Series

Something that caught my eye on Astor Place this weekend. I'd noticed this building before but it was the first time I really stopped to take a proper look at it.

Receding reflection

Meatpacking District

I recently took part in a street photography workshop held in the Meatpacking District, which is another one of New York's formerly unattractive commercial districts that has been transformed into a hip neighbourhood. It used to be warehouses but now it's trendy restaurants and boutiques, with not much sign of its previous life. I imagine that the renovation of the High Line has sent the hipness factor through the roof. It also seems that some of the street artists who used to set up shop in Union Square moved here after they were kicked out by Bloomberg.

Shades

This gentleman is one of the former Union Square vendors, I used to see him there all the time when I was walking through on my way to work. This one was easy, everyone was taking a photo.

Smoke

I asked this guy if I could take his photo and he wanted to know what attracted my attention (the hat). Of the photos I took of him this came out looking the most unposed. He said he was going to be giving a concert on the High Line after he finished his cigarette.

Practice

Cheerleaders practicing on a street corner. A minute after I took this they packed up and left. 

On duty

A parking building security guard. For some reason the interior was a lot more colourful than your usual parking building!

Repose

Debriefing after the workshop. This is exactly the kind of lighting where I find getting the white balance right tricky, but this is more-or-less how it looked to the naked eye.

The workshop was pretty informative, and I picked up some courage to ask strangers for photos. The downside was that it's hard to get a clear shot when you're in a group of 20 photographers! Of course, I will have to go back on my own sometime.

Around Chinatown

A few more photos from my recent exploration of Chinatown with the Nikon N80. 

Antique

This cigar store Indian seemed to be on duty outside an antique shop, rather than at his usual post.

The stairs sing

At attention

It wouldn't be a trip to Chinatown without a fish photo ...

Suspended in space (1)

Suspended in space (2)

I took a couple of versions of this photo with the N80 but they didn't come out that well, I had a hard time getting the exposure right and overall it seems livelier with colour (taken with the D7000). I got the composition better in the colour photo as well, but I had the luxury of a much wider angle to work with.

This laundry looks convincing but it's all fake: it was suspended between two anonymous-looking buildings with no sign of human habitation, separated by an empty alley. It attracted plenty of attention -- I wasn't the only photographer! One Chinese guy said to me, "Like Shanghai". Later another guy explained to me that someone had been shooting a film, which sounds convincing. The first time I walked by a group of workmen were backing a big orange construction vehicle into the alley so I got out of the way and came back again later. Since it had an arm to raise a platform up I assume it was intended to take down the fake laundry, and it turned out I was lucky to get the photo -- when I came back the next weekend it was all gone.

Dusk

Some photos I've taken on the way home from work at around the time the sun starts to go down:

Monolith

Not quite a silhouette of an apartment building, but getting close. Taken from the Highline overlooking the Hudson River.

Circles and lines

This is just a fence next to a building, but the orange sunlight created an interesting contrast with the blueish metal.

Clouds

Skyline

Not taken on the way back from work, but it fits the overall theme. I took this one as the last of the sunlight was disappearing, with a typical New York skyline in silhouette.

Lines

This is a photo that I took a few months ago but only just rediscovered, tight framing to simplify the image really paid off.

Lines with sky