Street Photography Paradise
SPIRIT & GEAR
NYC finally! It was my first time there and I was super curious to visit the most famous city in the world. Since I was a kid New York was THE place of multiple movie spots. The city where Michael Jordan offered the best performances of his career at the Madison Square Garden. The temple of modern architecture and a street photography paradise.
A city that I always wanted in my pictures, a street photography paradise. The place where I dreamt to be sooner or later in my life. To reach my aim I brought with me my new Canon EOS R , a Canon 17-40mm f/4 and a Canon 50mm f/1.2, the perfect combo talking about weight and performances. An amazing chance for me to catch huge buildings, street photography and enjoy the city.
I stayed there 5 full days, clearly not enough to see everything. You could easily spend more than a month there and there would be still something left for sure. Anyway enough to feel the vibes of an incredible city that has a lot to offer. As soon as I started to walk I have to say that I was less overwhelmed than I thought,. Probably because I saw it so many times on tv and books that it was exactly like I imagined! In few minutes anyway NYC unveiled itself as as the street Photography Paradise I was expecting!
FROM MIDTOWN TO LOWER MANHATTAN
I started my long walk from Midtown to Downtown messing completely with my original plans. So missing a few things, but I can say it was worth it. Despite of the cold, it was a beautiful sunny and clear day, with a lot of contrasts and the colors. They were simply amazing and offering me the perfect chance to try my Canon EOS R. I was a bit hesitant to pull out my camera, I was already late, I was freezing too. I looked around, I noticed many things and I stopped being a tourist. I immersed myself in the atmosphere appreciating the most quiet areas through Chelsea, Greenwich Village, Soho.
DOWNTOWN MANHATTAN & GROUND ZERO
Walking in this street photography paradise, arriving to Lower Manhattan at the World Trade Center you can immediately recognize the Oculus designed by Santiago Calatrava. It identifies the World Trade Center Transportation Hub, representing a dove freed from the hands of a kid. This suggestive architecture is right under the Freedom Tower. The name changed in One Word Trade Center, from the original project of Daniel Libeskind.
The atmosphere changed once at Ground Zero, maybe it didn’t change too much but I felt it was appropriate to approach that place respectfully. Obviously thinking a lot about what happened there but I realized that all in all everybody were relaxed and the spirit around was good. Looking at the place where once lopped the Twin Towers I felt the power in the air, inevitably.
In that jungle of skyscrapers the wide Canon 17-40mm was simply perfect to catch everything those architectures had to offer. It gave me the chance to create strong impact images. I have also been able to manage the exposure easily thanking to the control ring mount adapter, the best tool to pair to the Canon EOS R. The process is way easier and there’s a reduce mistake margin, so less mistakes, less pictures to select, more space on the memory card.
BACK TO HUDSON YARDS
After this loooooong walk, I went back first to take a must look to the house of “The Cosby Show” in Greenwich. Then the aim was to go up to The Top of the Rock..but it’s another story…(next chapter!)..so since I was close by I decided to try the most famous banana pudding in the world at Magnolia Bakery according with the suggestions of my two favorite travelers ever Fedo and Emma. Well…huge experience
The other paradise
I took a walk around Midtown where the jungle of buildings offers views that I loved. About the Empire State Building in particular, my favorite architecture so far. While waiting for a friend, since I was close, I decided to take a look to the Mecca for every photographer, B&H. Man…if you are looking for something..well.. you are going to find it there! I was so overwhelmed about the huge variety of stuff they had inside that I forgot to buy the only thing I had in my mind. If NY is a street photography paradise, B&H is simply a photography paradise! I just didn’t like the fact they had many cameras, I don’t know if second hand, repaired, to be repaired, but with the sensor at the open hair. I forgot to ask why. You know I was busy and shocked wandering around!
I’ve been suggested to visit the Hudson Yards and a friend brought me there. I was pretty happy about it, the area is new and pretty nice with its symbol, the Vessel or Social Climber. Then we took a walk on the High Line, a park and footpath built on a disused raised railway. I would have really wanted to explore this place during the day but hey, NYC it’s huge, too many things to see..next time for sure!
Here the combo Canon EOS R + 50mm f/1.2 was great, this camera gave a second life to this great old prime lens!
Dinner choice
As an end of a long and freezing day I couldn’t have hoped for a better place than Totto Ramen, great place in Hell’s Kitchen where I tried one of the most amazing ramen ever. It’s crowded probably everyday, since I was there on a Wednesday and I waited for more than 30 minutes, anyway don’t miss it! I’m not going to talk about food on every chapter, just sometimes, but I particularly love ramen, I couldn’t help it in this case!
Great first day in NYC. Just the beginning of an amazing trip discovering one of the most fascinating places in the world, more pictures are coming with more stories about them.
Cheers
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