NY Through the Lens - New York City Photography

The Brooklyn Bridge. New York City.

When the clouds pull their veils back from the sky’s face after a storm, the light hits the world at such an angle that even the most rigid man-made creations glimmer like the water’s surface in the sun.

If you could distill New York City down to an essence so pure that it glimmered in such a way, it would look like this: captured, cooled, magnificent in its indistinguishable hand-woven-steel beauty.

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Buy “Distillation process - The Brooklyn Bridge - New York City” Prints here, email me, or ask for help.

The New York City skyline at sunset in silhouette under dramatic storm clouds.

Clouds, which once covered the sky like a thick, dark purple blanket open slowly to reveal the blue hues that breathe life into the day.

And as the sun’s flame dips closer to the horizon, its scintillating luster reaches up to the clouds.

For, you see, the sun only disappears temporarily to make way for the moon and stars that blush white-hot in thoughts of its splendor.

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Buy “There Is a Hole in the Clouds Where Light Shines Through - New York City Skyline at Sunset” Prints here, email me, or ask for help.

Summer on Perry Street. Greenwich Village, New York City

On summer days like this, the bright summer sun barely cuts through the branches of trees canopies that line the street while brownstones and bicycles revel in the cool shade.

Some people flee the city in the summer, preferring cooler climates free of hot cement. For me, there is nothing that comes close to summer in the city.

It’s true that often the air is held captive by the high heat and the sun scorches the pavement but when a breeze is allowed free rein to fly through the trees, something magical happens.

Streets breathe a sigh of relief and warm tones of muted sunlight cast upon buildings languishing in the shade inspire smiles of contentment.

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Buy “Summer in the City - Perry Street - Greenwich Village - New York City” Prints here, email me, or ask for help.

Soho street in bright afternoon sunlight. New York City.

In the bright afternoon light of the sun, the city squints its eyes momentarily.

Buildings emerge from their slumbering shadows and streets glisten.

It’s during this momentary squint that every sun gleam and distant figure on each sun-kissed street flicker in and out of view: urban mirages filtered through the eyes of the city.

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I just wanted to share that this past weekend for the first time ever I had a request for and sold a visual print of one of my pieces of writing to accompany a print (this poem) . I have never been so happy!

I get really excited every time I sell a print but to sell a piece of writing is something I consider really special because my words are so intrinsically linked to my photography (and vice versa). Many thanks to the wonderful customer!

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Buy “Urban Mirages - Soho Street - New York City” Prints here, email me, or ask for help.

Street art mural. Soho, New York City.

Just a small announcement that my Instacanvas store finally went live this evening! It’s basically a place to purchase my Instagram photos on canvas and thus will only ever contain the snippets of New York City that I capture with my phone. Here it is:

New York City Photography on Instacanvas

My regular photography store is still over on SmugMug where you can find my more formal photography:

New York City Photography Store

That is all! :)

I hope that everyone is having a splendid evening (or morning/afternoon depending on where you are in the world).

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View my photography for sale here, email me, or ask for help.

Above a street in the Two Bridges neighborhood. New York City.

There are areas in lower Manhattan where fragments of the city’s history have settled like fine dust, fragile and prone to the whims of time.

Around these hallowed enclaves, newer history reaches higher towards the sky and rises from the ground borne from the dust of the city’s past.

This particular spot is known as Two Bridges and sits along the East River. It borders Chinatown and the Lower East Side and has long been a dwelling spot for many different immigrant communities over the years. It sits alongside the infamous and historic Five Points area where Irish, Jewish and Italian gangs battled to the death in the mid-19th century. It is currently home to a large community of Chinese immigrants and many of the buildings are tenements dating back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

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Buy “Fragments - Overlooking Two Bridges - New York City” Prints here, email me, or ask for help.

The New York City skyline at sunset under clouds in silhouette.

I used to refer to sunsets as sun-fire.

Those first sunsets burned through my retinas into the innermost recesses of my mind.

Clouds poured over the smoldering sparks of orange like thick plumes of smoke and before the sun extinguished itself, it burned the brightest of any flame in existence.

When the sun sets over New York City, it’s as if a thousand flames dance across the sky, leaving embers scattered across the skyline in the wake of it’s burning: like a fevered dream scattering its remnants across the mind before the deepest of slumbers.

I used to refer to sunsets as sun-fire.

I still do.

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Buy “Sun Fire - The New York City Sunline in Silhouette at Sunset” Prints here, email me, or ask for help.

Skyscrapers. Financial District, New York City.

When I was very young, I remember learning about vast mountain ranges that existed in what seemed like universes beyond New York City. I would regale myself with images of these towering feats of nature trying to imagine what it was like to come in contact with such powerful natural wonders. I used to think to myself “There is nothing like this here in the city, all we have are buildings.”

It wasn’t until my teens when I lived in New Mexico for a little over a year and more specifically when I got to experience the majesty of Taos that I was able to understand how infinitely small everything seems in comparison to the vastness of the world.

And yet, while I was in school there in Albuquerque, other students would ask me daily to tell them what it was like to live amongst buildings that soared to the sky.

It never occurred to me before that time that the man-made feats of architecture that I viewed on a regular basis were for these students what the images of mountain ranges were to me before I had the experience of seeing mountains with my own eyes.

When I moved back to New York City, I carried that new knowledge with me like a precious gift, tucking it away for safe-keeping.

And it wasn’t until I discovered photography, that I took that knowledge out from where I tucked it away for many years and started to view my own city with new eyes.

There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t recall the time when I realized that New York City is its own man-made land of enchantment.

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Buy “Enchantment - Skyscrapers - Financial District - New York City” Prints here, email me, or ask for help.

Afternoon sunlight on fire escapes. Greenwich Village, New York City.

The afternoon yawns with its mouth full of sunlight before it slips into the shadows of evening.

Fire escapes catch the sun’s gleam: staircases for dreamers propelling dreams skyward.

And the trees bow graciously in the lingering glow of sweet sunlight: courteous hosts beckoning wanderers to bask in the shared glow and warmth of the city.

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Buy “Afternoon Sunlight on a Greenwich Village Street - New York City” Prints here, email me, or ask for help.

Late afternoon in Little Italy, New York City.

I haven’t forgotten about my promise to post one phone photography image a week! This was taken yesterday in Little Italy during some of my adventures. Little Italy is a small area in downtown Manhattan. Currently inhabiting a tiny section of Mulberry Street between Broome and Canal Streets the area recalls a rich history of immigration. Many original tenements still line the streets and what is left of the area emanates a tremendous amount of history.

I am @newyorklens on Instagram. You can read about my thoughts on mobile photography and Instagram here and you can check out some of my Instagram photos here. Most of my phone photos are now processed in Snapseed and/or Noir first and then tinkered with in Instagram depending on my mood.

I am still on the fence about how I feel when I see photos posted to Instagram that aren’t taken with a phone. I see more and more dSLR (and other) camera photos in my stream there and it is a bit jarring. I prefer to stick to posting photos of New York City to Instagram taken only with my iPhone 4s because it’s my own personal challenge to translate what I am seeing with only my phone camera and the few phone camera editing apps I use on my phone. I feel like I have all sorts of other sites to post my regular New York City photography to and the spirit of Instagram seems to be primarily for mobile photography (in my own mind anyway). I am sure my feelings on this may change over time but for now, I am all about using Instagram as an outlet purely for phone photography.

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View my photography for sale here, email me, or ask for help.

Chinatown on a rainy evening. New York City.

I used to imagine that I could stop time in tiny increments by blinking my eyes. Each blink had the potential to open up an entirely new narrative and universe. It wasn’t until I fell in love with photography that I realized that every photo also opens up an entirely new narrative and universe of possibility.

On evenings when rain washes over the city each moment becomes a solitary frame broken ever so slightly by the movement of umbrellas, the blink of an eye and the click of a camera.

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If you didn’t see my initial contest entry post for the current Artists Wanted photography contest, you can still help me out by going to my contest entry page and clicking collect me

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Buy “The Gleam in the Eye of the Clouds - Chinatown - New York City” Prints here, email me, or ask for help.

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Photography found me a few years ago and I found, in turn, that photography and writing are two of my biggest passions in this world. Nothing makes me happier than the process of sharing that beauty and diversity with the rest of the world.

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Spring tulips on the West Side Highway. Chelsea, New York City.

The world opens up in the spring drenching itself in new warmth: heady intoxicating warmth that bubbles up beneath the surface for months before rushing out and over the parched earth.

And as the sun washes away all of the fear that has been buried beneath winter layers, petals open up one by one yawning delicately into the light of a thousand sparks of promise and hope.

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Buy “New Hope Springs Forth - Chelsea - New York City” Posters and Prints here, email me, or ask for help.

Tree-lined Upper East Side street in Winter. New York City

Summer slumbers deeply. Tree limbs stripped bare remain vulnerable to the sky’s attempts to stir them from their dreaming state.

It’s when the sky caresses and seduces the earth with its snowy proclamations of love that the earth transforms into a somnambulist navigating the boundary between sleep and dreaming: dreaming its dreaming self awake slowly.

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Buy “Summer’s Dormant Dream - Winter- New York City” Posters and Prints here, email me, or ask for help.