Week 27
July 11th, 2016
Midtown
Manhattanhenge
Train In/Out: Fairfield, CT
Miles walked: 8
Camera: Olympus OM-D E-M1 with m.Zuiko 17mm f1.8, m.Zuiko 12-40mm PRO, m.Zuiko 40-150mm
July 11th, 2016 was a special day in Manhattan. They call it "Manhattanhenge" and it's when the sun sets right down the middle of the streets running east / west. It only happens a couple of times a year, and as luck would have it, it happened on a Monday!
I'm now on the second half of my 52 week project. I remember getting in the car after my very first trip into the city, my husband had picked me up from the train station and he asked how my day went. I said "it went well, only 51 more trips to go." On that day, the project felt huge and overwhelming, and despite having a pretty good first day I wondered if I would be able to finish. NOW, my latest concern is what happens when I do finish? I truly love the work and I'm a tad sad that there could be a finish line in sight. But hey, who says it has to end. I'm making all the rules. ;)
Onward.
Hi!
Just a quick shot honoring the police officers of the city. The past week or so has been rough for police all over the country.
This bridge on 42nd Street @ 2nd Avenue is the classic place to take the Manhattanhenge sunset picture. I was not planning on taking it there tonight, but I wanted to check it out since I've never been to this area. There are not a lot of bridges like this in the city. And I was curious if, at 2:30pm, anyone was waiting for the sunset already, saving a primo spot.
Of course there was! Her name is Lisa, we chatted for a while. She said she got to her spot at 11:30am. Now that's dedication, especially since it was unclear if the weather / clouds were going to cooperate tonight. She said she had a Canon Rebel camera with her but didn't really know how to use it very well. Even more dedicated to be a novice photographer waiting 9 hours for a shot at a cool image.
This would be the classic shot most people would take of Manhattanhenge tonight. You've got the Chrysler building on the right, and with ideal weather conditions you'll get a bright red fireball setting between the buildings. My research told me this bridge gets PACKED with people for this mother nature event. After last week's Coney Island hot dog eating contest where I was sandwiched in between thousands of people, I opted to find a more quiet spot for my version of Manhattanhenge.
This is when I realized I stumbled upon the U.N. building. Haven't seen it since a trip to NYC when I was in Middle School.
I remembered all the flags from when I was young.
Across the street from the U.N. Loved the reflections, played with keeping only the blue in this pic.
Woof x 10.
Haven't done a selfie in a few weeks.
Why thank you!
I just missed a better pic of her. Adult pig tails are always interesting to me. When my husband looked at this picture, he said her glasses look like the ones the ladies had in the Farside comic strip!
Popped in to St. Patrick's cathedral for a few minutes.
This is what the majority of people were doing in the cathedral.
And this.
It makes me want to go back to St. John the Divine cathedral up at 110th street. I went there on Week 2. It's far more interesting, IMHO.
Looking towards the front.
What struck me was how the feet reminded me of the gentleman last week laying on the stoop in SOHO.
It's so interesting how times change. I'm sure when the cathedral was built, no one was thinking about digital clocks and hand sanitizer.
Checking out the Radio City Music Hall area on 50th to scope out MY spot for Manhattanhenge. I thought I could do two birds, photograph the Manhattanhenge sunset with Radio City framing my image, and then do some night photography of Radio City since the lights are so beautiful. On this side of Radio City, looking west, I'm not loving the view and the traffic is messy.
And right across the street is NBC, so I'm thinking this is going to be a generally crowded area. Not ideal for setting up a tripod.
Now this is MUCH better. This is on the other side of the building, on 51st street. There are barriers setup for the music hall, traffic will be flowing away from me (I prefer taillights to headlights in my photo). Much better. So I decide this will be my spot in a few hours.
Milling around Rockefeller Center for a few minutes. I snapped this pic just to remember that there is a rooftop bar with a view, something to check out another day. HOWEVER, in reviewing the picture I love how there are two women peeking over the top of the sign and that the sign has a woman obscuring her eyes. Perfect! Too bad I chopped off their heads but whatever, I'll take it as a fun unexpected capture.
This is Moises from Columbia. He struck up a brief conversation with me as I got up from the bench. He is a professor from Columbia, South America. He asked that I speak english slowly but he understood me pretty well. I told him about the fancy sunset tonight. As I left I asked to take his photo. And then he got up and asked me out for coffee after the sunset! My first NYC date invitation, ha ha. (I'm happily married.) I politely declined. :)
An entire paper dedicated to China. Interesting.
One of my favorites of the day.
She was sitting behind the white haired girl. Loved her glasses.
There were two of these on this plaza. Very cool. I wanted to go back at night to see if they were lit up but I was too tired. Another time. Used an in camera Olympus art filter for this aged effect.
Welcome to Interesting Things...
I believe this company, Gett, just redefined what FREE means???????
Couldn't resist. ;)
I'm surprised I don't see more of this in the city.
Since I don't drink regular coffee, I felt I identified much better with the middle sign (and maybe the bottom one).
When I was young, we called this a "slip". Seriously. It was exactly what I wore as a teenager UNDER a dress. (yay, now I sound old!)
I'm tired and hungry but midtown is not a place where there are little pizza shops on every corner. I almost went in here but you know the drill, I don't do "Grade Pending" or "B" restaurants. This proved, however, to maybe be a mistake. I probably wandered a mile searching for another pizza place. Not fun.
His version of a day at the beach. No sign asking for money.
One of my favorites of the day.
Sat for a while to rest. Instead of me looking for interesting people, I let them come to me! His hover board was a rose gold color.
I love couples that hold hands.
Milling around again. No one was gobbling down 70 hot dogs here.
I noticed this guy holidng his signs and that the one said something about $35. I had seen another sign with $35 near here...
Ah yes, this guy's sign said something about $35.
And it turned out they seemed to be working the street corners kind of together. I think they were discussing the money they collected.
Walking guy helped himself to planking guy's money. And here you can see the $35 on planking guy's sign.
Time to get setup for Manhattanhenge. This is about 30 minutes before the official sunset.
iPhone selfie of my setup. Olympus OM-D E-M1 with 40-150mm lens @74mm.
Ta da! This was my best photo of Manhattanhenge. No clearly defined ball of red fire, the clouds smeared the sunl, but it's still a cool picture.
After the sunset.
This is where I sat earlier and took pictures of interesting people who walked by (or hovered by). Thought it could be pretty for some long exposure night shots. I used the Olympus Live Composite to take these pictures. Amazing feature where you figure out what a good exposure setting is, and then you let the camera take pictures over and over and it only adds new light that it detects; it creates one file when you're done. In this case, it helped let the water get "soft" looking.
Here Live Composite let me get the lights of cars driving by to blur across the intersection.
A favorite of the night shots.
Ruh roh!
No worries, I knew I would be there later, so I took a shot when I arrived. 27 weeks of experience!
Until the next Magic Monday! Please say hello in the box below, let me know if you have a favorite image or two from this week. And don't forget to look for me on INSTAGRAM! (Megan Crandlemire Photography)
xo,
~MC
PS. Pretty sure I was seated next to a Time Traveller on my way home on the train. In his 20's, he had a CD player and was reading Jane Austen.
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