Twilight Windows & Stuff

That magical time of day when daylight fades and lights start glowing in windows... and on this random rooftop, a water tank supported by some impressive steel and a lone bare Charlie Brown-ish tree. 2nd Ave, Gramercy, Manhattan. [NEX6-2413 acr(R)PScc]

Gas Station Turned Cafe

This corner is a former Gulf gas station which was converted to an indoor cafe (back portion of the building) with a walled-in open air seating patio at the front, where the gas pumps had been. B Bar and Grill Cafe - East Village at Cooper Square, Manhattan. [NEX6-2407 acr(R)PScc]

First Snow

First snow of the 2013-2014 season this past Sunday. Ok, it was just a mini snowfall - but it still counts as snow! First Avenue at Stuyvesant Town, Manhattan. [NEX6-2385 acr(R)PScc]

LES Roof - 0167

Closeup of a Lower East Side rooftop on East Houston Street near Avenue B / Clinton Street

Helicopter - Waterside

Helicopter taking off from the East 34th Street Heliport, just north of the Waterside Plaza apartments along the East River, Manhattan

Cooper - Astor - Union

Streetscape at Cooper Square, looking north past Astor Place towards Union Square. A wide variety of building styles, sizes, colors.

The red-brick buildings lit by late afternoon sun at the center are two of the 4 towers that were originally known as Zeckendorf Towers. Today they are known by two other names: 1 Irving Place and 1 Union Square East (but they'll always be Zeckendorf Towers to me). Peeking from behind those towers is the top of the Empire State Building further uptown at E. 34th Street.

Kozy Korner at Night

This is the corner that most Lower East Siders know as Cozy Corner - where Grand, Madison and Lewis Streets meet up. Lower East Side, Manhattan

I'm testing Canon's new G15 camera, which I hope will complement my G1X in those situations where I need a faster lens and faster focus. I do a lot of shooting from moving taxis/car service and buses. I find, in too many cases, where the G1X auto-focus is too slow to grab a shot before the car or bus moves on. Also, while the G1X has superb image quality in low light, it's slow lens often requires a slow shutter speed. Between my aging/shaking hands and my aversion to carrying a tripod, this often results in wonderfully exposed but blurred photos. I'm hoping the G15 will fill in the gap in these situations

Last year I switched from using a T3i dSLR to the G1X because back problems made it painful and difficult for me to carry around the dSLR and lenses (which is also why I don't carry a tripod). I absolutely LOVE the results I've been getting with the G1X most cases. The addition of the G15 should help with the rest.

No Entry

Taken thru the plastic window of a NYC bus. Subway exit and entrance at the Delancey Street / Essex Street station outside the south building of the Essex Street Market

Ssssssssteam Essssscaping

Steam escaping from a manhole cover at 1st Avenue & E 18th Street on the perimeter of Stuyvesant Town. FDNY and Con Edison crews are on the scene. There were a couple of similar events in the Gramercy Park/Stuyvesant Town area over the weekend.

Stuy Stacks

Smokestacks at the Con Ed steam plant on Avenue C & E. 14th Street, behind Stuyvesant Town. This is the plant where a huge explosion during the height of Hurricane Sandy shook the residents in neighboring Stuy Town apartment buildings.

NYPD Snow

University Place in the NYU / Union Square area, Manhattan

Central Park West - San Remo

From October - a view from Central Park looking towards the towers of the San Remo apartments on Central Park West with a sliver of lake in the lower right foreground

'Tis the Season

Holiday street scene on Broadway near Union Square

Empire State Building

The Empire State Building lit in red, white and green last night for the Robin Hood Foundation 12/12/12 Concert for Hurricane Sandy Relief

The ESB recently installed a sweet new LED light system that can display over 16 million combinations of colors and effects instead of the 20 or so colors that it was able to display in the past. For sure the new lighting seems to be much brighter. Just prior to snapping this photo the red and white lights at the top were "spinning" around the spire.

Hand Chair

Saw this outside a store in the Flatiron/Gramercy area. I'm not sure what it is but it looks like a chair and I like it!

SPURA - Blue - THOR

In the foreground is just one of the empty lots (now used for parking) in the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area (SPURA) on the Lower East Side. SPURA was cleared of its tenements, and residents relocated, in the early-mid 1960s as part of an urban renewal project and has been stalled ever since as different neighborhood groups debated over what should be built, how much housing v. commercial, how much "affordable" v. market rate housing, etc. Today it remains the largest plot of undeveloped land in Manhattan south of 96th Street. But a plan was recently agreed to which will build a mix of commercial and residential (about 40/60) with about 1,000 apartments (50% of which will be "affordable" - this view will change dramatically within the next few years.

Beyond this SPURA lot is Delancey Street, a busy shopping street which also carries a high volume of traffic to/from the Williamsburg Bridge (just out of view to the right). Beyond Delancey Street are two of the newer buildings built over the past few years - The Hotel on Rivington (THOR) towards the center and the Blue condo at the right.

Rooftop Graffiti

Rooftops decorated with graffiti in the Two Bridges area of the Lower East Side - seen from the Manhattan Bridge.

Smeller Modus

Rooftop graffiti on a Lower East Side building - from April. Lower East Side, Manhattan.

Under the El

This was taken underneath the elevated subway tracks in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn (just west of Coney Island) back in May. The shadows and rust on the underside of the structure caught my attention as I was crossing the street.

More from the High Line

A few more shots from my walk along the High Line elevated park in NYC's Meatpacking and Chelsea neighborhoods