NYC Skyline

New Journal 24 – Adventures in NYC

What is there to say about NYC that hasn’t already been said? I can talk about the bright lights, the city that never sleeps, the energy, the grit, the skyline, the parks, and the massiveness of it all. However, our journey so far has been characterized by the absolute generosity of an Irish photographer called Seamus who has not only housed us in his awesome apartment, but who has also carted us to and fro in search of photo opportunities, adventures and cold beers.

The only way I could repay him was offering him night shooting tips which he took on board and immediately starting creating amazing imagery (he’s no stranger to a camera).

Hopefully he’ll be able to join us again on the West Coast in a few weeks.

Our fist experience of New Yorkers was in the airport. I walked up to customs and gave my passport to a bald guy in his early 30s. With a broad New York accent (That’s as specific as I can be, sadly), ‘Okay, let’s get this done so we can get you guys outta here’.

He ran the checks, looked at me with a strange smile and said ‘Okay Mr. McIntyre, you’re good to go’. I’d guessed the source of his humour. ‘Did you see my name?’ I asked (It’s Lord, in case you didn’t know). He laughed and said ‘Yeah, that’s why I called you Mr. McIntyre’.

I asked him if he saw my place of birth (A Zimbabwean town called Wankie). He looked at my passport, laughed and asked ‘So you’re king of the bedroom then?’ I  replied saying I’ve been trying to convince Rachel of that for years. With a hearty laugh he shouted ‘Haha, get outta here!’ Handing me my passport he said ‘You two have yourselves a great time in New York’.

And so it was, our first interaction in New York was with the most relaxed custom official in history.

Today’s Photo – NYC Skyline

As you can see in the before image, the reflection has been added in post processing. The change to a general blue hue was done in Photoshop by choosing Image>Auto Tone. Or you can change the White Balance in-camera or in ACR to achieve the same effect.

The mirrored image of the city was inspired by a Scott Kelby video I saw many moons ago and more recently by a photographer called Beboy who I met in Paris. It’s not a new technique but can be extremely effective. I’ll write a short tutorial showing how to do it in a couple of weeks.

To add the moon, find an image of the moon  and follow my Photoshop Stars tutorial.

Before the Joys of Post-Processing