Central Park Explorations... - Rodney Campbell's Blog Rodney Campbell's Blog

Central Park Explorations…

by Rodney Campbell on May.15, 2014, under Life, Photography

Sunrise itself was looking like a bit of a bust on my early morning trip to Central Park – too much cloud cover – and the sky was just getting progressively lighter with just a touch of colour

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.

I decided to explore this end of the park (we’d not been here before) – so I headed further around the western side of the reservoir and then headed south through the park

One of the many bridges crossing the roads in Central Park (still just before sunrise)

Road to Somewhere

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 52 mm, 2 sec at f/11, ISO 100

When I got around to the southern end of the reservoir I found another of these nice arched bridges pointing pretty much towards the rising sun (behind the clouds but we were at least getting some colour with these grey skies) so I setup the tripod for some shots and tried a number of selfies

My Park Sunrise

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm, 1/2 sec at f/16, ISO 100

Central & Me

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm, 1/5 sec at f/13, ISO 100

I continued wandering for another 30 minutes and eventually stumbled upon the Bethesda Fountain, Bethesda Terrace and the Minton Tiles at Bethesda Arcade (I’ve seen this place a number of times in various movies but never knew where it actually was)

Since it was still before 7AM there were still very few people about in the park so I was able to get a number of shots with no-one else in the frames (I was back here during the day on two other occasions and it was absolutely packed with people)

Bethesda

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 26 mm, 1/10 sec at f/11, ISO 100

Bethesda Terrace Arcade was created in the 1860s as a part of the Park’s main architectural feature. A grand staircase connects the Mall to the subterranean arcade

It was conceived to be an ornate interior that would act as a distinct counterpart to the open terrace and Lake. The highlight of the arcade is the magnificent Minton Tile ceiling designed by British-born architect and designer, Jacob Wrey Mould, who also conceived of the decorative carvings throughout the Terrace

Installed in 1869, there are more than 15,000 colourful, patterned encaustic tiles, made by England’s famed Minton Tile Company. Encaustic tiles, originally created to cover floors, are made of individual coloured clays pressed and fired into the tile to form the design. Bethesda arcade is the only place in the world where these Minton tiles are used for a ceiling. The niches that flank the walls of the arcade are covered with trompe l’oeil paintings that resemble the coloured stone inlay design that was never completed

Bethesda Arcade

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 16 mm, 1/2 sec at f/11, ISO 100

and a selfie version 🙂

Bethesda Selfy

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 16 mm, 1/2 sec at f/11, ISO 100

I had to do quite a number of takes on both of these till I was standing in just the right position with my head and body framed nicely in that left arch

Minton Ceiling

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 16 mm, 1/8 sec at f/9, ISO 100

and just up those stairs is The Mall. A walkway leading to the beautiful Bethesda Terrace, the Central Park Mall runs through the middle of the Park from 66th to 72nd street. A quadruple row of American elms, it is Central Park’s most important horticultural feature, and one of the largest and last remaining stands of American Elm trees in North America. The elms form a cathedral-like canopy above the Park’s widest pedestrian pathway

Still beautiful – if only it were the dead of winter and these trees were covered in snow – I’m sure I’ve seen that somewhere before… 🙂

The Mall