NY Through the Lens - New York City Photography

New York City alley. Lower East Side.

When I was younger, I thought that New York City was teeming with alleys and narrow streets fueled by an over-active imagination and a predilection for film noir cityscapes. I wanted to believe that New York City harbored the best and brightest of in-between places and worn out spaces. The truth is that while New York City does have alleys, they are a pretty rare sight. Perhaps that is why I am so drawn to the ones that do exist.

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Autumn. New York City. Above Union Square.

On cloudy days in autumn, the trees stick out from the ground below like paintbrushes heavy with memories of the sun’s embrace.

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I love this view of Union Square Park looking towards the Empire State Building and the beautiful skyscrapers in midtown Manhattan. It’s particularly gorgeous in the autumn when the trees change color before descending gracefully to the ground.

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The Flatiron Building rising from the shadows. New York City.

Out of the shadows, the city rises proudly into the sunlight that casts its glow on the structures borne out of the aspirations and hopes of urban dreamers.

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This photo was taken with my phone and edited with Camera + and Snapseed. I am @newyorklens on Instagram (view my feed here). Check out my other phone photography posts made to this blog here. You can check out all of my mobile photography photos on Flickr here. Additionally, you can view my phone photography for sale here.

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Buy “Flatiron Building - New York City” Prints here, My mobile photography for sale here, My regular photography for sale here, email me, or ask for help.

Sunset view from the High Line. Chelsea, New York City.

In the evening when the sun slides along the buildings and shadows glide along the streets, the city lingers longingly in the last few moments of sunlit bliss as urban wanderers slow dance to the sun’s daily adagio.

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This photo was taken with my phone. I am @newyorklens on Instagram (view my feed here). Check out my other Instagram posts made to this blog here. You can check out all of my Instagram photos on Flickr here. Additionally, you can view my phone photography for sale here.

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Buy “Evening Adagio - New York City” Prints here, My mobile photography for sale here, My regular photography for sale here, email me, or ask for help.

New York by Gehry in black and white. Financial District, New York City.

This is one of my favorite ‘newer’ New York City skyscrapers. It is located in the Financial District at 8 Spruce Street. There is just something extraordinarily grandiose about New York by Gehry (designed by Frank Gehry). It’s the tallest residential skyscraper in North America currently standing at 76 stories high.

When you stand at its base, it’s as if its top scrapes delicately across the surface of the sky.

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This photo was taken with my phone. I am @newyorklens on Instagram (view my feed here). Check out my other Instagram posts made to this blog here. You can check out all of my Instagram photos on Flickr here. Additionally, you can view my phone photography for sale here.

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My mobile photography for sale here, My regular photography for sale here, email me, or ask for help.

Looking through the arches of the Municipal Building. 1 Centre Street. New York City.

We move slowly towards the light over the cobblestones that the weary feet of all those who have passed over these same paths have passed before us.

And through the archways and doors that sit in our immediate view, the city opens up like so many opportunities that sit every so slightly out of our reach.

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This photo was taken with my phone. I am @newyorklens on Instagram (view my feed here). Check out my other Instagram posts made to this blog here. You can check out all of my Instagram photos on Flickr here. Additionally, you can view my phone photography for sale here.

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Buy “Out from Shadows - Manhattan Municipal Building - New York City” Prints here, My mobile photography for sale here, My regular photography for sale here, email me, or ask for help.

Clouds over 6th Avenue. Chelsea, New York City.

The clouds billow like smoke descending from the flames of the sun over the city in the afternoon.

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This photo was taken with my phone. I am @newyorklens on Instagram (view my feed here). Check out my other Instagram posts made to this blog here. You can check out all of my Instagram photos on Flickr here. Additionally, you can view my phone photography for sale here.

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Buy “Clouds Over Chelsea - New York City” Prints here, My mobile photography for sale here, My regular photography for sale here, email me, or ask for help.

Walking across the Brooklyn Bridge in the late afternoon. New York City.

In the light of the afternoon, the city stretches out across its bridges into the promise of evening’s suggestion of night.

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This photo was taken with my phone. I am @newyorklens on Instagram (view my feed here). Check out my other Instagram posts made to this blog here. You can check out all of my Instagram photos on Flickr here. Additionally, you can view my phone photography for sale here.

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Buy “Walking Over the Brooklyn Bridge - New York City” Prints here, My mobile photography for sale here, My regular photography for sale here, email me, or ask for help.

The Chrysler Building. New York City.

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And out of the earth rose the monoliths: giant world pillars rising up to greet the sun and sky.

As the sun kissed their spires with its luminous glow, the shadows embraced the streets below.

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This photo was taken with my phone. I am @newyorklens on Instagram (view my feed here). Check out my other Instagram posts made to this blog here. You can check out all of my Instagram photos on Flickr here. Additionally, you can view my phone photography for sale here.

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View this photo larger and on black on my Google Plus page

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Buy “The Chrysler Building - New York City” Prints here, My mobile photography for sale here, My regular photography for sale here, email me, or ask for help.

The Trump World Tower in the sun. Midtown, New York City.

As the sun gently wakes the buildings from their nightly slumber, they open their glassy eyes wide to reveal the memories of last night’s dreams of open skies and limitless possibility.

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I have been waiting to hear back regarding something really, really big that I found out about last week after having a lengthy Skype meeting with someone thousands of miles away from me. This is the sort of something that I don’t think I have wished so much for in my whole life and something I really hope will happen. The anticipation of finding out has been intense and I can only hope that it pans out. Believe me, if it does, I will post about it everywhere!

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This photo was taken with my phone. I am @newyorklens on Instagram (view my feed here). Check out my other Instagram posts made to this blog here. You can check out all of my Instagram photos on Flickr here. Additionally, you can view my phone photography for sale here.

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Buy “New York City Glimmers and Reflections” Prints here, My mobile photography for sale here, My regular photography for sale here, email me, or ask for help.

Summer on the Lower East Side. New York City.

I fall in love with this city every day.

It’s the little things that build up to create an imprint: an imprint that etches itself permanently to my heart.

Certain streets transport me to different eras and even different places in the world. I turn a corner and I am suddenly transported to Paris or Prague or a multitude of places that I have never had the pleasure of exploring (yet).

And it’s these streets that make me well up with enough love to last a lifetime.

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This photo was taken with my phone. I am @newyorklens on Instagram (view my feed here). Check out my other Instagram posts made to this blog here. You can check out all of my Instagram photos on Flickr here. Additionally, you can view my phone photography for sale here.

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Buy “Summer Sun - New York City ” Prints here, My mobile photography for sale here, My regular photography for sale here, email me, or ask for help.

Summer sunlight on the Lower East Side. New York City.

It’s a gorgeous, hot summer day today. This was taken a little less than an hour ago here on the Lower East Side. The sunlight was so intense on what are some of my favorite buildings here in the neighborhood.

For everyone celebrating, have a very happy and safe Fourth of July!

This was taken with my phone. I am @newyorklens on Instagram (view my feed here). Check out my other Instagram posts made to this blog here. You can check out all of my Instagram photos on Flickr here. Additionally, you can view my phone photography for sale here.

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Buy “Summer Sunlight - Lower East Side - New York City” Prints here, My mobile photography for sale here, My regular photography for sale here, email me, or ask for help.

All summer in a moment. St. Marks Place brownstone. East Village, New York City.

One of my favorite short stories by Rad Bradbury when I was really little was one of the first I ever read by him: All Summer in a Day. It’s a story that revolves around a small group of children who live on Venus where it rains constantly and where the sun only comes out for a few hours every seven years.

I remember being struck in such a profound way with how one of the only children who remembers the sun describes the sun to the other children who have never experienced sunlight before since they are too young to have lived through their first sighting of the sun. It’s something that has stuck with me for years.

I won’t give away the ending or the rest of the plot but I was reminded of Bradbury’s story when I took this photo with my phone the other day (in a rather tongue-in-cheek way). For the last month or so the weather in New York City has been extremely temperamental. While the sun hasn’t disappeared entirely, it seems to make a grand entrance for a few moments or an hour or two before retreating behind storm clouds every day.

This photo was taken during one of the brief yet spectacular moments that the sun came out the other day. I just happened to be in front of one of my favorite facades on St. Marks Place and as the sun broke through the shadows of the trees decked out their finest summer foliage, my breath was taken away.

This is my weekly mobile photography post. I am @newyorklens on Instagram (view my feed here). Check out my other Instagram posts made to this blog here. You can check out all of my Instagram photos on Flickr here. Additionally, you can view my phone photography for sale here.

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Buy “All Summer in a Moment - Brownstone - St. Marks Place - East Village - New York City” Prints here, My mobile photography for sale here, My regular photography for sale here, email me, or ask for help.

Over East Broadway on a busy, sunny afternoon. Two Bridges. Lower East Side, New York City.

There are streets that, for me, fill in the image of New York City that exists in my mind.

I have spoken about this before in older posts. Everyone seems to have their own image of New York City that, for them, represents so much more than just the geographical spot that New York City inhabits on any sort of map.

It took me about a year of thinking about my own approach to New York City with photography and via writing to figure out what I was trying to do every time I took a photo of this city I have called home since my birth. But now I know and it has changed my own view of my surroundings.

It’s not easy to attempt to distill something as enormous a concept or location as New York City into visual and tangible emotion but that is what I try to do with every photo I feel proud enough to post, whether it is taken with my phone (like the photo in this post) or with my regular camera.

I will post a few companion photos to this one later this week (that I took with my regular camera) and expand further about what this street means to me currently.

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This is my weekly mobile photography post. I am @newyorklens on Instagram (view my feed here). You can read about my thoughts on mobile photography and Instagram here and you can check out some of my Instagram photos on Flickr here. Additionally, you can view my phone photography for sale here.

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View this photo larger and on black on my Google Plus page

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Buy ” Over East Broadway - Lower East Side - New York City” Prints here, My mobile photography for sale here, My regular photography for sale here, email me, or ask for help.

Crossing Lower Broadway. Greenwich Village, New York City.

In keeping with my promise to post a photo every week taken with my phone, here is this week’s mobile photography post. I am @newyorklens on Instagram (view my feed here). You can read about my thoughts on mobile photography and Instagram here and you can check out some of my Instagram photos on Flickr here.

As I experiment more and more with photo-editing apps for phone cameras, I find myself falling more and more in love with mobile photography. I branched out this past week and tried out Photoforge2 and VSCO and it was something of a revelation to me.

Photoforge2 has quickly become one of my core editing apps for my phone images. It has many of the same tools you would find in Photoshop and/or Lightroom and its features are staggering in their editing and creative capacities. I still also tinker around with Snapseed and Noir.

As my editing app arsenal has grown, I have found myself deeply interested in how the current crop of photo-sharing networks differ from each other. I really love Instagram. The community (or I suppose I should say ‘communities’) there is/are enthusiastic and very welcoming. I can’t remember the last time I had such a high response to things I have shared relative to the amount of people following me. People seem far more invested in the people they follow on Instagram than on other networks I have tried out so far. However, my trials are limited since I have literally only been dabbling in phone photography for a little over 3 weeks and I have only been using a few of the newer networks I have tried for 1 or 2 weeks

A few people I know via other photography communities online turned me on to the world of EyeEm (you can view my limited feed and my EyeEm account here) a few weeks ago and I have been on Streamzoo for as long as I have been on Instagram.

I came across this article last week: Is Instagram Defining, and Therefore Ruining, Mobile Photography? which made for interesting reading in light of my photo-sharing network dabbling. While I feel that some of the author’s points are a bit muddled, there are some interesting points made that could probably be applied to all networks online in terms of the democratization of all forms of photography, mobile or otherwise.

One thing that I think the author may have wrong is that there are some very vibrant, serious mobile photography communities on Instagram that are focused on the art of mobile photography. Instagram is the most popular out of all of the photo-sharing mobile networks though and with multitudes of users comes an increase in noise. I think this is where EyeEm shines for people who are interested in viewing and sharing mobile photography that transcends snapshot-status. I find the talent on EyeEm to be staggering. However, I think that the interface design (specifically for iPhones) is a bit lacking and in some cases non-intuitive. The community is also very small in comparison to a service like Instagram and it can be hard to break through and find other people to interact with.

I will continue to post to all 3 networks though for now. I find that each network has its own strengths and weaknesses. I do enjoy the random spontaneity of my Instagram feed and slipping in a cat photo (or two, or three…or ten :) ) doesn’t feel like an assault to the people following me versus on EyeEm where the level of photography is higher and I feel compelled to post more serious photos!

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Buy “New York City - Cloudy Day on Broadway” Prints here, My mobile photography for sale here, My regular photography for sale here, email me, or ask for help.