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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