Sunrise

Every vacation comes to an end, but not before I took some more shots. I decided to get up early and get some sunrise shots from Manhattan. During a winter day, sunrise shots are not really a challenge. However, when I traveled to the planned location, the train didn’t stop at the station where I wanted to get out. This station was under construction. Now my stress level got up because this was my last day in Manhattan which means no second changes. Taking the train back wasn’t an option because that would put me equally far from the closed station in the other direction.

There is one good thing about shooting cityscapes, that is that sunrise is a little later than the official sunrise because the sun has to rise more to get ‘over’ the skyscrapers.



Later this afternoon, I would fly to the Netherland to spend a week with family and friends.

the Rock - Rockefeller Center

At the same time that the Northeast coast of the US was covered by a blanket of snow, also parts of Europe suffered from snow. During a number of days all public transport was cancelled, in the Netherlands. A study trip to Metropolitan Transportation Authority (New York City) could give a number of new ideas on how to operate bus service in snow conditions.




Last year, I visited the Empire State Building. This year I decided to go to the top of the Rockefeller Center, the Rock Because the observation deck of ‘the Rock’ is a little lower than the Empire State Building, whick makes this observation deck more interesting for photography. When you visit the Rock, don’t miss the upper floor. The elevator stops at the 67th floor, an escalator takes you to the 69th floor. At this floor there are 9 foot glass panels which minimize separation between the viewer and the cityscape, compared to the fence on observation deck of the Empire State Building. But the reflections in the glass panels make the photos worthless. There is a little stairway that goes to the 70th floor. It is not allowed to open your tripod (there are security guards at all times), but you can put your camera on one of the small stone columns which have an height of about 4 feet. You might wonder: “Where is the 68th floor?” Most of the 68th floor was removed during the renovation in 2004/2005 to create an spacious feeling when you leave the elevator. The rest of the 68th floor is filled with equipment.

At this photo the glass panels at the 69th floor are visible.

Central Park in the snow

For today, the weather forecast predicted the worst possible weather for photography: ‘an overcast day with more snowfall.’ Last night, I had the question: “What will I do on an overcast day with snow?” I hoped that I would get some nice shots in Central Park, between the snow storms and by leaving the overcast sky out of the picture. When I left the hotel, I got this shot which pictures the Queensboro bridge at an overcast day. When you look at the phone booth on the right, you know how much snow fell since last evening.


I had to walk a few blocks from the subway station to Central Park. To my surprise the sun broke through the clouds.


The cab drivers on Park Avenue were less lucky because after they stopped at a traffic lights, on an icy slope in Park Avenue. Their rear-wheel drive Ford Crown Victorias wouldn’t move from their spot.


The photography guide mentioned a boat pond, which was frozen of course.


While I was walking towards Central Park, I already noticed many parents with children and sledges (or the modern plastic version) walking in the same direction.


I was not the only one walking in the park. The photo below pictures the well known ‘Mall’ in Central Park.


I could always start my own postcard business.


In Central Park there is an ice skating rink too.


This guy was making quite some money.


After walking for a few hours through Central, it was about time to go to the next photo opportunity. I wanted to shoot the Brooklyn Bridge at sunset (i.e. the golden hour). When you’re not a Civil engineer, I understand that you skip the remaining of this post.




The cable is this picture is a hanger cable of the Brooklyn Bridge, while the Manhattan Bridge, another Cable stayed bridge, is out of focus.






From the Brooklyn Heights, you also have a nice view on the Statue of Liberty.

Graffiti

In preparing the itinerary of today, I found the location ‘5Pointz’. This is a former factory location where the present owner thinks highly of graffiti. Therefore the outside walls of this factory are covered with graffiti.




The graffiti artists need to get a permit from the 5Pointz organization, before they can put their creation on a wall. I guess that the persons that don’t get a permit, because they are not good enough, use other walls to spray their graffiti on. Therefore, I think local businesses are less amused by these graffiti artists.

After I visited 5Pointz I was a little hungry and stopped at a road side diner. http://courtsquarediner.kpsearch.com/df/default.asp In general, finding a restaurant in New York isn’t an easy job i.e. the meal is quite expensive and not very good. I guess they know most of the guests won’t return anyway, so why bother with quality. So I enjoyed my lunch at ‘Court Square diner’ with the right price, quantity and quality. It is only three stops from Grand Central station (45th Rd / Court House Square on line 7). I returned twice the next days, to have a dinner at this 24/7 location, on my way to the hotel where I stayed.

Today is the last Saturday before Christmas. Traditionally the last Christmas presents are bought on this day. Last year, when I visited 5th Avenue, the sidewalks were packed with people. At every intersection cops were controlling traffic, because none of the pedestrians were paying any attention to the traffic lights. Therefore I was surprised to see that there were significantly less people in and around Rockefeller Centre. Even though the reduced number of people were smaller, the ‘rappers’ from the Salvation Army did a great job in raising money. My money hardly fitted in the kettle. (Only when I was researching for this blog, I found out that the kettle for donations, as used by the Salvation Army, is designed after a soup kettle.)


Between 5th and 6th Avenue, the Rockefeller Center located with its 8,000,000 square feet of floor space, which has the Ice Skating Rink, with the traditional Christmas tree. Just below the three you can see the statue of Prometheus and, when you would know, the murals inside the building. I was surprised that no one was ice skating on the lakes in Central Park. All people were skating on the miniature rinks at the Rockefeller Center or in Central Park.


You might think something is wrong with the picture below, taken at Time Square. This is the light snow that started falling in the early evening, which eventually resulted in a snow blizzard that would paralyze much of the east coast of the US, for the coming days.


By the time I got to my hotel, the light snow had developed into a snow blizzard with horizontally 'falling' snow. I was wondering what tomorrow would be like. Since my wondering wouldn’t change anything about the weather, I just got to bed and would figure out where to go to tomorrow.

Harlem

Friday , December 18th
Under rather cold conditions, I joined a walking tour in Harlem. A history teacher from a local university was today’s tour guide. She was very knowledgeable about Harlem’s history. Especially about the Dutch influence on architecture. For example about the high stoop and the traditional Dutch rooftops.




While being in the subway, I remembered that the Stock Exchange building at Wall Street is always nicely lit during the evening. So when the announcement was ‘Next stop: Wall Street’, I quickly exited and took a few photos.

Statue of Liberty

One of my long time wishes was to visit the Statue of Liberty. Not just to have a look at the outside, but also the inside. After Randy Pausch, you could say it is a childhood dream. However since 9/11, the Crown access was cancelled. Earlier this year, I found out that the Statue of Liberty Crown was opened again, but there was a waiting list. Book your Crown visit. So I signed up for a ‘Crown ticket’ for today. Before you can embark on the ferry to Liberty Island, you have to pass security. Last year, I had to stand about an hour in bitter cold. So this year, I was prepared for the worst, i.e. gloves, cap, scarf, winter coat and a warm sweater. I could have guessed what happened because this year there was hardly a line.

To prepare for my trip to NY, I bought the book: ‘The 50 Greatest Photo Opportunities in New York City’. This book suggested standing on the right side of the ferry. By looking at the photo of the sea gull you might wonder if a bought a very long zoom lens, but these sea gulls flew about six feet from the railing at a stationary position to the ferry (because of the very strong wind).


The good thing about the wind was that no one stood longer than 1 minute at the railing. Since by now I practiced in operating my camera while wearing gloves, I could stand there a little longer and end with a few keepers (i.e. succefull photos). Shooting from the ferry will give you better picture than shooting from Liberty Island because of the sheer size of the statue. By pointing your camera to much up, which will make the focal plane of your camera not being aligned with the object, will deform the image.




Looking at the crown of the Statue of Liberty, I got the impression that these windows are rather large. I was in for a surprise.


Once you got passed the 354 steps you will reach the crown. According to a website I found, the windows represent the natural minerals of the earth. To my surprise the crown of the statue was rather small. The windows in the crown are as large as the windows in an airplane.


Access to the pedestal is included in the crown visit.


It was rather difficult to take a picture from the inside of the statue, because of the low light. For the photo below I laid my camera on a platform inside the statue. On the top side you see the spiral stairs to the crown, the white truss structure carries the entire statue and finally the brownish wall is the green colored outside of the statue.


The next step of the ferry is Ellis Island. I visited Ellis Island last year. Therefore I knew I would get some nice sunset shots just before the last ferry would leave for Manhattan, this is what some photographers call the golden hour. In Houston this golden hours only lasts 15 minutes. On the photo below, the lower buildings on the left side are the barracks on Ellis Island.

Ballet

The last ballet performance I went to was when I was in elementary school. That wasn’t a real success, I didn’t know what is was about and I was bored to death. So I took a bit of a risk when a few weeks ago, I went to a performance of the Houston Ballet at Houston’s Miller Outdoor Theater with a colleague, his wife and son. I enjoyed it so much that when I was preparing my itinerary for my New York City visit I googled ‘ballet’. It turned out that the New York City Ballet performed ‘the Nutcracker’ the evening that I arrived. Since I didn’t buy front row tickets ($150 is a little too much for a ballet performance) I had to buy a pair of theater binoculars.

After buying the binoculars in Manhattan, dropping of my luggage in my hotel in Queens, I was on time at the theater. Maybe I’m getting older, but I noticed many young people attending the ballet performance. Since I read the story of the Nutcracker play during my flight, I was well prepared this time. The ballet combined with the orchestra where all the ingredients I needed for a wonderful evening.

Adapting

All changes in live go gradualy, there are rarely any discontinuities. Just small changes draw my attention to me addapting to my new environment. I'm in the USA for quite a while now and when I had to complete a number of forms, I wrote down the wrong Dutch zipcode.

Winter in Houston

The Climate of Houston is classified as humid subtropical. This summer had a record number of days with a temperature over 100F. However, on Thursday morning I received a weather warning email which informed me that an arctic air mass would move into SE Texas bringing wintry precipitation.

Last year there was some snow too, but it melted once it touched the ground. Friday afternoon, it started snowing around the office and a white colored blanket was laid over the fields and houses.

Colleagues received phone calls that they had to pick up their children from school or day care. A little after 1 pm, only a skeleton crew was still in the office. A colleague asked me when I would go home. I answered that I would go home at the usual time. The surprised expression on his face made me wonder. I added that I was used to driving in winter conditions. The salt from the salt spreaders would prevent me from skidding of the road. My colleague told that because the arctic days in Texas are so rare, the salt spreaders are only used at overpasses and bridges. In between you are on your own.

Shortly after I went home as well, but not without shooting a few photos of the very rare 'snow in Houston' scenes.