New York – Part 1

Date: August 4th 2007
Place: New York

After nearly three weeks of un-ending work, this trip to New York City (NYC) was a welcome break. More than the excitement of visiting a new place I was eager to meet my college buddies, Jayanth and Vamshi.

Times Square: this place is famous for huge number of animated neon and LED displays. The timing of my visit to this place might not have been the best as the adds flashing were not the prime time variety.

The famous NASDAQ MarketSite display can be seen on the left.

On the opposite side is the famous Coca-Cola screen which had an animated 3-D Cola on display. Unfortunately, when I did decide to take a snap they changed it to something else.

New York is all about tall buildings. You can tell a tourist from a New Yorker by observing whether his gaze is towards the road or up in the skies. I was just following my friends with my neck fixed at an awkward angle, gaping at those tall structures and asking every now and then where we are.

Chrysler building: The second tallest building in NYC and the Worlds tallest brick structure even to this day

A building which tapered as it progresses up. The buildings name: ‘Grace’, very apt.

Grand Central Terminal

The Chrysler building in the midst of its Steel-Glass neighboring structures.

After visiting the Grand Central terminal we went to another sub-way station where there was this Busking going on. The sheer energy of this one man show was awe-inspiring.

 

From here, we visited the Central Park. We entered the park from the East entrance close to the reservoir and decided to walk towards ‘Sheep Meadow’. The walk took us nearly 3 hours and we had not covered more than 70% of the park, length-wise. 4km X 800 meters, that’s how big the park is!

All day I was using a circular polarizer filter while taking snaps. Here is an example of the difference in effect.
The Angel of the Waters

 

The photo on the left cuts out the light reflected from the water surface, as a result increasing the contrast of the water lilies. But at the same time we can see more saturation- white light from the sky.
The photo on the right reduces the direct light from sky but water reflection takes out the contrast of the water lilies.
It’s amazing how just a small turn of the Circular polarizer filter can alter the end results. By the way, I like both the photos.

By the time we exited Central park it was already dark. We took the Roosevelt Island Tramway which is an aerial tramway which connects Downtown with Roosevelt Island. Most tourists take the tramway to the island and take the next one back, as it is the view on offer during the high wire ride which is interesting. Here is one such view.

 

There was only one last thing to do for the day. Get a view of the New York (Downtown) skyline from across the river.

Mode = Manual, Focal Length = 30mm, F-Number = F/9, Exposure Time = 3 sec, ISO speed = 400, White Balance = Auto, Exposure Compensation = -0.7