Street | Urban | Travel | Photography by Marcus Puschmann
The most iconic monument in New York City is doubtless Lady Liberty, the most famous statue of the world, guarding the entrance to New York harbor since 1886. For a bit more history about the Statue of Liberty, info about our visit and more photographs, continue after the jump…. Continue reading “NYC Experience – Lady Liberty”
I’m back home in Nuremberg, after an eventless, smooth flight across the Northern Atlantic. The 9h 30 min flight from PDX to AMS (I was able to rebook to the direct flight instead going via Seattle) was long enough to watch two movies (“12 Strong” and “The Post”), enjoy a wood plank grilled salmon dinner and get in some sleep before landing in Amsterdam. There I had only 60 minutes connection time, so I was back home in time for a late family breakfast. My long travel back at least helped my to unwind after a hard work week in Portland.
The photo above, taken with my iPhone somewhere from high above the North Sea, was actually the only one I got out of this business trip. The OM-D didn’t even leave her bag all week (is a camera a she??). The scenery with the wind park and the passing boat visually attracted me. The soft color gradient from dark to light blue, the lines of the offshore wind mills, the 90 degree angled line of the passing ship (the pic would have made a great entry to this week’s WPC challenge). So I took my phone and clicked.
It made me feel good.
It was my visual push-up of the day.
Have an awesome and creative weekend!
Marcus
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This week the weekly photo challenge (WPC) from Word Press’ “The Daily Post” has the theme “Lines“. So here is my “lineiest” street photo. For some more line items (pun intended) continue after the jump…. Continue reading “Weekly Photo Challenge: Lines”
The job that pays the bills is really giving me a hard time tis week in Portland. No chance to enjoy even a tiny bit of the record temperatures and summer sunshine that graces the Rose City in April, and no chance to pick up the camera for any kind of photography.
Instead I’m sitting in a windowless office solving all kinds of problems that came up in the last days. Tough luck…the glory of business travel.
At least I get to fly back home tomorrow, although need to go via Seattle to Amsterdam instead of taking the direct flight. Believe it or not, this is cheaper and we need to save travel costs. But also one more chance to miss a flight due to delays or whatever other reasons.
The photo above I took in the American Museum of Natural History in NYC the other week. Good example that you can shoot perfectly fine street photography in a museum.
Taken with the Olympus OM-D E-M1 and the mZuiko 12-100mm F/4 Pro Zoom. Image specs are 1/25 sec @f/4 and ISO 3200. Focal length was 35mm (70mm full frame equivalent). I needed to crank up the ISO as it was pretty dark in the Hall of Human Origins, where I caught this great juxtaposition of the prehistoric skeleton looking into the face of a visiting lady and vice versa. I wonder who is seeing ghosts 😉
Wish you all a great Thursday!
Marcus
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Soggy outside? Shoot in an exhibition!
DUMBO stands for “Down under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass”, the Brooklyn neighborhood on the East River between Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges. Originally a ferry landing, with 19th- and early 20th-century industrial and warehouse buildings, the area is now a hip and expensive neighborhood with plenty bars, restaurants and fancy apartments in the converted brick buildings.
From Manhattan it best can be reached via the A-Line Station “High Street / Brooklyn Bridge”. Form the station you can easily reach beginning of the famous walkway of the Brooklyn Bridge, or you can wander down to the East River to take in the awesome views of the Manhattan downtown skyline and the massive two bridges crossing the East River, best seen from the Brooklyn Bridge Park.
I was quite amazed by the nice bokeh my mZuiko 12-100mm f/4 produced at its widest aperture, and I loved experimenting a bit in the waning light of a splendid NYC day.
What also sets this lens apart, is the awesome lens internal image stabilization. I shot the next two photos with a shutter speed of 1/5 sec hand-held, and they are real sharp. This saves me lugging around a tripod, which is a key benefit when roaming a full day through a city on foot. Shooting low light with this lens and my Olympus OM-D E-M1 is so much fun. Despite the slow shutter speeds I could keep ISO at by, never exceeding 1600 (which is no problem noise-wise on the Olympus). And at f/4, the lens is still sharp across the frame and along the full zoom range. A great piece of glass.
If you want to rest a bit and are in for a pizza, directly underneath the bridges are various Italian restaurants featuring coal fired brick pizza ovens, something that is not allowed across the East River in Manhattan for fire prevention reasons. We went to Grimaldi’s on Front Street.
This photograph of the Manhattan Bridge behind brick buildings of Washington Street, with the Empire State Building visible beneath the bridge was on my “must have shot” list. During my earlier trips to the Big Apple I never made it to DUMBO, and I have a framed photograph of this famous view by German photographer Steffen Böttcher (“Stilpirat”) hanging in my office. So sure we finished our tour with this iconic view, just down from the High Street subway station.
Have a great Wednesday!
Marcus
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It’s sunny today in Nuremberg. In fact, we’ve had a unusually warm, almost summer-like week. Nature has exploded around us. I’m sitting out on the deck working through my NYC photos, still amazed by the swagger of the Big Apple. Is there any other city where dogs wear sunglasses?
Later today we’ll visit friends for a barbecue (and some drone flying). Life is good! Tomorrow I’ll head back to Portland, Oregon. Just for a week. And believe it or not, the weather forecast for the Pacific Northwest calls for sunny days and temperatures in the 80’s. Crazy world, but I’ll take it 🙂
This photo I took last weekend on the Brooklyn Bridge with my Olympus OM-D E-M1 and the mZuiko 12-100 F/4 Pro Zoom. Image specs 1/640 sec @ f/7.1 and ISO 200, 80mm focal length.
Have a great Sunday!
Marcus
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In this episode about our week in NYC I want to take you up to the observation deck of the Rockefeller Center, called “Top of the Rocks”, just a few blocks to walk from Times Square. At 10:30pm there was no waiting line, so after showing our vouchers from the New York City Pass we could directly take the elevator up to the 67th floor, from where we enjoyed first views through glass panels (a bit protected from the cold winds), but then continued on to the open air viewing platform on the 70th floor. For a bit more info and some more photos continue after the jump…. Continue reading “NYC Experience – Top of the Rocks”
A great way to start a New York City experience is to visit the ever-bustling Times Square. We started our evening with a great dinner at Tony’s Di Napoli just off Times Square, then headed to the New Amsterdam Theater at 42nd Street to see a splendid performance of Disney’s musical “Aladdin” (a present from the kids for The Signifcant Other). I was a bit concerned bringing my camera into the theater, but it turned out to be no problem whatsoever, as long as the cam stayed in the bag during the show, where photography was obviously not allowed. I needed to have it with me, as after the show we wanted to have our Times Square experience with a chance for me for some night photography. For the images continue after the jump… Continue reading “NYC Experience – Times Square”
The post should be titled “Sign of Life from the Big Apple”. We’ve been roaming the streets of New York City for 5 days now. Initially I intended to blog each day, but gave up on it on day 2. Anyone surprised? The SD cards are filling up nicely now. You will get to see it eventually, promised! Also please bear with me not answering to comments or reading other people’s blogs, I will catch up on both once back home. So I will leave you just with a few street shots, as those need not much curating or processing. For a few more shots, what we saw so far and how happy I am with the gear I brought, continue after the jump… Continue reading “Life in the Big Apple”
This is my New York City eye-opener from this morning, in the truest sense of the word. When I opened my eyes at 6:05am this morning, this is what I saw from my pillow. Our hotel room has floor to roof glass windows, and sure we slept with the curtains open, with the view of the downtown Manhattan skyline. I grabbed my E-M1 and squeezed off a shot through our windows at 1/5 sec, f/4 and ISO 200, to capture the magic of the pre-sunrise blue hour.
The debate was not really a debate. We threw some clothes on and took the stairs from the 12th floor (where our room is) to the rooftop on the 19th floor of our hotel in the Meetpacking District directly above the Highline Park. In the midst of a freezing morning (it was 32F / 0C) we enjoyed, all by ourselves, a magic Manhattan sunrise.
The rooftop has also a glass wall, in which I captured the reflections of the sunrise behind the midtown skyline (behind us) and the downtown skyline with the new World Trade Center. No double exposure, a single shot. 1/320 sec @ f/7.1 and ISO 200. Lens was the 12-100mm F/4 I brought along with my OM-D E-M1.
I took this panorama with my iPhone from the roof, this is practically the same view we enjoy from our room, only without any window reflections. Isn’t this a million dollar view? Life is good! Today we head downtown to World Trade Center and the 9/11 memorial and museum.
Have a great Monday!
Marcus
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Travel Day once again, but this one is special. To find out why, continue after the jump… Continue reading “Travel Day (12)”
We did spend a good amount of Easter Sunday in the car, returning from a splendid weekend with friends in Austria. The Big Boy was handling all the driving, which I thoroughly enjoyed, as he is a good driver and fully ready to start driving all by himself starting next Thursday, when he turns 18.
Sitting next to him, I could limit my supervisory duties to an occasional checking glance to the speedometer (German Autobahn does not have a speed limit), and used the time to watch an awesome video class on Kelby Training that I’ve downloaded to my iPad, “A Day with Jay Maisel”, where Scott (Kelby) and Jay walk the streets of New York during this two hour video, and Jay shares his wisdom from years of shooting Street Photography in the Big Apple. An excellent intro for our upcoming NYC trip.
As there was no real time for my own photography yesterday, I turned to the archive and pulled out this iPhone image I took of an Easter fountain in neighboring Altdorf (the town where Big Boy goes to school). The decoration of fountains with eggs and tree branches is an old tradition in our region, it is fun doing a Easter outing, driving from village to village to look at the magnificent displays.
The weather in the shot was exactly how it was yesterday, cool and cloudy, with an occasional shower and an ensuing glimpse of the sun. Today, Easter Monday, the weather is glorious, and in Germany we still enjoy a free day. The Significant Other, Big Boy and I have prepared the Easter lamb that is not simmering in the oven, to be enjoyed later when family comes over for the Easter dinner.
Wish you all a great Monday!
Marcus
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