NY Through the Lens - New York City Photography

New York rain. Romance on Doyers Street. Chinatown.

Stolen moments are the sweetest moments.

When the rest of the city has escaped for the day, the world melts away with a lingering kiss under an umbrella.

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It’s really no secret that Doyers Street is one of my favorite streets in lower Manhattan. It’s an alley (or very narrow street) that is usually photographed from an entirely different angle. In fact, the fact that it has a sharp angle in it goes along with its colorful history. Its angle was known as “the Bloody Angle” for part of the 20th century due to gang violence.

This is just around the bend from the more popular part of the angle and also across from one of my favorite noodle shops in Chinatown. I love moments like this that are so completely candid but somehow feel cinematic. I had just walked out from the above-mentioned noodle shop when I was met with this scene. It was too perfect to not quickly capture, of course.

To all who celebrate Valentine’s Day and to all who do not celebrate - I wish you romantic moments like this one. ♥

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Taken with the Sony A55.

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Weeping cherry blossoms illuminated by the sun. Brooklyn, New York City.

There are days when blossoms catch glints of sunlight on their petals that sway slowly in warm breezes.

On these days, it is as if the sun has exploded in the sky raining its light down to the earth below.

And the trees hold their branches out like eager tongues waiting to catch the first snowflakes of winter.

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Red umbrellas and row boats under Bow Bridge. Summer. Central Park, New York City

Sometimes there are moments that are so beautiful that they leave imprints on your heart forever.

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Washington Mews on a cloudy day. Greenwich Village, New York City.

There are streets that I revisit with regularity. These streets seem to call me back again and again. Tucked away and nearly hidden, they are treasure chests that open to reveal a wealth of warm, new feelings with every passing season. I used to come to this particular street quite a bit but it wasn’t until a year or so ago that I learned about its history.

The street sits on land that in the 18th century was part of a large farm that contained private stables used by the families of men such as nineteenth century architect Richard Morris Hunt, John Taylor Johnston who was the founding president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art , and Pierre Lorillard who was a prominent American tobacco manufacturer.

In the first half of the 20th century, a community of about 200 painters and sculptors flourished on this particular street and another adjoining street in the area. In 1903, a reporter for the New York Tribune wrote: “One finds a strange mixture of bales of hay and enormous blocks of marble, boxes of plaster and barrels of oats littering the roadways. Truckmen in greasy jumpers touch elbows now and then with the sculptors in their clay spattered working garb.”

One of the more prominent artists who had a studio on this beautiful street was Edward Hopper. Edward Hopper lived close to Washington Mews at 3 Washington Square starting in December 1913 until his death in 1967.

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Row boats and willow trees at The Lake in Central Park. New York City.

When the summer sun has drifted low into the sky after every bit of earth has been soaked in its warm splendor, the trees hang their heads down in mournful remembrance of winter’s impending icy touch.

And the willows play a slow and deliberate adagio to accompany the last of summer’s lovers on the sweetest sun-kissed wings of the wind.

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Night. Central Park, New York City.

Over glistening cobblestones in the haze of summer heat, the twinkling lights of oncoming cars cast their glow like fireflies in a dense urban forest.

As somnambulists glide over uneven paths, the wind plays a nocturne.

This is when the city dreams.

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Washington Square Park fountain at night in the summer. New York City.

The inherent romance that pulses through the city at night grows stronger in the summer.

Lamp posts and surfaces weary from the noonday sun glisten in the moonlight while night breezes carry the whispers of lovers along slowly and deliberately.

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Cherry blossoms in the spring sunlight at Brooklyn Botanic Garden. New York City.

Staring into the light of the bright spring sun surrounded by flowering trees, petals swirl in the wind catching the light like glowing embers eventually scattering to the algae-colored pond below where they shimmer on the surface like tiny lanterns.

I was reminded of a comment that someone made about several of my recent spring photos where they were surprised to see nature represented in such a way in New York City because for them, New York City seemed to be nothing more than “a wilderness of rocks”. The truth is that there are so many places to find serenity and nature in New York City. There are over 1700 parks that span all five boroughs of New York City, many of which boast beautiful landscapes.

This particular image was taken yesterday at Brooklyn Botanic Garden in the Japanese Hill and Pond Garden, one of my favorite spots to enjoy the many colors and sights of spring. The Brooklyn Botanic garden has more than 200 cherry trees of forty-two Asian species, making it one of the foremost cherry-viewing sites outside of Japan. The first cherries were planted at the garden after World War I, a gift from the Japanese government.

The Japanese Hill and Pond Garden located in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden was the first Japanese garden to be created in an American public garden. It was constructed in 1914 and first opened to the public in June 1915. It is widely considered by numerous landscape architects, to be the masterpiece of its creator, Japanese landscape designer Takeo Shiota.

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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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Cherry blossoms hanging over a pond. Japanese Hill and Pond Garden. Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Brooklyn, New York City.

There are times when nature so perfectly replicates art that so perfectly replicated nature creating a philosophical conundrum for the ages. This was one of those moments.

Here is my little spring tribute to Claude Monet by way of some gorgeous cherry blossoms luxuriating in the sunlight over the Japenese Pond at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

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The Secret Garden Water Lily Pool. Conservatory Garden. Central Park, New York City.

Covering an enormous 843 acres, it’s hard to cover everything Central Park has to offer in terms of landscapes and activities. Even most people I know who have lived in New York City for a while who have been to Central Park more than once usually are surprised to find entire areas they never imagined existed in the park.

Years ago when I lived on the border of Spanish Harlem, I used to love to walk over to Central Park to explore. It was a 15-20 minute walk to the park since I lived all the way over by the East River and I would often walk across and then down to the area by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. One day, instead of walking across and down, I was taken directly across to Central Park in the early 100s and came across an entire area I had never seen. An elaborate wrought iron gate called the Vanderbilt Gate sits on 5th Avenue at 105th Street. It’s the entryway into the only formal garden in Central Park.

Spanning 6 acres, this section of the park is called the Conservatory Garden, named for a conservatory that stood on the site in the early 1900s. The garden opened to the public in 1937 and is comprised of three distinct parts. It fell into disarray in the 1970s but was restored completely in the late 1980s bringing estate garden style into Central Park.

This particular photo is of what is referred to as the Secret Garden Water Lily Pool which is dedicated to the memory of Frances Hodgson Burnett containing a sculpture by Bessie Potter Vonnoh. The water lilies in the pond bloom from June to October and it’s a popular spot for romantic photography shoots. In fact, the Conservatory Garden tends to be crowded with wedding parties and photographers on weekends and during prime times in the summer.

This entire area of the park during the summer is bucolic. Birds perch on the sculptures and sing while butterflies and bees flit from flower to flower around the pond. It’s an incredibly blissful and picturesque spot.

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A kiss under an umbrella in the rain. Chinatown, New York City.

Stolen moments are the sweetest moments.

When the rest of the city has escaped for the day, the world melts away with a lingering kiss under an umbrella.

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Romance in the rain. Chinatown, New York City.

Stolen moments are the sweetest moments. When the rest of the city has escaped for the day, the world melts away with a lingering kiss under an umbrella.

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Prior to a few months ago, I never took photos in the rain. However, once I started taking photos in the rain, I could barely remember why I never wanted to do such a thing. It’s become one of my favorite things to do. New York City on a rainy day is an entirely different city than New York City on a pleasant day.

It has been rainy here in New York City recently and there is a lot of tension in the air in lower Manhattan with the news of the decision regarding Zuccotti Park. I spent the afternoon dealing with getting an MRI done of my knee. The healing process hasn’t been fun and it’s been very slow. Between the weather, the Occupy Wall Street situation and my knee situation, things seem rather ominous. I have been going through rain photos (like the one in this post) to cheer myself up.

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The Lincoln Center Fountain at night adorned by lovers and bubbles. Upper West Side, New York City.

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Lincoln Center’s iconic fountain opened in 1964. It’s played a tiny role in several films throughout the years like The Producers, Moonstruck and Sweet Home Alabama. The cast of Glee also filmed there recently.

The fountain was revitalized in 2010 and it’s now better than ever:

“The fountain has three hundred and seventeen computerized jets, which are arranged in two rings around the perimeter of the fountain, with radial arms leading to a central circular mass of more jets. A WET choreographer named Peter Kopik designed a daytime and an evening program for the fountain. The new fountain débuted on October 1st 2010, and the daytime program has been running since then. When the jets are all on, they produce a mighty column of water that slowly rises on a height of twelve feet. When the column is at its greatest height, there are four hundred and seventy-five gallons of water in the air. Especially after dark, people are drawn to the column of water, mesmerized by the two hundred and seventy-two L.E.D. lights that make the water glow white. ” Source

A kiss in the rain. Upper East Side, New York City.

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A park bench outside of Central Park during a mild rain storm this past week…

Shakespeare’s birthday is being celebrated around the world this week. This year marks his 447th birthday. My tribute to Shakespeare is this photo which I believe captures the enduring quality of Shakepeare’s work.

This particular sculpture is of Romeo and Juliet from one of Shakespeare’s most well-known plays which was first performed in the 1590s. It is located directly outside of the Delacorte Theater near the edge of the Great Lawn in Central Park. Sculpted by Milton Hebald, it is a bronze sculpture depicting Romeo and Juliet entwined in a passionate embrace.

The Delacorte Theater which is an open-air theater, features the plays of Shakespeare each summer. Shakespeare in the Park’s 2011 season which begins on June 6th and runs until July 31st will be presenting Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well and Measure for Measure presented on alternate evenings.

It’s a wonderful experience to view a Shakespeare play at the Delacorte theater. The setting couldn’t be more beautiful with the Belvedere Castle overlooking the theater with Central Park’s Turtle Pond in close vicinity.

Visit the Happy Birthday Shakespeare page to view other tributes to William Shakespeare as the world celebrates his birthday.