Street Photography in New York
Street Photography in New YAs you may be aware, last week I was very fortunate to go to New York. It was my first time in the city and to say that I was excited was an understatement. New York had long been one of my ‘must go to’ places and I was pretty Certain THAT I might take a picture or two (thousand) while I was there.
Laura and I arrived late on the Friday night. On leaving Penn Station and making our way to our hotel, I caught tantalising glimpses of New York and as I turned the first corner, was confronted by the Empire State Building. It felt a little surreal seeing it. At that point, it started to sink in, I was finally in New York!
The next morning, I woke up early, grabbed all three of the cameras that I had with me and hit the streets. It was eerily quite considering this city never sleeps. However, it felt amazing to have the city streets pretty much to myself. I was approached a couple of times by people looking for a small handout, a dollar here and there, so I thought it best to be a bit more discreet whilst walking the city streets alone.
I only used my ‘small’ camera, a little Ricoh GR, which became my best friend over the course of the week. Perfect for covert little shots here and there. I had to be ninja like to walk into a scene, grab the shot and leave without detection. That first morning alone was two incredible hours as I familiarised myself with the block layouts, the subway and later in the morning, the hustle and bustle of the city streets.
Throughout the course of the week, I found myself more inclined to shoot ‘street photography’ capturing the everyday scenes as I walked around completely smitten with the busy city streets. I rarely used the ‘big camera’, only for the larger landscape images. There was something to be said about being discreet as I feared that getting caught taking a picture of someone may result in a typical New York style abusive tirade.
With a mix of good light, heavy showers, day and night shots, I was pretty pleased with some of the images I captured. Overall, it was an amazing experience and one that I will hopefully get the opportunity to replicate sometime soon.