Reflections

This picture is made entirely of reflections of the sunset off of different objects. The most obvious is the reflection of the sun off the rock below. Some others include the two buildings to the left of the sun and the ring it creates on the people standing. I wanted to include the boulder for this picture for some more depth of field. I wanted to create a pathway to the sun and a focus point besides the people or the sunset.

Central Park

As we wrap up the New York City adventure, here are a few final pictures. This first picture is of my sister, and she is standing on a boulder in Central Park in front of some New York City buildings. I wanted to turn this picture black and white mostly because there wasn't already many colors in the picture. Also, I wanted to show the similarity in color between my sister and the buildings.

Constant Motion

This is a long exposure picture from inside Grand Central Station. I wanted to capture the movement of people going around the station. I set my camera at the highest aperture and lowest ISO to maximize the length of the picture. The shutter speed was only 1.6 seconds, which is not the fastest, but also not the slowest. The perfect speed for this type of picture.

Grand Central Station

Welcome to Grand Central Station! This was one of my most favorite places to take pictures because of the opportunities. You could take a long exposure, a picture from a high vantage point or a low one, with a fast shutter speed, you name a variation of a photo, and you could take it here. For this first picture, I kept a low vantage point and took it with a fast shutter speed.

Watching

This is similar to a picture before, except the subject is different. This is a picture of my brother looking out at the New York City skyline while the sunset. For pictures like these, when there are a subject and the sun, you want to place a subject or object to block the sun. This will reduce highlights and pull the viewer's eyes back to your subject and not the sun.

Setting Sun

Before I continue with pictures of downtown New York City, I wanted to showcase the sun. It set on facing south and west, which is normal for the winter as the sun sets more south in the winter, then more north in the summer because of the way the Earth revolves around the sun. I liked the way the sun created some streaks in the hazing air and the shadows it created from the buildings.

Outlook

This is me taking a picture of someone else taking a picture. I wanted to showcase the protective bars, but also didn't just want to have the bars in the sunset. I put it into black and white because I liked the old-timey feel when looking at the picture. The sun streaks looked better as they are streaking across downtown and onto the city below.

Downtown

Next, I ventured to the 86th floor of the Empire State Building. I dragged my brother and dad up at 3:30 for a 5:00 sunset, but it was worth it! It was incredible to see the sunset across the Hudson River and into New Jersey and towards the southwest. This picture is of an observer looking from behind the protective bars looking at downtown New York City during sunset.

Sunset Row

After exiting Central Park, we started walking back to our hotel. While walking past many streets, I noticed the south-facing ones had a little sunset at the end. I ended up taking multiple pictures from multiple streets, but this one was my favorite. There is the car lights, lights from the store and lights from the night, the people walking, the smoke from the subway, and the sunset.

Nightfall

For this picture, I moved my brother out of the frame and kept my sister looking at the skyline. I wanted to make the buildings seem large and overpowering compared to her. I set her in the middle to have a good contrast of buildings on either side but made sure to capture more of the buildings then her head.

Skyline

This picture is of my brother and sister overlooking the New York City skyline from inside Central Park. There was a bridge that crossed over a small stream and they were looking at the skyline. I wanted to capture both their faces looking away and the buildings, but also the sunset. I positioned them on the bottom left side of the picture to allow for all of these actions to occur simultaneously.

New York Public Library

I took this picture right outside the New York Public Library. In front were two rows of trees with a pathway in the middle. Many people were walking on the pathway, so I raised my camera above most of their heads and took this picture. I wanted to capture the sunset, trees, people, and the buildings surrounding the pathway, including the New York Public Library on the right.

Guggenheim

This is the Guggenheim museum made by Frank Lloyd Wright. It is seven levels of mostly 2D art with some 3D art pieces between floors. Each floor has a unique exhibit about a theme or era. I am not much of a 2D art fan or a painting/drawing fan, but there were some interesting pieces. For instance, who knew white stripes on a white background were art, but also some of the paintings, especially by Pablo Picasso, were very thought-provoking.

Bartholomews Church

This is Bartholomew's Church on Park Avenue in New York City. Inside the church were many displays with candles on them for people to light. The ceilings were incredibly high, and some had drawings on them. It was built in 1903 and is the third location for the congregation, which began in January of 1835. 

New Years!

Happy New Year and 2020! I took this picture a few days after the previous pictures but felt it should be posted today. This is Times Square, and in the middle on top of the buildings with many advertisements is the ball. Times Square is full of bright lights, sounds, and colors, unlike any other New York City neighborhood.

Hope

This homeless person was sitting outside near a busy sidewalk and street. Her sign said she had just beat stage 3 cancer and was now homeless. Like me, there were probably hundreds if not thousands of people that walked by her in just one day. She just battled for her life then has to face another battle of finding where to live.

Homelessness

While walking throughout the city, I saw many people sitting or laying on the streets. I assume that most of these people are homeless. It felt as if every block or so someone would be asking for food or money. Some people wanted money or food for good reasons, others wanted money for drugs or other nonessential items.

Rockefeller Center

As the sunset faded into night, I visited Rockefeller Center. The area was full of thousands of tourists looking at the Sach's light display on the east side and the Christmas tree on the west side. I did not take pictures of the light display, but the Christmas tree was incredible. It was by far the biggest Christmas tree that I have seen.

Evening Shopping

As night began to fall on the city, more lights from stores and cars started to shine. I wanted to capture the light and the shadows it created on the people walking. With this picture, I stayed behind a group of people, and I took it when they walked in front of a store. This way, there would be long shadows along with the lights of the city.

Sunset Walk

Here is my first official picture of New York City. I took this as I was walking down the streets and facing the sunset. I wanted to capture the people on the streets, the tall buildings that surrounded the people and streets, and the sunset. The buildings and the read lead to the sunset, which helps showcase the fact that there is a sunset during a busy evening rush hour.