A great city filled with many photo opportunities, BUT you have to do a bit of advance planning to map out where you want to get to, and what you may want to photograph.  I like just walking around, but even doing that you need to decide what neighborhood you want to be in and how to get there.  The subway is a great way to see the city once you get used to transferring to the different lines.

Originally my objective was to try and get some night skyline pictures, but I found that this is harder to do than I thought.  First of all, it is difficult to find picturesque vantage points without doing a lot of research.  Second, most hotels, public buildings etc. do not allow tripods and even then glass reflections have to be dealt with. I tried in a few places, but basically gave up.

So my next areas of interest were Central Park, Greenwich Village, and Coney Island.  Central Park is always interesting. There are landscape pictures to be had, as well as, lots of people pictures opportunities.  Near 59^th St is the Gapstow Bridge, which is a lovely structure in a very picturesque setting, and there are horse and buggies going around all the time through that area.

A little further North is the Literary Walk that has wonderful overhanging trees and lots of musicians and artists and people walking around.

Then a little further north and east you get to the Boat House where people rent row boats for an hour or two on the lovely lake. I did this and it was very pleasant.

You can easily spend several hours in this park and every season offers its own charm.

This was my first time to Greenwich Village and Coney Island. West Greenwich Village was very quaint and interesting.  It is not far from one end of the “Hi-Line” where a previous elevated train route was converted into gardens and walking paths.  East Greenwich Village is where many of the students of NYU hang out.  You can also visit Washington Park (which used to be the public gallows area) that is filled with many interesting sights and people, including a grand archway, a beautiful fountain and an area where you can challenge anyone to a game of chess.

Coney Island was neat, but unfortunately I picked the wrong time to go.  It was the day of the annual Mermaid Parade, and over 500,000 people jammed the sidewalks for this event. It was almost impossible to move around……. ! I couldn’t even get a good look at the famous “Nathan’s Hotdog Stand”.  Guess I will have to try again sometime.

Submitted by Dynolights Member Steve Shor