Manhattan Municipal Building

It's huge, so I wanted to make it look as imposing as possible.

Municipal power

Washington Square Park

After the excitement of the hurricane over the weekend it was a nice sunny day yesterday.

Late summer

Red and White Cab

While walking home from work a while ago I came across an old-style New York taxi repainted in red and white for a bank promotion. Assuming there's only one, I've seen it cruising around before, but this time it just seemed to be parked on the street unattended. 

Don't make them like they used to

The L train

It's pretty rare for me to take photos on the subway (for one thing, people tend to notice you), but last week a shot came together nicely:

Looks good

North of Houston Street

A few weeks ago I took my wife to a French restaurant in the East Village for our wedding anniversary. The sun started going down just after we arrived, which turned into a great opportunity to catch the changing light coming in from the windows!

Sunlight

I like this photo but it's a bit spoiled by the green halo around the sun at the top of the frame, I suspect that it might be due to the filter I had on the lens. Next time, no filter when shooting into the sun!

Inside and outside

After the sun had gone down. The difference in the lighting outside and inside the restaurant caused the red tinge on the people by the window.

Behind the bar

West Village

Walking north from Houston Street.

Circles

Disused flower urns. I stood on the first one and waited for a few minutes for the right combination of people to come walking past. After I got down a security guard wandered out of the building to loiter around in front of the doors, maybe he was checking what I was up to?

By the sea

Outside a bar. This may have come out better if I had taken it from higher up to show more of the people, but at the time I was worried that would distract from the buoys.

Super Shoe

Walking up Fifth Avenue after work I came across what looked to be some kind of shoe company corporate reception:

Shoe with bodyguard

I feel bad for the person in the shoe, it must have been hot in there and he or she had to ham it up for passersby like me with cameras. I like the security-guard type who's seen it all before.

Rain

I had hoped to go out and take some photos today but it's been raining all day so I'm stuck inside. I did try and go out for a few minutes, but I didn't get very far ...

The rain

Streetcars

While out on the waterfront at Red Hook I found some mysterious streetcars that seem to be abandoned next to an open-air cafe. Since they're exposed to the elements and easily accessible they've been pretty thoroughly vandalised, but they still retain a kind of mournful grandeur.

Service suspended

Number 7 

Interior

I initially thought they were remnants of a lost age of New York, but according to a page at Forgotten New York (which is a mine of interesting information about "hidden in plain sight" landmarks of New York), they're part of an attempt a couple of years back to bring streetcars back to Brooklyn. Mystery solved!

Prospect Park waterfall

A visit to Prospect Park in Brooklyn a month ago gave me an opportunity to take a close-up photograph of a waterfall at long last. Handheld for 1/3s was a bit of a challenge, but bracing myself carefully and choosing from the best of multiple exposures didn't turn out too badly.

Waterfall

The plant sticking into the frame at the lower left gives some variety, but since it didn't stay still in the breeze it came out blurred.

Dog

The hotel we were staying in while in San Francisco had a dog, but I guess it wasn't a guard dog.

At rest

Red Hook

Since the expedition to the Gowanus Canal a few months ago I've been on the look out for  similar places to go, and a visit to the Ikea store in Brooklyn awakened my interest in Red Hook. I've always been drawn to the Red Hook (the name helps of course), and on a subway map it always looks vast and remote. It turns out that it's not really that hard to get to, in fact it's right next to the canal! Walking along the deserted waterfront I took a couple of photos of the landscape.

Black swan 

A swan and some unidentified and abandoned industrial structure, so it's pretty much another post-industrial landscape. Looking at this again I should have taken this from lower to get more of the two interesting things in the picture and less intervening water, but you learn some things with practice. And the swan wasn't staying still, either. (Update: this is probably a goose, not a swan.)

Idle cranes

These looked like they haven't been used for quite a while, and since this is right next to the Ikea store, I hardly imagine they see a lot of traffic.

If you look carefully you'll find something hidden in this photo!

Leaves

A photo I took a while ago that I came across again recently. The white background is due to a combination of a foggy day and short depth of field. I had to overexpose by quite a bit to get the reds to come out really red instead of brown.

Red and white