New York

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And this is the same place as Monday’s blog post, but looking down. How freaky is this view? Right?

I don’t know why, but I find myself trying to get a closer look in to all the windows and trying to see if I can see anyone else on these rooftops. Is that creepy? Yes, but I can’t help it. For some reason, this image just brings me in closer and closer to look at all the details. I love how some lights are on, some are off. You can even see some furniture and.. OK I’ll stop. But I think my favorite part is looking at the roof top fans. LOL. I guess I don’t see things like that everyday so they interest me even more so in this image. Just another crazy view of how busy New York City really is. How everyone’s lives are so different but all in the same little area. On the top left hand corner is a perfect view of times square. Congested with all the sparkling lights. And this image was taken on a random Tuesday night. Can you imagine what it’d be like on a Saturday night? Woah.

Funny story: this particular evening was super cloudy and dark. Rain was off and on and Andrew and I were in a taxi on our way to dinner. We drove right through times square and I was busy looking at my phone. All of the sudden it got really light and I was like ‘OMG the sun came out!” I was super excited because I dunno, I guess I like the sun. But when I looked up it was actually just the lights from times square! Isn’t that nuts! It’s so bright that I thought the sun came out. HAHA

The settings for this image was F7.1 for 0.4 seconds at ISO 800.

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After settling into our AirBNB, Andrew and I decided to take Frankie on a walk around our neighborhood to see if there were any good places to eat dinner. We found this one amazing Italian restaurant and luckily they had this really cute outdoor patio so we could bring Frankie too. The food was so good. OMG. I had this mushroom pasta dish, it was so good that I’m still thinking about it now. Anyways….

Frankie was obviously tired from the drive, all the walking around and watching us eat delicious food. We were originally going to take him to Brooklyn Bridge Park but thought he wasn’t going to be able to make it. So we took him back to the AirBNB and made our way over. It’s a good thing he didn’t come cuz we ended up walking EVERYWHERE. Somehow, we even ended up on the Brooklyn Bridge. We’ve both walked it before, but this time was different because it was at night. I was having a ball with all the long exposures and trying to come up with creative compositions. In the end, I really enjoyed this one. I like how you can still see a hint of all the yellow taxis driving by but also the Manhattan skyline.

We didn’t walk across the whole bridge though. We only made it halfway. We figured if we walked the whole way, than that would have meant that we would have had to walk all the way back too. So this was taken from the middle-ish area of the bridge. HAHA

My camera settings for this image was F4.0 at 1.3 seconds ISO 400 handheld – but mostly just using the railings and things to steady the camera. I wish I had a steady enough hand to hold the camera that still for 1.3 seconds. HA!

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So all my dreams came true on this trip. Everything that I wanted to do, we did. I guess that’s why they call it a birthday trip, right? HAHA.

For this trip, we stayed in Brooklyn which turned out to be a lot bigger than I thought it would be. It was great because every morning we would take Frankie out to a park or something and wear him out. Then we’d spend the rest of the afternoon/evening exploring on our own. I’d definietly stay in Brooklyn again. It was so much quieter than Manhattan but still really easy to get into the city.

On the actual day of my birthday it rained. But the good kind of rain. It didn’t start until the middle of the afternoon so we were still able to explore in the morning with Frankie. Then when it was raining the hardest, we were already inside the MoMA. The perfect escape. Out of coincidence, Andrew made dinner reservations near Times Square. It was perfect because I really wanted to check out this rootop bar on top of the Hyatt Centric afterwards. It’s the tallest rooftop in Times Square and you get these amazing views of lower Manhattan while sippin’ on some adult beverages. It was still a little wet when we got up there but I didn’t even care. The rain clouds were still hovering over the city and I was having a blast. I think my favorite part of this image (besides the clouds) have to be the reflection in the tall H&M building. So crazy to see how big this city is and this is only a little piece of it.

The settings for this image was F/8 at 1/30th of a second ISO 1000. It was so dark that I had to bump up my ISO up even though I was also leaning against the railing.

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My second time visiting the Oculus and it’s just was just as amazing as the first time. But this second time, I got to see way more of it. The first time I visited, everything was still under construction. Andrew and I were only able to see a little hallway from the train station to the main part. The main part was still behind closed doors and under wraps. It’s crazy because we were super impressed by that little hallway. Never had I imagined that this main part would be so awesome. But I think the best part about the whole thing is that the “main part” that I keep referring to is a mall now. How freaking amazing would it be to do your everyday shopping here. I feel like I wouldn’t even be able to get anything done. I’d just want to stand in the middle and take pictures the whole time.

I love how it’s just so white and clean. Super modern looking but it makes me wonder what it’d be like to stand there during a really nice sunset or something like that. Would you be able to see the colors come through the windows? Similar to how the Washington National Cathedral looks in the early morning light when the light peaks through and you can see the color reflections all over the walls. I think that’d be so awesome. If any New Yorkers are reading this, please try this and let me know the results. If you can see something really cool, I’d probably spend a week in the same spot just waiting for a cool sunset/sunrise.

My camera settings for this image was f/10 at 1/30th of a second ISO 100. Like I said before, all those windows on top are so great for letting in light. A really low ISO is all you need to capture a really cool shot like this.

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Am I the only one who never knows how to pack clothes for New York City? I mean you check the weather and it will say it’s 80 degrees. So obviously I’m going to pack t-shirts and tank tops.  But once you’re there, it actually feels like 65. It’s the most deceiving thing ever. All the tall buildings and walking through the shadows make it feel so much colder than it actually is. But above all else, sneakers is an absolute must. Props to all the women who walk around the city all day in high-heels. You have my respect, big time.

This image was taken en route to Grand Central Terminal from the New York Public Library. One of my favorite parts of walking through the shadows of all the tall buildings is seeing the different kinds of reflections. Reflections in puddles, reflections in glass windows, etc.  It’s almost like a game to find some really cool ones. But I thought this one was particularly cool because you can see so many different building reflections in this one building. The sun burst to the side of it was just an added bonus that I didn’t even notice until I was shooting. No idea what the name of this building is but I believe it was on 42nd street if you wanted to check it out for yourself.

My camera settings for this image was F22 1/15th of a second at ISO 200. The only reason my aperture was so small was because I wanted to make sure I could get the sun flare to be as large as possible.

So while you’re walking around the city, definietly make sure to look up AND down whenever possible. You won’t be disappointed. You may find special treasures like this that make you really happy 🙂

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So heres my image from Grand Central Terminal that I was talking about yesterday. I still think it’s craziness that I’ve never been there before. What a beautiful transit station. It kind of gives you that old world feeling with all the train markers. Everyone always talks about how beautiful the ceiling is but I thought it was funny how there were so many lost balloons up there. My favorite part was definietly the people watching. Its my favorite part about any airport, bus station or place like that. Everyone’s always so busy with their lives, somewhere they got to be. It’s just interesting watching the interaction of it all. Otherwise, there were so many other photographers there! It was pretty cool. You can definietly tell the guys on the left side of this image were taking a time-lapse. They were standing in the same position with their tripods for quite some time. But then there were people taking selfies and other people next to me who were taking similar pics.

I didn’t bring a tripod with me for this trip. It was going to be too much of a hassle considering I knew we weren’t going to be taking any sunrise or sunset pics. But standing here in Grand Central was the only time I wish I had one. Luckily, using the ledge for my long exposure  turned out great. My camera settings for this image were F/14 at 4 seconds ISO 100. I love the mixture of people on the go and people just standing there. This is what I mean by watching the interaction of so many different kinds of people all in one place and this wasn’t even the busiest time of day to be there. I think we took this around noon because right afterwards we went across the street for some pizza 😀