Landscape, Nature And Travel Photography

One of the most beautiful Christmas spectacles to witness is the Rockefeller Christmas Tree in Manhattan, New York. Seeing the tree, lights and decorations is only part of equation. The cold brisk air, excited crowd and thousands of flashes firing as people photograph the scene is what creates the energy that makes this experience special. I realize this type of experience may not be for everyone, but I would surely argue that its worthy of experiencing at least once in ones lifetime.

To all this holiday season I wish you joy and good health. Merry Christmas!

New York Christmas II - Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree photo by Jim M. Goldstein

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Technorati Tags: New York, Christmas, Manhattan, Rockefeller Center, Christmas Tree, Travel, Stock Photo

There is a lot to be said for keeping an image clean and simple. You would think this would be an easy thing to do, but whether in the city or the backcountry isolating your subject can be quite difficult. Distracting elements such as cars, buildings, people, trees, rocks, even bright spots can easily pull a viewers eye away. Techniques that work in isolating a subject include changing perspective, changing location, using a shallower depth of field, narrowing your field of view, etc. The means of isolating a subject vary based on the circumstances, and sometimes it can be a bit of a puzzle to sort out.

New York City Manhole Cover – Manhattan, New York

In this instance I opted for the following mechanisms to simplify the scene:
1. I walked around my subject to find the best angle of view.
2. I carefully timed my presence in the street to kneel down low to change my perspective
3. I chose a focal length that kept cars and passing traffic out of the scene
4. Selected a composition that would lead the eye to my subject.
5. In post-production I converted the image to black and white to keep the focus on the shape and texture of my subject.

As they say your mileage will vary so experiment with your subjects and keep your patience when looking to isolate your subject for a clean and simple photo.

Technorati Tags: New York city, Manhattan, New York, manhole, street, SoHo, texture, b&w, black and white, stock photo, photography, photo

When people think of places that exemplify the holidays New York city often comes to mind whether because of movies past or just because many of the morning news programs are filmed in downtown New York city. This past weekend my wife and I returned to Manhattan to take in all that New York had to offer for the holidays. As always it proved to be quite a bit of fun from watching the kids and adults a like being awed by Macy’s Christmas store displays, visiting Rockefeller Center to see the ice skaters and Christmas tree and having a surprise opportunity to photograph Mayor Michael Bloomberg amid TV crews and his security detail.

“Naughty Or Nice”

Looking for their names on the “Naughty or Nice” list

A packed crowd surrounds the Rockefeller Christmas Tree and Ice Skating Rink. This year had more traffic restrictions for pedestrians and it was extremely chaotic and difficult to move around. This also marked the first year of the Rockefeller Christmas Tree being “green”. LED lights were used rather than traditional bulbs and part of the power to the tree was provided via solar panels on top of Rockefeller Center. Most notably there were no snowflake projections on the buildings as there were last year. (see New York Christmas) LED lights definitely gave the tree a different look.

Common Cents Penny Harvest Field and Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree
Up close and personal with over $1,000,000 in change in the heart of Rockefeller Center. In the background is the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree.
commoncents.org

This year a huge field of change was in Rockefeller Center as part of a charity fund raiser to help local communities. All this change was gathered by local students.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg being interviewed by a local television news crew about the Common Cents charity event in Macy’s flagship store.

More of Mayor Michael Bloomberg being interviewed by a local television news crew about the Common Cents charity event in Macy’s flagship store.

The full scene of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s television interview about the Common Cents event in Rockefeller Center.

Technorati Tags: New York, NYC, Manhattan, New York City, Macy’s, window display, Common Cents, Penny Harvest, Penny Harvest Field, charity, Christmas, happy holidays, Bloomberg, Mayor Michael Bloomberg

New York city is full of amazing places, but few other locations capture the imagination like Grand Central Station. If you’ve yet to see this building in person you owe it to yourself to do so. The ceiling is painted with an impressive mural of the stars and zodiac. You might think this photo to be out of place for my blog, but even in the heart of downtown Manhattan our natural world is commemorated. As impressive as this mural is it pales in comparison to the spectacle of an actual star filled sky (something I’ll post tomorrow).

Grand Central Station, New York City – Pointing To The Stars

Technorati Tags: Grand Central Station, New York city, New York, stock, photo, photography, stars, travel, Manhattan, mural, stars, zodiac

Another view of the Guggenheim museum in New York city. The amazing architecture of this Frank Lloyd Wright building is itself art. Viewing people moving up and down the spiraling levels was as entertaining to me as viewing the art housed with in this famous New York museum.
More Guggenheim museum photos…

Technorati Tags: Guggenheim, New York, New York city, Manhattan, museum, architecture, photo, Frank Lloyd Wright

Another view of the Guggenheim museum in New York city. Unfortunately during my visit they were restoring the exterior of the building so I was relegated to internal photographs. This was taken at 16mm on a Canon 1Ds Mark II.

Speaking of electric here is a view from the Empire State Building taken last December. Even at 16mm my lens was faced with an impossible task of taking the entire view in.

Merry Christmas!

New York Christmas

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