New York City Workshop Redux

It’s been a crazy three months and we're wrapping up our fall photography workshops. Staci and I have had the pleasure of  hosting photography workshops in Yellowstone, New York City, Chicago, and we just returned from Death Valley. It’s been busy, fun, and exhausting, but the people we meet and the places we see really makes it worth our time.

I haven't had much time to review my images, but I thought I would share a few of my favorites from this year's workshop in New York City.

The Flatiron building is iconic by all standards and symbol of New York's great architecture. I decided to use a 21mm to help frame the scene as cabs rushed by honking their way through the intersection.

I also spotted a man using a phone booth. He had a Goodfellas look about him as he chatted on the phone  holding his cigarette. To be honest,  I haven't seen anyone using a phone booth in a long time!

What I love about NYC is you never know what you're going to see in the streets.  I never imagined a couple of high-heel-mobiles going past…

Soho is well known for it's shopping but what I love are the wide bricked streets, classic New York architecture, and of course the interesting people. I was chatting with Bing, one of my students, about approaching people when we saw this man and his dog. We stopped to talk to him for a while and it turned out that he was into photography as well. So we started chatting about cameras and the city and our workshop while Bing was shooting away. I only took one shot during our conversation, but he was heck of a nice guy and gentleman about the entire process. The next day we discovered it was Neal Slavin, a renowned photographer with a studio in Soho. His work and talent speaks for itself, so check it out. You never know who you'll meet on the streets of New York!

Someday I will go to China, but until then I have Columbus Park in Chinatown which is a favorite among the locals for playing cards.

The Fish Market in Chinatown always offers some unique photographic opportunities.

One of things I love about NYC is the amazing Graffiti. In Spanish Harlem I had the opportunity to see the artists working in shifts with spray paint and tiles to create this amazing piece of art. The crazy thing is they even worked on this project at night with the use of spotlights. There is so much talent in this world.

In between our workshops I was able to make some time for myself and head over to Brooklyn's Dumbo Park to photograph the Manhattan bridge. The bridge is simply beautiful.

We use the NYC subway quite a bit during our workshops and it's usually packed to the brim with people, but on occasion you get lucky and you have the car to yourself. 🙂

Coney Island has become one of my favorite locations to visit during our workshop for it's cult-like following and colorful residents.

Brighton Beach is known for it's Russian population where the locals congregate for chats, exercise, and of course the view of the Atlantic Ocean. I love the area for street photography.

I saw this gentleman at a distance doing pushups on a park bench. I was intrigued and approached him to ask if I could take his photo. His physique was matched by his big personality and he was very graceful with his time. We got to chatting about his 7 children and life on Coney Island.

He looked great for any age, which of course led me to ask the question, “How old are you?” He said, “How old do you think I am?” I replied, “I'm not sure, but I would say you can't be a day over 52.”  He replied with a big grin, “I'm 74!”  I of course I had a hard time believing him, and apparently my reaction was the norm because he quickly furnished his birth certificate! This of course made us all laugh, but as Mike tells it, he's used to no one believing him so he started carrying his birth certificate to prove his age.

 

We chatted with Mike for a while more before moving on when Staci slowly leaned over to me and said, “Now you know the expectation.” I of course laughed because everyone knows I'm too afraid of needles to get a tattoo. 🙂