NY Through the Lens - New York City Photography

Williamsburg Bridge and the skylines of Manhattan and Brooklyn at sunset.

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Moments are vessels that contain: sparks, magic, effervescent happiness, lingering sadness, red-tinged anger, bittersweet joy all waiting to explode if and when that point in time is visited again.

There are moments that exist somewhere between the excited beat of the heart and a welled-up tear in the eye. They are the chills that run up the back of the neck and the small smile that can’t be contained when their memory is nudged by a sound, sight, scent, touch.

It’s the way the light was shining through the bridge as the boat pulled away under a sky blue with hope as the sun set and the lump in the throat subsided momentarily. It’s the way the water looked as it rocked the boat gently like a lullaby as it drifted away from the sunlight that poured its light onto the surface of the water.

And it’s the way everything seemed pointless in comparison to the way the clouds gathered over the city: hopeful tufts of smoke emanating from the sun’s extinguishing fire…

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This is a view of the Williamsburg Bridge and the Lower East Side as seen from a boat on the East River during sunset with the Sony A77. In the distance sits the skyline of Brooklyn in Dumbo and the Manhattan Bridge.

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New York City. Night skyline.

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Night slides across the sky

like a trumpet’s note falling over a syncopated rhythm

and the stars swoon and sway

mesmerized by the city lights

that pulsate to their own time signature.

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I have been traipsing all over the city for the last few months trying to capture a large majority of New York City’s skyline views. I think everyone has a particular skyline view they immediately think of when they think of the city. And yet, it’s still incredible to me after all this time that I come across different skyline angles that I hadn’t previously come across or had the time to explore before from certain vantage points.

New York City has several prominent skyline views that are popular. One is in lower Manhattan and usually includes the skyscrapers of the Financial District along with the one or more of the bridges that serve the lower part of Manhattan. The other series of skyline views can be found from the top of a few popular skyscrapers in midtown Manhattan. Another series of skyline views involves the midtown Manhattan skyline as seen from different vantage points across (or in some cases directly from) the East River. This particular view is taken from one of the latter vantage points. It’s a 30 second long exposure taken with the Sony A99 on a gorgeously clear and cold night in the beginning of March from Roosevelt Island.

Prominent skyscrapers in this view are the Chrysler Building and the United Nations building (all the way to the left). The lights of other famous midtown skyscrapers can also be seen even if those skyscrapers (looking at you Empire State Building) are hidden in this view. The lights directly in front of the skyscrapers that line the East River belong to the FDR Drive, a major traffic route that lines New York City’s east side.

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New York City skyscrapers and streets from above. Midtown.

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When you find yourself above New York City (or perhaps any city), what really stands out are all of the layers of activity. It’s hard to completely grasp the layers when you are among them everyday. But when you change your perspective, it really shifts your understanding of the complexities of urban life.

This is a view of the entrance to the Queensboro Bridge (also known as the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge, 59th Street Bridge, and Queens Bridge) and the skyscrapers of the New York City skyline in midtown Manhattan close to 59th Street on the east side. It was taken with the Sony A99 from the vantage point of the Roosevelt Island Tram, a tram that crosses over the East River from midtown Manhattan to Roosevelt Island a around 100 times a day.

Aside from the cross-section of a part of the midtown Manhattan skyline, you can also make out the pedestrian walkway of the bridge which runs alongside the busy traffic-laden vehicular section of the bridge. Above the traffic and pedestrians is the beginnings of the grand architecture that makes up the bridge itself and midtown streets and traffic snake their way through the city below the bridge.

The variety of architecture in this area of midtown is also striking when viewed from above. The lower-slung buildings sit alongside newer skyscrapers of varying heights and structure. It would be interesting to take this section and label each building according to its completion date to note the ever-evolving skyline throughout the years in relation to the bridge.

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Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge and the New York City skyline at night. Roosevelt Island view.

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When the night falls hard onto the city’s shoulders and the sky drapes a dark blanket over the skyscrapers and buildings, it’s hard to contain the effervescent charm that bursts forth after the sun has retreated.

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This is the Queensboro Bridge which is known by a few other names depending on where you are from and how long you have lived in New York City. Despite growing up in Queens, I will always think of this bridge as the 59th Street Bridge because I think I belonged to one of the few families in Queens that for whatever reason associated the bridge more with 59th Street in Manhattan. It’s also known as Queens Bridge which is a shortened form of Queensboro Bridge. Its current official name is the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge, named after the now deceased former mayor of New York City who held office from the late 70s to the early 80s. He was definitely a “character” (as we say :) ).

The vantage point is from Roosevelt Island and this is the result of a 30 second exposure taken with the Sony A99. It was taken on a bitterly cold night in the beginning of March while I was having a spirited conversation with one of the Roosevelt Island security guards regarding the abandoned smallpox hospital further down the island. I tend to love to shoot long exposures alone but it was great to have the company (and quirky conversation) that night. It’s those type of moments that make me love the city: little bursts of spontaneity and brevity while watching the lights sparkle in the city’s eyes.

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New York City Skyline and the Brooklyn Bridge. Night lights bokeh.

If you stop to squint long enough

all the dreams whispered on the wind during the day

flicker like fireflies when the evening

stretches out across the sky

and the rain washes the city’s despair away

so it can dream itself into another sunrise.

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This was taken on earlier this evening with the Sony A99 overlooking the New York City skyline and the Brooklyn Bridge in Brooklyn. I was taking long exposures earlier this evening and as the sky filled with enormous clouds shortly after sunset as the city’s lights sprinkled themselves like glitter all over the evening cityscape and it was as if everything else melted away.

These are the moments I want to bottle up and save for later. And that’s why I absolutely love photography.

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Williamsburg Bridge pedestrian walkway. New York City.

I have been on a strange sort of journey lately when it comes to photography. And I have noticed a shift in my vision or rather a slight deepening of meaning that I am seeking when it comes to the imagery I have been consuming and capturing. I have been watching a tremendous amount of documentaries about photography and photographers trying to understand where my own peculiar sort of artistic unrest is originating from. I suspect the angst has to do with a visual tiredness and unease at the overwhelming amount of imagery that seems to be in circulation at any given moment online. I am pondering writing a series of essays on the rise of mass consumption and sharing and how it correlates to various trends in offline photography but the ideas are all still percolating.

A series that really, really touched me though is called Contacts. I devoured all of Contacts: Volume 2 - The Revival of Contemporary Photography and Contacts: Volume 3: Conceptual Photography over the course of two nights. It’s a collection of tiny vignettes that explore different photographer’s contact sheets and/or body of work while they explain or talk about their work. I think I have watched the vignette of Sarah Moon’s work set to her stream-of-consciousness description of her own inward photographic journey over a dozen times at this point (it even ended up on my “Scenes that have stuck to my ribs and clung to my heart” playlist on Youtube: the ultimate testament to it becoming a part of my consciousness permanently ;) ).

When I first watched it and listened, I could barely stop the tears from flowing because it was absolutely perfect (and even that would be an understatement):

Contacts: Volume 2 - Sarah Moon

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I had an entirely different set of thoughts I wanted to include with this image of the Williamsburg Bridge (taken with the trusty Sony A99) but I seem to have veered in a different direction perhaps because all of this has been on my mind for weeks. And that’s fine, now that I think of it, because in some ways, there couldn’t be a more fitting recent image to accompany this post.

“Time goes by. Light falls. I lose confidence. I don’t want to be a photographer anymore…

Then, all of a sudden, but not always, something changes, I can’t say why, maybe I’m just in the right place at the right time, or maybe I believe in it.

However, for a split second, I see a sparkle of beauty passing by, everything goes so quickly now within that stillness, and I’m carried away, and at last I like what I see, and I can’t stop finding it, then losing it, and all day long I keep on, because it once existed.” - Sarah Moon

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New York City Skyline and the roof tops of Brooklyn Heights at sunset overlooking the Brooklyn Bridge.

Summer evenings in New York City weave their own spell when summer night skies slide onto the city through the sticky-sweet haze.

The skyscrapers cling to the sunlight wrapped up in the glow and hazy anticipation of just one more kiss of light.

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This was taken at the peak of last summer from a roof top in Brooklyn overlooking the skyline of Brooklyn Heights, the Brooklyn Bridge and a very hazy lower Manhattan skyline. I was shooting with a camera I wasn’t at all used to shooting with and the temperature was hovering near 80 degrees at night with nearly 100% humidity. The air was thick as molasses and the heat was unrelenting but it was an absolutely gorgeous summer sunset.

It’s usually this point of the winter when I start pining for summer evenings like this forgetting that on summer evenings like this, I am usually pining for winter :).

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Balloons on St. Mark’s Place. East Village, New York City

It’s hard to believe that another year has passed and my birthday looms on the horizon (it’s tomorrow, January 4th). It’s a significant birthday in terms of time. I won’t go into which one but I will say that it’s made me even more introspective than I usually am when my birthday rolls around every year.

I have a vivid memory of the day after my birthday 11 years ago that I replay in my head from time to time. It gives me a sense of perspective because it let’s me realize when I think back to how I felt in that moment just how far I have come in my life since that memory. And when I think about it that way, I am pretty amazed that I even made it this far. I am grateful every day for how my life continues to unfold before me but even more so when I think about the passage of time in such a way.

It’s been a really tough week despite all of the great things that have happened in my life over the last few months. One of my cats ended up hospitalized for a few harrowing days due to a bout of acute pancreatitis and slight fluid in her lung. I am most thankful to have her home now (even though I am watching her like a hawk) and in that way, I couldn’t ask for much more for my birthday this year.

And so, I embrace my birthday this year with open arms as scary a number as it may be ;). Here’s to another year round this orb and to more cheerful and unexpected twists and turns.

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New York City skyline skyscrapers on a hazy day.

Pretty excited to announce this!

I am now officially working for Camera+.

Everyone who reads my blog regularly probably knows that I love using Camera+ for my mobile photography needs. So, to be able to directly work with Camera+ is a dream come true. I did a project for them a few months back and was hired officially this past week.

While I technically work for Tap Tap Tap, the company that produces Camera+ and a variety of other great apps, I am mainly doing support for Camera+ and have been working hard to compile and grow an ever-expanding knowledge base as well.

Good times! Sorry for the repetition if you have been following along where I already announced this on my Facebook profile a few nights back. Also, if you want, check out the Camera+ Facebook Page. There will be more posts there in the future.

And, of course, to accompany this announcement, I am sharing one of my favorite photos I have taken and edited with Camera+ of the New York City skyline. Seems appropriate :).

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Buy “New York City Skyline - Chrysler Building and Skyscrapers” Posters and Prints here, email me, or ask for help.

New York City at night - Financial District street with a smoke stack.

At night after the multitudes have retreated to their homes away from the buildings and streets that hold them close during the day the city relaxes shaking the dust of the long day from its concrete limbs.

The street lights flicker like dream-heavy blinks of an eye while smokestacks exhale world-weary breaths of smoke into the yawning night air.

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The Chrysler Building and New York City skyline.

This is a favorite view of the Chrysler Building. In truth, the Chrysler Building is my favorite skyscraper in New York City. I have always loved the art-deco architecture of it’s spire and how its needle pokes out above the other skyscrapers that populate the New York City skyline in midtown Manhattan.

This particular view is looking west towards Manhattan and sitting in the foreground are the skyscrapers of Tudor City: neo-gothic historic buildings that lay their claim to fame for being part of the first residential skyscraper complex in the entire world.

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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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Halloween pumpkins under storm clouds after Hurricane Sandy. Williamsburg Bridge, New York City.

It’s true. Power has been restored to Lower Manhattan east of Broadway from 14th Street to Canal Street which includes my neighborhood of the Lower East Side. I have never been so happy to see traffic lights working before! I got home, did a little dance with my boyfriend (my post-apocalyptic companion extraordinaire) and my cats (really, we all danced) and then went and took a very, very, very long HOT shower; the first in nearly 5 days.

I will write a real write-up of what the last 5 days was like and look for ways to help out those who lost way more than power and water. Tonight though, I am going to enjoy having lights on, having internet and having the ability to take a hot shower. My legs are numb from all the walking but man, is it good to be back to some semblance of normal.

Will be updating my Hurricane Sandy Flickr set shortly with the remainder of photos I have from the last few days as well.

Thank you so much to everyone who sent messages, tweeted at me words of encouragement while I was being grim on my Twitter and left sweet comments. So much love ♥.

View the rest of the posts about Hurricane Sandy in NYC on this blog here:

Hurricane Sandy New York City

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New York City Skyscrapers. Midtown.

They rise: stalagmites borne from an earth bursting at the seams with lofty aspirations.

And the city’s streets weave their way through them: well-worn crevices on the surface of dreams.

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This is one of my favorite views of the skyscrapers of midtown Manhattan. It’s a view from the top of the Empire State Building. I have always loved the variety of architecture and intensely dense feel of this patch of the New York City skyline.

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The New York City skyline at sunset.

At the end of this past summer, I rode the East River Ferry alone one day for four hours. I find it really relaxing to be near or on the water.The ferry has an all-day pass and at times it was only me on the deck watching the bridges and skyline fade in and out of view as the sun danced across the sky.

There is a moment at the beginning of sunset when the sun begins to drop from the sky when it almost appears as if it is trying to catch its reflection in the water mirror below. I wish I could have bottled this moment up to have forever because it was as if the entire city was wrapped up in an intensely intimate embrace with the sun.

Isn’t that what is so great about photography?

Moments can last a lifetime.

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Seen in this photo: The Manhattan Bridge is in the foreground and the Brooklyn Bridge is directly behind it. The skyscrapers of the Lower Manhattan skyline are off to the right including the Woolworth Building, New York by Gehry and One World Trade Center (formally known as the Freedom Tower). To the left sits the borough of Brooklyn and the neighborhood of Dumbo.

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