Shot with Canon 5D, 24-105 f/4L IS, B+W ND3.0 filter
@ 24mm, f/18, ISO 50, 60s

In the planning phase for my 10-day NYC trip, I had the idea to take long exposures in daylight. There were two variants to this idea:

1) 60″ exposures to capture the movement of the city while also putting less of an emphasis on individual passers-by, while sharply rendering the landscape or cityscape. Plus, I thought of a cool name for the series: One New York Minute.

2) ~1-5″ exposures to obscure the features of people while still sharply rendering the landscape or cityscape, but not so much that they’re invisible. Even those passing by quickly will be rendered in a blurred state, which nicely shows (rather than implying) the movement of the city.

For the 60″ exposures, I needed to majorly cut down the amount of light hitting my sensor. Otherwise, even at the lowest ISO sensitivity and smallest aperture, you’d get a blown out image with such a long exposure in the middle of the day. And shooting at the absolute smallest aperture will mean reduced sharpness (the sweet spot is almost universally f/8 – f/11). That being said… I still ended up having to shoot at f/18 (the smallest on the lens was f/22) in order to get the exposure I wanted at 60″, even with the ND filter.

As you might imagine, I did not hand-hold this shot, as I do most of the time (and shots like this are the reason I toted my tripod around the whole day, as I previously complained about). If you’re wondering what tripod / head setup I use, I can very highly recommend all of the following:

• Gitzo GT3531S Tripod
• ReallyRightStuff BH-55 LR Ballhead + Lever Clamp
• ReallyRightStuff B5D-L Canon 5D L Bracket
• Canon TC80N3 Remote Timer

I used to have a cheap Manfrotto tripod / ballhead, and it would tend to drift with longer lenses, and it wasn’t reliably stable. The equipment I listed above has been used regularly for commercial shoots where panoramic photography is involved (requiring a great degree of stability, level shots, no sag…). It’s not much fun to carry the stuff all around the city, but if you need them, they won’t let you down.

But I digress – back to the photo itself…

This photo is taken from nearly the same perspective of a shot I’d taken years before, hand-held. The previous shot wasn’t quite as special as I knew it had the potential to be, though. One of the benefits of the long exposure here is that the water has turned to glass. If you look closely, you’ll also notice the faint presence of some others taking in the wonderful view.

Processing involved many steps in Lightroom, though none of it was terribly complicated. Rather than listing out all the steps, in the next couple of days I’ll do another making-of video like the Making of: Woman jogging in central park.

Shot with Canon 5D, 300mm f/4L IS
@ 300mm, f/4, ISO 500, 1/5000s

When I finally made my way to the Alice in Wonderland statue for a shot I’d planned out before my arrival in NYC, I was greeted with a pleasant surprise (though not totally unanticipated). In the Conservatory Water there were a couple of remote control sailboats under the control of some rather young sea captains. I can only vaguely remember seeing such images in posters, or movies, or something… I can’t even recall where. This is one of those things I’d subconsciously wanted to shoot for a long time, so I ceased the opportunity. It was a little tricky because I had to anticipate where they were going to make sure I’d be in the right spot (and the captains had to be part of the image, of course).

Unfortunately, the best shot I got still doesn’t totally thrill me. I mean, I like it, but I can’t help but be bothered by the man on his cell phone behind the crouching captain, and the couple further to the right in the background. I haven’t made up my mind whether I feel that kills the image totally or not, though… I may end up just cloning those people out, but that will be a little more complex a job of cloning than I care to do in Lightroom (Photoshop does still have its uses).

Processing on this shot started out with my custom Lightroom preset, Sepia. The only other thing I did was brush in an exposure adjustment (+) in the water because of clipping shadows (there are still some clipped shadows, but it’s more controlled now).

I hope you enjoy the photo as much as I enjoyed watching this modernized version of a classic scene unfold before me. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the other figures in the shot and whether you believe they add to or take away from the overall photo.

Shot with Canon 5D, 300mm f/4L IS + 1.4x extender
@ 420mm, f/5.6, ISO 500, 1/250s

After relaxing for a bit in one of the lawns, it was time to get moving again. I proceeded to walk through Central Park, loosely towards the Alice in Wonderland statue. Walking around Central Park is such a joy that I wasn’t exactly in a rush. In this shot, I feel like I captured a special moment as these two lovebirds enjoyed one-another’s company. Now, traditionally speaking, photos of people are better when you can see their faces, their eyes, and the emotion conveyed therein. I always say rules are meant to be broken, however. Their purpose is to serve as a rule of thumb – once you learn them well, you can stray from them with purpose. In this case, I think the obscurity of it all leaves this open to interpretation.

To process this photo, I simply used my custom Lightroom preset, Grayscale – Punchy then adjusted contrast (-) and sharpening (-) because it was a little too punchy and over-sharpened for the scene.