A treasure in Central Park

New Journal 27 – Thoughts on NYC

A torrent of rain was sweeping through New York as our plane took off in the direction of what would turn out to be a very sunny Chicago.

Yet another customs official took delight in my name before we boarded the flight. That’s 2 in 8 days. He kept asking ‘Lord, that’s really your name?’

I’ve had time to reflect on our 6 days in NYC. I can’t seem to categorise how I feel about the city. From a photographer’s point of view it was spectacular and since Rachel and I are both city lovers we delighted in the immense energy of the place. Yet, for me, there was something not quite right about the city.

I should say that my overall impressions of the city were high. I would love to live there one day. However, what struck me was the intensely different attitudes of the people we met or saw.

We witnessed a police woman screaming at an elderly shop owner for one reason or another. Later we helped him find the complaints phone number because he couldn’t read English. It’s the first time I’ve seen a police officer yelling at anyone in such a disrespectful way.

On the other hand, we experienced tremendous generosity and friendliness in the city, not least by our new buddy Seamus, who more or less put his life on hold for a week to accommodate us.

Here and there we saw friendliness and conflict, more so than in any big city we’ve visited.

Times Square, for me, was an experience I would not like to have again. Zombified tourists mesmerized by the blinding city lights moved in droves to God knows where while eating Macdonald’s. The sight was exceptional but the experience was too lifeless or soulless for me to enjoy.

Central Park was amazing. Night and day it was a joy to walk around, to relax in with an iced coffee, and to shoot. I’d move to New York just for that wonderful park.

I look forward to returning to NYC one day. There was so much we didn’t get to see. I wonder how differently I’ll consider it after 6 weeks in the US and having the time to compare it to other cities.

Today’s Photo – A treasure in NYC

This is in central park, near a large fountain.

From a compositional perspective, when you’re shooting a near-symmetrical scene like this, it’s vital that you’re as central as is humanly possible. If you’re even slightly out and you’re shooting wide, the scene can become far too distorted. Even in this image, I was careful to measure the centre point by counting the number of floor tiles, yet since I was still a few centimeters out compositionally I still had to correct it in post. For me, the best way to straighten an image is using the Distort option under Transform in Photoshop.

Before the Joys of Post-Processing