And We're Back from New York City

We experienced an amazing, fun-filled, and busy weekend in Manhattan meeting Megan's long lost cousins from the island of Lifou.  We didn't have much time to spare, but we did find time to make it to the American Museum of Natural History, Times Square, and Rockefeller Plaza.

Happy Christmas!

-Tom

New York Rooftop Sunset

There's something romantic about being on the rooftop.  Looking down below all that's going on, knowing you've found a little corner of the world to just sit and watch the sunset.  This concludes my lookback at some of my favorite images from previous travels to NYC.  Now, it's time to decide which gear I'll be taking and what types of photographs I'd like to bring back this time.

-Tom

Rooftop Running in NYC

There's nothing quite like watching a sunset from a rooptop in Manhattan.  During our 2010 visit, Weston had a blast running around on the roof.  By this time, he had recovered from the terror that was the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade.  He needed to get out some energy.  Yes, we were some 30 or so floors up, and there was a nice fence, but it still made unnerved me.  Alas, he survived.

Tomorrow I'll bring an end to the New York Series. During our upcoming trip I'm not going to have a ton of time to photographing explore the city, but hopefully I'll get a few new images that I like. We'll be staying in the Upper West Side.  Do you have a favorite NYC location that shouldn't be missed for photography?

-Tom

From Above

If you find yourself in New York City, try to make it onto a roof.  Usually, you'll be alone, and you just get an absolutely wonderful perspective from above.  During this 2010 trip, Megan and I flew to LaGuardia via Port Columbus.  This time, our silver mini-van will be battling traffic.

-Tom

Rooftop Respite

In Manhattan, every little bit of space is used.  How nice would it be to have your own little rooftop patio?  Yes, sometimes I feel boxed in by my quarter acre lot in Worthington, but really, I have nothing to complain about.

-Tom

A Look Back to the 2010 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

In 2010, Megan, Weston, myself and an in utero Brody travelled to Manhattan for the Macy's Thanksgiving parade.  We thought Weston would love it.  Instead, he was scared to death of the giant balloons as they floated by.  We were so far from the street that we couldn't see anything but the balloons.  And Weston couldn't see that said balloons were controlled by people.  I think he thought they were giant monsters.  Poor little dude!

Back in 2010, photography was still done using the small point and shoot cameras that had become ubiquitous by that time.  But as you can see below, cell phones were starting to creep in.  Who  they would have thought that they would completely replace dedicated cameras just five years later?

By the end of the day, boy was our little one-and-a-half-year-old tuckered out!

-Tom

Before Selfies Were Cool

I'm taking a look at photographs I've taken in Manhattan leading up to our December trip to the most crowded island in the country.  Here we are in Megan's grandparents apartment back in 2006.  This was the little place we could go to get away from the activity.

-Tom

The Medusa Tree

On our walk through Central Park in January 2007, I distinctly remember Megan looking at this tree and saying something like "now I could draw that!"  I called her on it, yet I still haven't seen anything.  I tried to replicate the success of this photograph back in 2010, but my black and white version is way better.  The contrast between the natural, seemingly random craziness of the tree branches contrasting with the rigid angles of the baseball backstop makes this photograph for me.

Three years later, same subject, different angle, not nearly as effective.

-Tom

Glen Span Arch - Central Park

This photo taken under the Glen Span Arch is perhaps my favorite image from Manhattan.  It was built in 1865.  To this day, this image moves me perhaps more than any other image that I have captured.

-Tom

Photographing Manhattan

I first visited Manhattan during my high school senior trip in the late 90's.  I can remember two things- I was elated I wasn't mugged, and I walked for what seemed like hours going around and around the city.  Fast forward ten years to when I met Megan.  Her grandparents lived in Manhattan. Upper west side, around 110 and Broadway.  Just a block or so south of Tom's Restaurant of Seinfeld fame.

Manhattan is such a different living experience.  I've always thought I'd like to try it, just to see if I wouldn't go crazy.  There are ways that people cope, by finding refuge in the cracks or corners. There's no unused space on that island.  Every spot of land is marked out and taken.  There's very little wild there, even though there are seemingly wild places. 

Megan and I had just been married a few months when unfortunate circumstances brought us again to the city.  During this trip was when I was really diving into photography.  My images that I'll show to start this series are rightfully dark, but still remain in my memory as some of the most powerful photographs I have taken.  We were staying in dormitories at the Riverside Church seminary.  Our room looked out into a beautiful sheltered courtyard where the daffodils were blooming in the cold, misty rain of mid January. Yes, January.

We'll bringing the whole family to Manhattan just before Christmas to meet Megan's far lost relatives from the island Lifou, part of New Caledonia in the Pacific Ocean.  A long lost cousin left New York long ago, sometime in the mid 19th century, and settled on the other side of the world making a name for himself on a tiny tropical coral island.  His descendants haven't been back since.  That will change come December, when we'll meet them in the city.  I hope the boys remember this reunion forever, as they're going to have quite the story to tell when they get older.  Who knows- maybe they will travel to Lifou?

-Tom