Photographing New York City Digital Field Guide^®

Photographing New York City

Digital Field Guide

by Jeremy Pollack and Andy Williams

Photographing New York City Digital Field Guide

Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc. 10475 Crosspoint Boulevard Indianapolis, IN 46256 www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

ISBN: 978-0-470-58685-3

Manufactured in the United States of America

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About the Authors

Jeremy Pollack is a Connecticut-based photographer with a wide range of interests. As a result of growing up in the woods, his first love has always been nature photography which he started shooting with his father’s Canon FT QL. As his passion grew over the years, so did the breadth of his interests. Today he shoots commercial and fine art photography, selling prints at art shows and online. To connect to his blog, portfolios, fine art storefront, and other online presences, please visit www.jeremypollack.net.

Andy Williams (New York, NY) is a Photographer, COO, General Manager, and House Professional Photographer at SmugMug. Andy has been a photographer all his life, and shooting professionally for 20 years. When he is not doing portrait and event work, his artistic interests tend toward landscape and street photography. He teaches and holds several workshops a year. Andy lives in the New York City area and is a member of Photographic Arts, NY, the Professional Photographers of America, the National Association of Photoshop Professionals, the IR League, and Canon Professional Services. Andy can be found on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. His beautiful photos can be seen via his Web site at www.moonriverphotography.com.

Credits

Senior Acquisitions Editor

Stephanie McComb

Project Editor

Chris Wolfgang

Technical Editor

Mike Hagen

Copy Editor

Beth Taylor

Editorial Director

Robyn Siesky

Editorial Manager

Cricket Krengel

Business Manager

Amy Knies

Senior Marketing Manager

Sandy Smith

Vice President and Executive Group Publisher

Richard Swadley

Vice President and Executive Publisher

Barry Pruett

Project Coordinator

Katie Crocker

Graphics and Production Specialists

Ana Carrillo

Andrea HornbergerJennifer Mayberry

Quality Control Technician

Lauren Mandelbaum

Proofreading and Indexing

Valerie Haynes PerryPenny Stuart

Chance favors the prepared mind.

- Louis Pasteur

Acknowledgments

This book would not have been possible without so many wonderful people. Their belief and trust in me is humbling. A huge thank you to every one of you.  

To Rick Sammon, who believed in me enough to recommend me for this project and has been incredibly supportive of my photographic journey.

To Michael Vertefeuille, who has supported me in both words and actions and made it possible to live and breathe this project.  

To everyone at Wiley who made this book a reality.

And, of course, to my wonderful wife Crista Grasso, who has supported and pushed me every step of the way. I would not be here today without her.

—Jeremy Pollack

Introduction

This Digital Field Guide is designed to be a pocketable companion in your quest to create postcard-worthy photographs in New York City. Whether you are visiting for the first time or are a long-time resident, a beginner or seasoned shooter, this photo guide will offer tips and suggestions for 28 of the most photogenic spots in the city. Beyond simply telling you about a landmark, this book will guide you through learning and seeing examples of the best vantage points from which to take photographs at each location, what equipment to bring and why, suggested camera settings, and even how to plan for the seasons, weather, and photographing at night.

Who the Book Is For

This book is for anyone with a love of photography that will be shooting in New York City. While many of the discussions are around digital SLR cameras, point-and-shoot cameras can certainly be used for any of the shots in the book. A basic knowledge of your camera settings will be helpful, as will an understanding of the relationship of aperture, shutter speed, and ISO to create a proper exposure. However, these details are not central to the book. Instead, we focus on wonderful photographic opportunities in one of the greatest cities in the world, provide examples to inspire and follow, and explain how you can create beautiful images of your own.

One of the challenges in making great photographs of a location are the time and preparation it takes to scout, find the best angles, and learn the best times to visit. This book will help you in each of these areas. We have done the research and planning so you can enjoy your time making photographs.

A few other resources that might be helpful for your trip to New York City are:

Google Maps with Streetview. New York City is thoroughly covered by Google Streetview. This gives you a photographic look at every street in the city! Take a virtual look around your destinations and get a feel for the street layouts before setting foot in town.

MTA Trip Planner. Located at http://tripplanner.mta.info, this excellent resource will help you plot your way around the city using mass transit.

Destination Web sites. While we have endeavored to include the most up-to-date and pertinent information possible in this book, things do change. Web sites for major destinations such as the Empire State Building or the Statue of Liberty will provide up-to-the-minute details and contact information.

We want to see your photos! Join the Flickr group at http://www.flickr.com/groups/dfgnyc/

How To Use This Book

This book is organized alphabetically by location, starting with the Bronx Zoo all the way to Wall Street. You can go directly to any chapter rather than reading from start-to-finish. Some discussions will be cross-referenced to an earlier chapter, and there are useful tips and tricks spread throughout the entire text, so reading it from cover-to-cover will be beneficial, too.

A lot of travel photography is spent learning where to go, when to go, and why to go. The goal of this book is to free you from those tasks, allowing you to focus on your photography and finding beautiful light.

Lenses and Crop Factor

Images for this book were shot with a mixture of full-frame and crop-sensor cameras. A crop-sensor camera will offer a different angle of view with the same lens as a full frame camera. Generally these cause a 1.5x/1.6x magnification with some of the newer models giving a 2.0x magnification.

The photo captions in this book list the lenses which were used to create the photograph. These measurements have been normalized for a full-frame camera. See the table below for a comparison of some of the common lenses used and their full-frame versus crop-sensor focal lengths.

Full-frame sensor

16-35mm zoom

24-70mm zoom

24-105mm zoom

70-200mm zoom

50mm prime

85mm prime

300mm prime

1.5x/1.6x crop sensor

25-60mm zoom

38-112mm zoom

38-170mm zoom

112-320mm zoom

80mm prime

128mm prime

480mm prime

2.0x crop sensor

32-70mm zoom

48-140mm zoom

48-210mm zoom

140-400mm zoom

100mm prime

170mm prime

600mm prime