town to Soho for a morning shopathon (family of four girls remember!…) and we also wandered the streets of nearby Little Italy and Chinatown before heading towards lower Manhattan and the end of the peninsula

Note: These images (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

Rainbows

Rainbows

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 36 mm, 1/100 sec at f/5.6, ISO 100

Little Italy

Little Italy

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm, 1/100 sec at f/5.6, ISO 100

One thing we noticed in New York is that people with dogs are everywhere, back Home I’m used to seeing lots of people walking their dogs in the suburbs and parks but not in what is effectively the CBD of the city. The sidewalks everywhere are literally stained with the doggy litter. I guess it’s because so many people live in apartments on Manhattan island

Streets of Soho

Streets of Soho

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 32 mm, 1/500 sec at f/2.8, ISO 100

We eventually made our way down to City Hall where there’s a whole set of massive old stone buildings

Monolith

Monolith

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm, 1/320 sec at f/5.6, ISO 100

We caught the subway down to Bowling Green (Battery Park) and made our way to the Staten Island Ferry terminal and took the free ferry across to Staten Island. It was a good opportunity for us to see the Statue of Liberty up reasonably close as we passed by in both directions (we’d decided not to visit the statue and avoid the multi hour queues)

Lady Liberty

Lady Liberty

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm, 1/800 sec at f/6.3, ISO 200

Then it was off back to midtown so the girls could continue their shopping expedition at Macy’s and other stores

Subway

Subway

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm, 1/25 sec at f/2.8, ISO 200

Meanwhile I went for a wander in the local streets

Empire

Empire

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 34 mm, 1/500 sec at f/8, ISO 100

New Yorker

New Yorker

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm, 1/500 sec at f/8, ISO 100

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New York – Manhattan Skyline…

by on Apr.27, 2014, under Life, Photography

I’d seen a couple images of this location online with the Manhattan skyline at sunset with these fantastic poles out in the water providing this perfect foreground interest leading out to the city skyline. Ever since I knew I was heading to New York I knew I’d have to shoot here and capture it for myself

Poles Apart

Poles Apart

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 20 mm, 170 sec at f/9, ISO 200

I’d seen a couple quick guides to shooting here but the most helpful was a post by Matt Kloskowski because it told me exactly which subway to catch and which station to get off at to get here 🙂

As I was staying in upper Manhattan I caught the MTA green line (4/5/6) train down to Fulton St station and changed to the blue line (A/C) train and headed under the East River to Brooklyn and got out at the High St station. It was then just a short walk down to Brooklyn Bridge Park and along the Promenade to the southern end where the poles were

There were already a number of photographers out with their tripods when I arrived but there was plenty of space and surprisingly most of them left just after sunset and didn’t hang around for it to get really good during twilight

I had a couple things I wanted for my visit here

– first the best time to shoot here coincides with sunset and more so twilight afterwards (so we can get colour in the sky as well as having the lights of the building on display)
– secondly I wanted it to be near high tide – I’d seen a number of shots where the poles were very exposed (low tide) and I much preferred the look when just the tips were sticking out of the water – for me this meant I had to visit this location early in my stay in NYC – the tides were just getting lower at sunset as the days went on
– thirdly I wanted lights on in the city buildings so I had an interesting cityscape rather than just silhouetted buildings – actually this was my biggest concern since I was down here on a Sunday evening and I figured a weekday with office workers working late would have been a better time for this – as it turned out I needn’t have been concerned
– I wanted a long exposure look to the water with it smoothed out and glassy – this would be easy after sunset but before sunset I’d be using ND filters to lengthen the exposures
– some epic colour at sunset wouldn’t go astray – couldn’t really predict that but the cloud cover when I headed out from our apartment at least looked viable

Based on some previous location images I’d seen I’d essentially pre-visualised the particular spots I wanted to shoot here so once I’d arrived just before sunset I quickly setup and set to work

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

Heading into sunset we started getting some nice rich colour in the sky with reds and pinks rippling through the whispy clouds. As you can see there’s no lights on in the buildings as yet

This one a Lee BigStopper (10 stop ND) blue around 7:15PM and almost 20 minutes before sunset

Manhattan Blue

Manhattan Blue

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 23 mm, 257 sec at f/9, ISO 200

I wasn’t expecting to be able to get the nice sunset sky and the building lights in a single frame so I’d taken a number of frames at various exposure times with the same composition for over half an hour (7:45PM to 8:20PM) with the idea that I could blend two exposures (one for the great sunset sky and water and one for the buildings lit up at night). In the end I havn’t bothered and have just processed some of the individual frames

The image at the top “Poles Apart” was the last frame of this sequence (8:23PM) (about 50 minutes after sunset) and the image below was taken right after sunset (7:40PM). The colour in the sky was shaping up very nicely – this one just using a CPL and a grad to hold down the sky and we’ve now started getting lights on in the office buildings

Manhattan Sunset

Manhattan Sunset

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 21 mm, 63 sec at f/16, ISO 50

and then strangely most of the other photographers left before the real show started. I was probably only going to ever get to shoot here this once so I was going to make the most of it and stayed till the bitter end of twilight and didn’t leave till after 9PM

Whisps over Manhattan

Whisps over Manhattan

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 20 mm, 62.00 sec at f/11, ISO 100

About thirty minutes after sunset and I’m still using a grad to hold down the sky (and the building lights now)

Manhattan Poles

Manhattan Poles

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 20 mm, 62.00 sec at f/9, ISO 100

It was now getting pretty dark so I decided to try a couple more compositions before I left – I moved over to the left to shoot straight down this twin line of poles

End of the Line

End of the Line

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 22 mm, 247.00 sec at f/9, ISO 200

and then over towards the far right with the taller poles sticking out of the water and a tighter view of the Manhattan skyline

Standing Tall

Standing Tall

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 26 mm, 309.00 sec at f/10, ISO 200

All in all I was very happy with the result of my evenings outing – it’s a fantastic location and I felt confident I’d come away with some good shots

I was wondering how safe it was going to be wandering the streets and subway system of New York alone late at night – it was almost 10AM before I caught the subway back, but there were still people everywhere – Brooklyn Bridge Park was still a hive of activity and the trains whilst not packed were still reasonably full even at this late hour on a Sunday night

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New York – Brooklyn Bridge…

by on Apr.25, 2014, under Life, Photography

Having read a couple online guides to places to shoot whilst in New York – this spot at Brooklyn Bridge Park with views of both the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges came up frequently

So I headed out one late afternoon to shoot sunset at this location (actually my main focus was to shoot the nearby poles with the Manhattan skyline behind during twilight but that’s coming soon :))

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

There was a little colour in the sky heading towards sunset but it was mostly overcast so I pulled out the BigStopper for some long exposure work

Brooklyn Bridge

Brooklyn Bridge

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 19 mm, 216 sec at f/8, ISO 100

If I’d had time I would have shot a long exposure panorama with a longer focal length, but as it was only around 40 minutes till sunset I was super keen to head around to the nearby location to shoot the poles at sunset so I made do with this regular pano

Manhattan 2 Brooklyn

Manhattan 2 Brooklyn

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 26 mm, 1/20 sec at f/11, ISO 100

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New York City – Day 2…

by on Apr.24, 2014, under Life, Photography

Having recovered a little from the time zone whack and the sleep deprivation the whole family did a little exploring of downtown Manhattan today. We took a bus ride through the park and across to near Lincoln Square where we headed out on foot to explore (and shop – I am in a family of four girls after all)

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

96th Street

96th Street

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 36 mm, 1/40 sec at f/4, ISO 1100

The view out of the Time Warner Centre looking out over Columbus Circle down 59th street and over the park

Columbus Circle

Columbus Circle

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 34 mm, 1/125 sec at f/8, ISO 100

Circled

Circled

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm, 1/80 sec at f/8, ISO 560

The architecture in the city is awesome – a photographers dream – and I could have spent weeks here just photographing the insides and outsides of the various buildings here

Red Light

Red Light

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm, 1/125 sec at f/2.8, ISO 100

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New York – Central Park Pano…

by on Apr.22, 2014, under Life, Photography

I’d read a couple pages online on suggested places to photography whilst in New York City and this spot in the north east corner of Central Park (near the intersection of 5th Avenue and 59th Street) came up. This rock platform just inside the park provides a nice view of a little of the park with a nice pond (called The Pond), an arched stone bridge and the city skyline of the upper west side of Manhattan as the backdrop

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

This panorama taken handheld composed of seven vertical frames taken with the 24-70 at 24mm

Central Park Pano

Central Park Pano

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm, 1/125 sec at f/10, ISO 100

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