- Joined
- Jan 16, 2006
- Messages
- 5,903
My job had me down by Westchester a couple weeks ago for the whole week (one of the many reasons that I haven't had much of a chance to get on here lately!), and I took the opportunity to visit one of my favorite places, New York City, a couple of the nights I was there. (There was a train station less than a mile from our hotel, with a 60-minute ride, which really isn't all that bad.) I hadn't been for probably 10-12 years or so, since I took my then-girlfriend-now-wife for her first visit, when I had no money but I managed to get us a room at the Waldorf. 
The first night was the Sunday I arrived; unfortunately traffic on the way there slowed me down an hour or two, plus I started later than planned, so by the time I arrived, it was getting somewhat late. Funnily enough, NYC on a Sunday night is, photography-wise, not unlike Disney - there are tourists (and locals) taking photos everywhere, DSLRs all over the place, etc. I was trying to keep a pretty light package, I mainly used my 16-50mm F2.8 (in no small part due to the weathersealing) as well as a bit of fisheye. Here's your view as you get off the train in Grand Central.
The main lobby of Grand Central.
A lonely bicycle against the motion of the cabs... (don't be fooled, the bikes often move faster than the cars!)
NYC is a city of textures... which I tried to capture a little bit of in this shot.
I found the World of Disney store (the only one outside WDW and DL), which I knew would be closed, but I didn't know if I would have a chance to come back another night. (I did, that'll be in the second day's photos.) It is apparently closing next year, so this would probably be my only chance to see it.
I like the reflections of the cabs here.
I found an Aston Martin DB9 on one of the streets; for my money, one of the most beautiful cars built in modern times.
The Trump Tower is still a draw for tourists.
Some trees were blown over in front of the Ferrari/Maserati dealer.
Speaking of Ferrari... here's the California...
How about a $100 tube of pencils?
This one is kind of interesting on a technical level... the WB was screwy on this; to get it right for the statues meant turning the background completely blue. Since there was no blue in the foreground, what I did was, in Lightroom, knock the saturation level of just blue down to almost nothing; in effect, turning the blue area into black & white. Not perfect, but much better than the original.
I hopped on a subway to the East Village and tracked down one of my favorite burger joints in the world, Paul's Da Burger Joint. This may not look like much, but it's a half-pound of pure beefy heaven.
(That white stuff is mayo, BTW.)
The blue in the sky is lightning... this was another time that I was grateful to have weathersealing. (I seem to be catching a lot of rain when I want to take photos!)
I headed back uptown and wandered over to Times Square.
The Paramount Building, home of touristy restaurants like Hard Rock Cafe and Bubba Gump.
A recruiting station for New York's finest.
The beautiful Chrysler Tower as seen over Grand Central.
Getting ready to hop on the train back to the hotel.
While walking around, I happened to see a Crumb's bakery and decided to pick up one of their famous cupcakes, a Key Lime one to be specific. Here is decadence at F1.2.
I headed back two nights later and was able to catch a few more stores open, including the World of Disney. More shots soon...
The first night was the Sunday I arrived; unfortunately traffic on the way there slowed me down an hour or two, plus I started later than planned, so by the time I arrived, it was getting somewhat late. Funnily enough, NYC on a Sunday night is, photography-wise, not unlike Disney - there are tourists (and locals) taking photos everywhere, DSLRs all over the place, etc. I was trying to keep a pretty light package, I mainly used my 16-50mm F2.8 (in no small part due to the weathersealing) as well as a bit of fisheye. Here's your view as you get off the train in Grand Central.
The main lobby of Grand Central.
A lonely bicycle against the motion of the cabs... (don't be fooled, the bikes often move faster than the cars!)
NYC is a city of textures... which I tried to capture a little bit of in this shot.
I found the World of Disney store (the only one outside WDW and DL), which I knew would be closed, but I didn't know if I would have a chance to come back another night. (I did, that'll be in the second day's photos.) It is apparently closing next year, so this would probably be my only chance to see it.
I like the reflections of the cabs here.
I found an Aston Martin DB9 on one of the streets; for my money, one of the most beautiful cars built in modern times.
The Trump Tower is still a draw for tourists.
Some trees were blown over in front of the Ferrari/Maserati dealer.
Speaking of Ferrari... here's the California...
How about a $100 tube of pencils?
This one is kind of interesting on a technical level... the WB was screwy on this; to get it right for the statues meant turning the background completely blue. Since there was no blue in the foreground, what I did was, in Lightroom, knock the saturation level of just blue down to almost nothing; in effect, turning the blue area into black & white. Not perfect, but much better than the original.
I hopped on a subway to the East Village and tracked down one of my favorite burger joints in the world, Paul's Da Burger Joint. This may not look like much, but it's a half-pound of pure beefy heaven.
(That white stuff is mayo, BTW.)
The blue in the sky is lightning... this was another time that I was grateful to have weathersealing. (I seem to be catching a lot of rain when I want to take photos!)
I headed back uptown and wandered over to Times Square.
The Paramount Building, home of touristy restaurants like Hard Rock Cafe and Bubba Gump.
A recruiting station for New York's finest.
The beautiful Chrysler Tower as seen over Grand Central.
Getting ready to hop on the train back to the hotel.
While walking around, I happened to see a Crumb's bakery and decided to pick up one of their famous cupcakes, a Key Lime one to be specific. Here is decadence at F1.2.
I headed back two nights later and was able to catch a few more stores open, including the World of Disney. More shots soon...
Love the textures and Times Sq shots. I'm overdue for a trip.
You can usually tell which was used by the exif - 105mm is not a choice for manual lenses (when entering focal length for image stabilization), so the Nikkor photos are coded as 100mm.
