NY Through the Lens - New York City Photography

New York City skyscrapers and rooftops from above. Midtown.

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This New York City skyline view was taken from the top of the Empire State Building on an absolutely gorgeous summer morning with the Sony A77. The light from the sun in the summertime is un-matched in some respects. It seems to take on a distinct golden quality as it shines through the heavy summer air that hangs languidly over the city’s rooftops.

This particular view is of the tops of the skyscrapers and buildings of midtown Manhattan facing east.

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New York City Skyline and the Chrysler Building as seen from Gantry Plaza State Park. Queens.

When clouds pull themselves over the city after sunset, the city reaches up to greet the night with stars in its eyes and a racing pulse.

And when the night reaches down to hold the city in the palm of its hands, the city’s lights spill out onto a dark sky peppering it with stars.

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There is a heady essence of myth and legend that permeates the in-between times of the day. It seems to seep out especially in the evening just after the sun has reached the horizon when the air is thick with legend. One of my favorite activities is waiting for night to fall while experiencing the deep inhale and exhale of the city. Light spills out from the buildings and pours itself onto the surface of the water and the sky while the blue of the day’s sky melts into the night’s palm.

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This was taken on a bitterly cold and windy evening at Gantry Plaza State Park in Queens with the Sony A99. The wind was whipping across the water with some ferocity and the dock was moving along with the wind gusts making even a 4 second exposure (as this is) quite a challenge. But the light and the storm clouds were magical that night and it was well worth the endless crossing of fingers hoping that the wind didn’t dance too much with the camera.

Some of the most beautiful views of the skyline are from across the East River and Queens has an impressive view of the skyline in Long Island City. When I was growing up in Queens, Long Island City was an almost entirely industrial area. It has become far more residential in recent decades and the areas that boast these views are now in high demand.

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View “New York City Skyline and the Chrysler Building - View from Queens” in my photography portfolio here, email me, or ask for help.

The New York City skyline with Financial District skyscrapers in lower Manhattan.

In the winter, there is a clarity and edge that is carried on the frigid fingers of icy air and crystallized exhales.

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I have been really getting into long exposures. There is something incredibly zen about the experience of setting up, and taking long exposures. The waiting is interesting. It forces a pause in the process. You start to be hyper-aware of the movement of clouds and light transitions. In the winter especially, it’s a commitment. The minute or so of waiting seems to encompass an eternity of thought(s).

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This is a 30 second exposure of the lower Manhattan skyline featuring the skyscrapers of the Financial District and Pier 17 taken with the Sony a99. The Freedom Tower (also known as 1 WTC or One World Trade Center), New York by Gehry, the Woolworth Building and the spire of the Municipal Building can all be seen here.

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The New York City skyline in midtown Manhattan at sunset.

Late summer and early autumn sunsets in New York City are intensely beautiful. The city seems to cling to every bit of sunlight through a haze that sleepily hangs low over the urban waterfront. This was taken near the end of a four hour long ferry ride back and forth around the East River in the late summer. There were barely any people on the ferry that day and I spent entire rides just taking note of the sun’s descent in the sky.

When this moment occurred, it was so brief and fleeting and yet so dramatic in its intensity as the sun dipped towards the midtown skyline grazing the skyscrapers that I barely even knew if I captured it properly since the waves were kicking up in the river and the boat was swaying up and down over the waves. By then, I had gotten my ‘sea legs’ and knew the exact way to stand and counter the movement with my camera in my hands.

And the sun-kissed skyline drifted away from view and descended into the twilight of evening.

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Taken with the Sony A77.

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New York City. Skyline cityscape at sunset.

There is something really extraordinary about the shift between day and night in New York City. It’s gradual and at the same time abrupt in its magnitude. The lights on the skyscrapers flicker on as the night sky pulls itself over the city while the sun is still dancing with the horizon. I love this time more than I love the moments when the sun disappears for the night.

It’s this sort of in-between time that seems to suit a city full of people who feed off the frenetic energy and constant shifts that occur on a momentary basis. New York City rarely dwells in absolutes. Its landscape and structures only seem to remain still.

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This is a 20 second long exposure taken with the Sony a99 from the highest desk on the Top of the Rock (also known as 30 Rock and the top of Rockefeller Center). The skyscrapers of midtown Manhattan sit in the foreground leading up to the Empire State Building and further in the distance sits the Freedom Tower and lower Manhattan.

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New York City skyscrapers and a bird. Midtown.

Birds have a synchronous relationship with the city.

They fly with such brazen freedom through the man-made caverns soaring above the frenetic flow of the city below.

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New York City

Growing up in Queens, a borough of New York City, I was surrounded by a general attitude of contempt and disgust regarding anything tourist related. My father who worked nights as a newspaper pressman in Manhattan hated going into Manhattan for anything other than work (his job was back-breaking) and my mother echoed the same jaded sentiment towards ‘touristy things’ in Manhattan as her other outer-borough friends. The ‘city’ (as many people still call it) was something to be proud to live in very close proximity to but anything too popular in the ‘city’ was the subject of eye-rolls.

I grew up mimicking this sentiment; a sort of ‘been there, done that’ mentality. We would only ever go to things like Times Square and the Empire State Building when relatives or friends visited and there was a silent stoicism related to showing ‘the sights’ to ‘out-of-towners’. I always found this amusing. These sights that were derided as nothing more than trite spectacles were the same sights that my parents deemed worthy to spend time taking people to when people came to visit us.

When I moved to Manhattan a decade ago, I carried this attitude with me. It wasn’t until I started taking photos that I fully opened my eyes (so to speak). Granted, I had always found beauty in the things many people passed over; architectural details on tops of buildings, the way that sunlight hit buildings at different times of the day. However, when I finally discarded the jadedness that permeated my early years I started realizing how utterly phenomenal and fascinating all those ‘touristy’ things are.

It may have taken me many years to fully grasp why people come from all over the world to gaze lovingly at sights and architectural marvels like the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building but now that I know it’s hard not to gaze at these sights with anything but wonder. There is so much to be in awe of in this spectacular city.

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This is an early morning view from the top of the Empire State Building looking out over the huge variety of skyscrapers that populate the skyline of midtown Manhattan.

Central Park stretches out in the distance with the MetLife Building and Chrysler Building to the right in this image and Bryant Park and Rockefeller Center towards the left and center. The Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge (also known as the 59th Street Bridge) is to the right of the Chrysler Building in this view and Queens can be seen to the right of the bridge disappearing into the haze.

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The New York City skyline and the Flatiron Building from above. Midtown.

From above, the Flatiron Building (in the middle of this photo) looks like a tiny little lego piece: one piece in a set of thousands that make up all the toy buildings in midtown Manhattan.

Still going through the hundreds of photos I took a few weeks back from the top of the Empire State Building. It was such a beautiful day and the sun created the most beautiful shadows that lined the streets below. Hopefully, in a few weeks I will start posting my regular photography from that day but for now here is a phone photo. :)

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I am @newyorklens on Instagram (view my feed here). Check out my other phone photography posts made to this blog, and my mobile photography photos on Flickr.

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Looking out over the skyscrapers of New York City skyline in Midtown.

Driven by an imagination stirred by visions Batman flying through Gotham, I used to have vivid dreams when I was younger of flying through the skyscrapers that are part of the midtown Manhattan skyline.

This cluster of skyscrapers is one of my favorites. These buildings seem to huddle together in a solemn solidarity: titans comprised of multitudes of urban aspirations.

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The New York City skyline featuring the Empire State Building.

Rising up from the density of the urban landscape, giant stalagmites formed by the downward flow of steel and concrete from somewhere high up in the clouds assert their presence.

Reaching towards the dizzying heights where dreams reside, these monoliths guide all city dweller’s dreams upward like lighthouses in an urban sea.

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“Shooting New York City, with heart, art, and soul”. Photo: The New York City Skyline.

I am really excited and proud to share this with everyone!

An article all about my photography was just published online which covers how I got started with photography, how I feel about NYC, and my thoughts about the difficulty of monetizing art online.

==> Here is the link to the article/interview:

Shooting New York City, with heart, art, and soul

Enjoy!

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The New York City skyline and the Empire State Building on a beautiful, hazy day.

On a hazy day, New York City stretches on indefinitely: infinity sprawling out like a somnolent feline. Clouds cast a bone-white hue on the tops of skyscrapers that jut out of the landscape: their axis-mundi-aspirations propelling them skyward. The day languidly yawns, its heavy eyelids blurring the horizon.

Despite growing up in New York City, I hadn’t been to the tops of any of the iconic skyscrapers with observation decks since I was very, very little. The Top of the Rock is an observation deck on the top of Rockefeller Center. It closed in 1986 for renovations and reopened in 2005. When I was younger, I went on a few school trips to Rockefeller Center to go on the NBC Studios tour which was a lot of fun but since it was the late 80s and early 90s, the top was closed to visitors. In recent years, I decided to finally visit the Top of the Rock.

The Top of the Rock is the top of what is also known as the GE Building. It’s an Art Deco skyscraper that is in the center of Rockefeller Center. The GE Building used to be known as the RCA Building until the mid 1980s when GE incorporated RCA and NBC. The building is 850 feet tall (70 stories) and since the address is 30 Rockefeller Center, it is usually referred to as “30 Rock”.

What I find really incredible about the observation decks at Top of the Rock aside from the views is that there is so much room. There are three observation decks in total and all three are designed to resemble the upper decks of a 1930s luxury ocean liner complete with deck chairs. Two of the decks on the the 67th and 69th floors include outdoor terraces which are enclosed in transparent, safety glass. The top deck which is on the 70th floor features a completely open air, unobstructed 360-degree view of New York City and beyond.

The day I went, there were barely any people up on the top deck with me since the weather wasn’t ideal. However, I think it’s often less crowded than the Empire State Building’s observation deck even in beautiful weather. At 850 feet above street level, the view is jaw-dropping and includes complete views of Central Park and the Empire State Building which you can’t really complain about.

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Posted as a request since several people messaged me to ask what my favorite photo of the New York City skyline with the Empire State Building is that I have taken. This would be one of them :).

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The Empire State Building, Chrysler Building and the New York City skyline.

I had the fortune and pleasure of getting to visit the Google NYC headquarters this past weekend. While the offices are a lot of fun to visit, photos are obviously prohibited for the most part in the majority of the interior parts of the building so here is a shot from the outside terrace of their cafeteria. What a view, right? Lucky Googlers!

I should be back to my normal posting schedule soon. This past weekend was a whirlwind of fun and laughter due to over 70 people from Google Plus descending on NYC (from all over the world!) for a photowalk, concert and general mayhem. You can see some photos I am in (taken by others) from the weekend here if you are interested.

Can’t wait to go through the rest of my photos and get them online! Enjoy this in the meantime :).

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The Chrysler Building and the Socony-Mobil Building. Midtown, New York City.

I have always been in awe of the Socony-Mobil skyscraper. The Socony-Mobil Building (in the foreground) is composed of approximately 750,000 pounds of 0.037 inch thick chromium nickel stainless steel, pleated to enable the wind and rain to keep it clean.

You can now also purchase my photography on a wide variety of merchandise (t-shirts, magnets, postcards, iPhone/iPad cases, posters, the list goes on). To view all of these New York City gifts and products at my store, click here.

To purchase this as a print/card here on Tumblr simply click below the photo here. View this photo on Flickr here.