Hot Dog Vendor, NYC. The hot-dog vendor is an enduring part of New York City culture, and is shown here on a busy midtown New York City street. I added a slight watercolor effect for a more graphic feel, and a digital mat and frame to this image. The original image was photographed with a Canon 10D and Tokina 19-35mm lens.

Times Square, Black & Blue. The festive lights of Times Square provide cosmetic adornment to the larger-than-life cityscape of New York City’s most popular neighborhood. Even after sunset, street light is strong enough to obtain sharp photos without a tripod. This image was captured handheld with a Samsung GX 1S, at 400 ISO and 1/30th second shutter speed. It was captured with the kit 18-55mm lens, and converted from the raw file using Adobe Lightroom 3.

Times Square Blues. I call this photo Times Square Blues for the blue overcast sunset sky that adds a colorful element to this setting. Sunsets in winter provide the best light for photographing Times Square (in my opinion). However, it does not last long. You may have a window of no more than a half hour of colorful sunset / twilight light. That diffused natural light adds a warm balance to the street lights. Once the sky becomes completely dark, the colors become harsher with little or no shadow detail. The 15 minutes before and after sunset are golden for great cityscapes!

In this Times Square setting, you see the New York Times building in the right mid-ground. This view is from Eighth Avenue, approaching 42nd Street. Camera: Canon 10D, Tokina 19-35mm lens, tripod, daylight white balance.

TKTS in Times Square (Manhattan) is a well loved New York City business, offering half-price, same day, tickets to Broadway plays and shows. It is considered essential by frugal playgoers who visit New York City from all over the world. Here we see the TKTS location in Times Square set against the backdrop of the 42nd Street skyline.

TKTS offers the best free seat on Broadway for a
birds-eye view of Times Square

This newly designed Times Square TKTS booth was completed in October 2008, in renovated Duffy Square. The booth is wedge-shaped, with wide, bleacher-like stairs covering the roof, allowing pedestrians to sit down or climb the steps for a panoramic, unobstructed view of Times Square.

The TKTS makeover, like much of the renovation in Times Square has really breathed life into this part of New York City. I can remember the days when you did not linger in Times Square without good reason (and there was no good reason to linger), it all felt unsafe and unsavory. Personally, I think the invention of VCR’s sped up the collapse and restoration of Times Square. When VCR’s became affordable, it caused the once thriving x-rated business sector in Times Square to collapse, freeing up lots of valuable real estate. Now, Times Square is truly a family-friendly world class attraction, and the centerpiece of the New York City tourism industry. Another view of the Tkts, Times Square can be seen here.

This image was captured with a tripod mounted Canon 10D and Tokina 19-35mm lens. It was shot during twilight, while there is still a bit of color in the sky. The diffused natural light softens the features of a cityscape, providing more color and less harsh contrast than shooting when the sky has gone completely dark.

Tugboat, South Street Seaport Museum. This photo shows the tugboat Helen McAllister docked at the South Street Seaport Museum in downtown Manhattan (New York City) near the Wall St. area. The original photo was given a digital watercolor effect and digital frame and mat.

South Street Seaport View. This photo shows a view of the piers at South Street Seaport on a beautiful winter day. This downtown New York City attraction is popular year round. If you plan to visit the South Street Seaport area with your family, here’s a tip worth knowing: The street level restaurants in this area can be a bit pricey of you have a crew to feed. However, the food court, located on the third floor of Pier 17 (seen in the background of this photo with the striped awnings) has a wide assortment fast food, including Chinese, fish & chips, burgers, etc., at family friendly prices. The views of the waterfront are great from the third floor as well. In the winter its a great place to warm up (great public restrooms), and on pleasant days you can lounge on a reclining chair on the balcony.

Pier 17, South Street. This image shows the Circle Line Cruises office located next to Pier 17, in the South Street Seaport, Downtown Manhattan (New York City). I did not realize that the Circle Line office is itself on Pier 16 until I uploaded this photo. This image was shot with a Samsung GX 1S DSLR, and tweaked using the color pencil sketch filter in Fotosketcher. I also added a digital frame and mat in Fotosketcher as well. If you like ships, the South Street Seaport Museum keeps a number of old ships docked at this Pier, as seen in the background.

Here is a second treatment of a scene from this area taken a few seconds later. Again, I used Fotosketcher to add a subtle painterly effect to the scene. It does not detract from the photographic nature of the image, but rather, adds a bit of texture and depth to the feel of the scene. Using very subtle effects like this makes a photo look more interesting. I usually blend the image treated with the painterly effect with the original image using layers in Photoshop.

Brick Oven Pizza, NYC. This photo of a brick oven pizza restaurant in Chelsea, New York City, has been tweaked and enhanced to create a painting effect. The frame and mat was also created digitally. Many programs like Photoshop and inexpensive photo editors have filters or plug-ins that create art effects. The subtle and tasteful use of these special-effects filters can add pleasing effects to your photographs. One of my personal favorites is the free program Fotosketcher. It was used for this photo. You can see the original Brick Oven Pizza photo here.

Faces, New York City. The streets of New York City are a canvas adorned with the art of a thousand faces. And they are indeed, the most interesting faces! Anyhow, this photo shows a sampling of New York spirit (or attitude) on a busy midtown street. I tweaked the image using a variety of filters and generated a digital frame and mat. For comparison, the original “New York Faces” can be seen here.

Ambrose Lightship, South Street Seaport Museum. This photo shows the Ambrose Lightship, permanently docked at the South Street Seaport in New York City (Pier 17) and part of the permanent display at the South Street Seaport Museum. The Ambrose lightship, built in 1908, was used to guide ships safely in from the Atlantic Ocean into the broad mouth of lower New York Bay between Coney Island, New York and Sandy Hook, New Jersey. The water was too deep to construct a normal lighthouse so a light ship was put in its place. The Ambrose lightship served New York Bay until 1933 when it was employed elsewhere. Finally, in 1963, the U.S. Coast Guard donated the Ambrose lightship to the South Street Museum to put on public display.

For this image, I did not use a polariser to darken the sky. I wanted the color of the sky to be as natural as possible. I set my DSLR camera white balance manually using a white card. When doing so, I waited until the sun peeked out of the clouds and created the exact lighting conditions I planned to shoot in. On partially cloudy days with fast-moving clouds, I simply wait for the optimum light conditions to illuminate my subject and then shoot. Finally, after converting the raw image with Lightroom 3, I created a very subtle watercolor effect and frame and mat using Fotosketcher and then blended the original image and the watercolor version to my tastes. The blending of the two images along with subtle tweaks in sharpening and curves was done until the image met my tastes.