The day after arriving in Manhattan, I ventured to Central Park which was only a 30 minute walk away.
Before I left for NYC I'd been scouring the internet and had seen some amazing videos of sunset over the city and I set myself a mini project of capturing the sunset over Central Park.
The sun set at around 6.30 and I got there an hour earlier and set up my cameras.
I was over looking Sheep Meadow, on the south end of the park. I set my cameras rolling and people watched for the next hour. The office workers taking time to enjoy the park after a long day in the office, the kids playing, dog walkers and those just strolling and taking in the evening. I stayed there until the sun had set and a park warden came along, he walked into Sheep Meadow and shouted out that the gates were closing and everyone had to leave. I had secured my cameras to the actual gate that need to be locked so it was time to move on.
I stayed in the park a little longer and took a seat nearby two New York old timers and eavesdropped on the conversation. They were talking about how times have changed, old friends, their failing health, and good times too. Thank you to those two gentleman who let a tourist have an insight into their lives.
If you haven't been there in person, you will certainly have caught glimpses of it in movies such as Carlito's Way, North By Northwest, The Taking Of Pelham 123 to name just a few.
It was early evening by the time I reached Grand Central and peak rush hour.
I stood on 42nd Street just observing and trying to get my bearings and figuring out the way in. That bit was easy, I just had to follow the crowds.
Surprisingly to the entrance had swing doors that needed to be pushed or pulled, which although kept with the traditional features of the building, didn't do much to ease congestion at this busy time of the day. I made a note to try not to get in anyone's way; keep moving, don't stop suddenly or a commuter might run into me, step to one side if I have to stop and look around before taking up a position to take photos.
Without much of a plan or knowing the layout I stepped from the street into the terminal and paused.... Walking past some shops (there are 68 retails stores inside) and following the crowd I found myself in the entrance tunnel lit by beautiful chandeliers.
This led to the food hall which hosts food outlets that can satisfy any taste bud, from Chinese, to salads, to bagels and pretzels to Mexican and everything in between.
Feeling a little peckish I decided to stop and re-fuel and take in the atmosphere. I grabbed a bite to eat and a drink and wandered around with my tray looking for a spare seat, which I found underneath a stone archway.
People watching, I noticed the couple holding hands across a coffee cup strewn table, perhaps an illicit encounter I imagined. Parents trying to calm two unruly and overtired children. The homeless guy rummaging through the bin, looking inside discarded food containers for tonight's dinner.
To my left were a couple of business gents in their smart suits. One was particularly vocal, his voice resonating around the stone archway; sales figures, the big deal, overseas contracts, the team. He went on and on. "I'm a big wig" his talked seemed to want to tell everyone within earshot. I exchanged looks with his quiet partner who was fiddling with his empty coffee cup; Me: Poor you, he does go on doesn't he? Him: Yep! I wish he'd shut up about himself so I can get home and salvage what's left of the evening!
Finishing my diet coke and gathering my bags, someone was already waiting in the wings to take my seat.
I can't quite remember how now, but I managed to make my way to the upper level of Grand Central, the main concourse.
It's huge, it's beautiful, it's splendid. It echoes with the sound of rushed foot steps and the murmur of hundreds of voices in unison, occasionally interrupted by announcements on the tannoy.
I took my place upon the steps that lead up to Charlie Parlmer's Metrazor restaurant (strictly no sitting on the steps!). With my view raised above the concourse I soaked it all in.
It was a regret that I didn't bring a tripod that day, but having since read more on Grand Central's terminal it's seems you need to give a weeks notice if you have the intention of photographing or filming with a trip. The sun was getting low and I had lost the light of the day, so my photo capturing had to be done with a steady hand, as fast a shutter speed I could manage, and with the occasional help of a ledge to rest my camera on.
As with my visit to the New York Public Library earlier in the day, I wondered about the history and all the people that have journeyed through the terminal. The station would have seen many happy reunions and sad goodbye's.
I intrepidly stepped through the arch of track 25, not sure if I was allowed there without a ticket. No one seemed to notice. The tracks were darker, the walls covered in a build up of grime and pollution, but yet that gave it another appeal to me. It's funny how New York dirt adds to the character of the place, but in the UK it's just grime!
Taking another turn I noticed an entrance into long neon lit pedestrian tunnel. Hmm...was this for the station's staff? Should I go in? Ah, someone will trow me out if I'm not meant to be there!
A few seconds later I was walking against a stream of commuters rushing to catch their trains. Walking against the tide of people I shot from the hip.
Then I noticed some doorways onto some train tracks and I secreted myself just inside and clicked away unseen.
I walked the length of the long corridor, which, if I remember correctly, took me out at around 45th Street. It was dark now and getting cooler, but not cool enough to put me off walking back to my apartment and soak in some more of the beautiful city of New York.
It was a bright and sunny Tuesday, when I decided to take a walk down the infamous 42nd Street. Having consulted the map I figured I could fit in the New York Public Library, Empire State Building and Grand Central Terminal.
I took a right out of my apartment, a right onto 9th Avenue and walked the seven blocks south to 42nd Street, the whole while I had the 42nd Street song from the musical playing in my head. I sang along (to myself!), but could only remember the lyrics, "Come and meet those dancing feet, on the avenue I'm taking you too, forty second street", but that was enough to keep me happy as I headed into and passed Times Square.
Now, New York Public Library actually consists of lots of different branches, which consist of 87 libraries altogether! They serve the New York boroughs of Manhattan, The Bronx and Staten Island.
The main library that was my destination that morning, was built between 1902 and 1910, and has 75 MILES of shelves!
Upon entering the library and a security guard giving a cursory glance into my bag, the first thing I noticed was an unattended empty cloak room. I love old buildings and began to imagine the people who must have handed in their coats to the attendant over the years; the academics and the students. Perhaps grand events were held there and society ladies would undrape their furs and hand them in to the cloak room in return for a ticket.
Not knowing the layout or having any particular plan, I just followed my nose along a corridor and found myself in what I think would be called a reference room. One side of the room was filled with metal shelves of heavy reference books, the other side hosted tables with lamps and studious looking people with their noses in books.
I started to take some photos with my DSLR which makes a clicking sound as the shutter opens and closes. This noise managed to raise a few heads from books and I was given some annoyed glances. Hmmm...
....I switched over to my Canon G9, my more compact, and quieter camera.
Now I must reveal my ignorance! When all the immigrants from other countries arrived in Ne York, I had no idea their details were so meticulously recorded! But here was the evidence, before my eyes.
I was more or less just looking at these records randomly, though with hindsight I wish I had spent more time in this section of the library.
With Strunks being such an unusual name, I though I would see if I could find some possible ancestors.
But with no luck! I'm sure if I had of delved into a few more books, particularly the German immigrant books, I would have found a Strunks or two.
Moving on, and up a flight of stairs I found this sun drenched area.
And looking up, this hand painted ceiling.
Further exploration made me stumble across a photography gallery. I imagine this space is always reserved for photography. Near the couple standing to the right of the photo is a water fountain. There seemed to be a few of these dotted about the corridors.
I was trying to find the reading room, but didn't want to ask for directions. There is a certain pleasure to be gained from getting lost from time to time!
Eventually heading in the right direction, I stopped to capture this message engraved above the door that lead towards to the reading room.
"A good Booke is the pretious life blood of a mafter fpirit, imbalm'd and treafur'd up on purpofe to a life beyond life"
Actually, there are two reading rooms, though one is marked 'no photography'. Perhaps the reading room that does allow photography attracts a less shy library user!
Although the room is lined with reference books, the main thing that people were looking at were their laptop and computer screens.
As you can see, the room is lit my some beautiful chandeliers, as well as the light that streams in from the window. Floor to ceiling it measure 52ft!
Well the day I had been gearing up to for months has now passed. The 4am Project world wide photography date happened at 4am, calling photographers from around the world to shake themselves awake and take a picture of their view of the world at 4am.
As part of that I organised a 4am Photo walk in Times Square, NYC. I think this could probably be classed as my most ambitious endeavor yet! I had no idea how it would go or if, indeed, anybody would turn up!
I did my best to do my own PR for the event and was over the moon that Time Out NYC covered the event online and in their magazine. The New York Times had promised to write about it, but unfortunately didn't in the end. Hey ho, I'm learning as I go!
So, as you can see from the photo above, people DID come along! 11 people in total - though not everyone is pictured. Two of the attendees came along without a camera, but just wanted to see what the photo walk was all about. One a young guy from out of town who was visiting NYC for the weekend, and the other a gentleman from New Yorker magazine, both kept me company as I snapped away.
We all reconvened at Starbucks for a warming coffee afterwards. It was great to meet everyone. From the New Yorkers who said they wouldn't have thought about exploring their city at that time, to a photographer called Ricky who has taken part in the 4am Project since it began and who I have been tweeting with for 18 months.
Here are my photos from this morning. You can view the whole 4am Project photo stream over on Flickr. There's some great early morning photographs there. Definitely worth checking out :)
So, my New York adventure continues. I didn't quite make it to Brooklyn the other day! I thought I did, but it turns out I hadn't left Manhattan. But what a city to get lost in!
I'm still trying to get into a routine with my blogging. Although my mifi device is great for updates on my iPhone, it tends to be very slow on my laptops. So, my new plan is do to small, bite sized updates here, providing snippets of New York life as I go through my day. I am realising that I don't want to be stuck in my apartment or Starbucks tied to the internet trying to get blog post out when there is a big city out there for me to explore. So small and frequent is the way to go, and when I feel like I have the time, then a longer blog post. And of course, when I get back home there'll be plenty of time to blog!
Thought I would never get to blog! Technical difficulties I think they are called. But that's for another post.
So, here I am. Living in the heart of the Manhattan for the next month. I am not sure I can still quite believe it. It's been a year or longer since I first decided to make this trip, then when I booked my flights about 10 weeks ago it's been a manic time of planning which has included announcing the next global 4am Project date and plans for hosting an event in Times Square on the 17th. During this time I was so busy I never had the chance to sit down and imagine what it would be like to be here.
Now I am here, and it feels strangely familiar. Yes, I did go to New York for a few days about 8 years ago, and of course the imagery is all over the TV and films etc. It just feels so natural to be here, and already a month doesn't seem long enough.
Despite promising myself an early night before I set off for New York, I couldn't sleep. I had a 4am start so of course had to take a photo!
It paid to get to the airport extra early and I managed to avoid queuing to check in and to go through security. As I was waiting to board the flight, nerves finally kicked in. I sent last minute tweets to my friends and texted my best friend and mum. That's it, I was finally going!
The Continental flight was good enough and I passed the 7 hours by watching films, and chatting to the passengers in my row, a group of men who are American classic car fanatics who were heading to LA for a road trip.
At Newark Airport
After much studying of my accommodation options for my month long stay, I opted to rent an apartment. Firstly due to cost. It was the most economical way for me to stay in Manhattan, especially for this length of time. Secondly, I thought it might be handy when watching my budget to be able to made something to eat in the kitchenette from time to time. Thirdly, I really wanted to feel like I'm living in NY, and I don't think I would have got that feeling as a guest in hotel.
I did so much research after hearing stories about people being scammed with apartment rentals. Also, not every apartment can be legally rented. For a lot of them it's illegal for residents to sublet them. So again, this was a factor I had to look into. I didn't want to find myself staying somewhere I should and finding myself without a roof over my head halfway through my stay!
Anyway, welcome to my Manhattan apartment! What do you think? I'm really pleased with it. It's more spacious than I thought it would be too, and the fold down bed is proving quite a challenge in strength! ;)
I'm staying in the Hell's Kitchen area. At the end of my street are restaurants that would satisfy every taste, lot's of bars, and some amazing deli's. Hell's Kitchen is becoming the new gay area of the city. I love it here. And luckily there doesn't seem to be too many tourists! ;)
At this time on Friday, I'll be landing at Newark airport ready to begin the Big Apple Unpeeled adventure!
My bags are packed. Well, they have been packed for two weeks now! There are advantages to being a premature packer I can assure you. Well, apart from the tiny matter of trying to squeeze 9lbs/1000 flyers in at the last minute!
I always like to be prepared, but I think on this occasion I was a little too prepared and hadn't bargained for the size or weight of the flyers!
The flyers are advertising the 4am Project photo walk that I am going to hold in Times Square on 17th October. I've been doing as much of my own PR as possible and thought I'd back that up by handing these out to folks in New York.
I'm planning on doing this on the first few days I am in the city, and hope that it might prove a good way of getting to know new people too!
With hindsight being the wonderful thing that it is, I guess I should have printed the flyers in NYC, but hey, I can't think of everything.
So, the next time I write here, I'll be in the heart of Manhattan and will be beginning to unpeel the Big Apple!
I discovered Google City Tours the other day and got quite excited about the possibilities!
You just put in your location, with the option of adding in dates as well. Great!
Hmm. Well, perhaps not so great. I lost patience with it very quickly.....
My first search under 'Manhattan' delivered a walk around and through central park with an approximate length of time along each part of the route, and with the option of removing some of the choices.
Okay, not bad for the first try. I could do that on one of my days in NYC. But upon refreshing the screen to find another selection I was disappointed to find the same map presented to me. I guess in some ways I shouldn't have been surprised as I used the same search term, but in a city the size of Manhattan, I would have thought that it would be churning out 'tour' after tour covering the width and length of the city.
So, I went a bit more general with my next search term, 'New York City'. Ah now it was covering a bit more ground, with a walk lasting approximately 4.5 hours starting at the centre of the Brooklyn Bridge.
Okay, time to get a bit more specific on my next search, 'Financial District, Manhattan'.
Well, this walk does include the financial district, but also takes me quite a way away from it too. Hmmm.....
As I mentioned, you can put in how many days you are staying in the area, but the maximum number of days is 5. I clicked on day 2 for Financial District. Now this is more like it. Much closer to the area. Things are looking up!
Until....Day 3. Where Google City Tours had run out of suggestions altogether.
So, my initial excitement about Google's City Tours waned very quickly. It just isn't good enough. Lack of choice. Restriction on days. And although you can put in exact dates, the information doesn't seem to change. For example, I would have liked up to date events and seasonal suggestions included. I don't really know how they pull the information together, but overall it was a disappointing experience.
I think I'll stick to planning my own walks, maybe selecting one from a guide book, or more likely just go where the wind blow me! :)
And I'm intending to make the most out of this wonderful social media tool when I am in New York City.
For the past couple of months I've started to follow tweeters in NYC. There's quite a mixture of organisations, things to do, as well as fellow photographers and social media peeps and people who have piqued my interest.
I've started exchanging tweets, getting to know people, and have even been invited to a couple of nights out!
And although I am putting a lot of planning into the Big Apple Unpeeled, I want to leave room for spontaniety.
One of the apps I use on my iPhone is a twitter client called Twitterrific. It meets all my tweeting needs when I am on the move.
However, there is one feature that I haven't tapped into yet; the Nearby feature.
No matter where you are, if you tap on Nearby, it will show you a list of tweeters within your vicinity and what they are saying.
So, I'm gonna see who and what is going on around me. If something or someone interests me, then I'm just going to say 'Hi' and see what happens! Perhaps I'll make a new friend, perhaps not. Maybe I'll end up somewhere interesting maybe not. But I'm going to give it a try and of course I'll be reporting back here!
During the next few weeks, I'll be chatting about some of the tech I am taking with me to New York.
First up! My iPhone.
I sometimes wonder how I managed without it. I purchased my iPhone earlier this year and I haven't looked back.
This is going to be an essential tool in my Big Apple Unpeeled adventure. It will be by my side pretty much at all times and it will be very useful for giving up to the minute reports, photographs and videos. It's handily got everything I need.
Some of the benefits of an iPhone for my trip:
Pocket Sized
Easy to use
Internet browsing
Maps - Handy if I get lost!
Camera & video including live video streaming applications
Email access
Built in wifi
Dictaphone - Handy for making memos on the move
Great apps! Twitter, flickr, youtube, weather, blogging, what's on, news.....
Oh, and it makes phone calls and sends texts!
What more could you ask for? Well, the only thing I can see being a bit of a problem is it's battery life. For average day to day use I have to charge my phone once a day. With heavier use in New York I can see me running out of power before the end of the day.
This is something I am going to have to look into - to see if there is a mobile charger of sorts that can help extend the battery life. If you have any suggestions, please let me know. And if you think there are any apps that would be essential to the Big Apple Unpeeled trip, give me a shout! :)
I will be travelling solo in New York City, however, I don't plan on being alone.
Thanks to all the social media tools we have available I will still have my friends and followers with me on the journey - virtually at least.
Given the speed of communication we now have access to through the internet, there is no reason not to be able to keep in touch. As well as sharing my Big Apple adventure, my friends and followers can comment and quickly interact making it more of a participatory experience.
Contrast this to about 8 years ago when I first got online. I bought my first computer with the aim of using it to plan a 2 month solo trip around the USA. Researching my trip I found that not every venue or hotel had a website. I made many long distant calls to the U.S. I didn't book my multiple flights (San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Miami, Orland, New York) online, but went into a travel agents. Scanning my old guidebooks now, there is a distinct lack of website addresses attached to the 'must see' and 'don't miss' recommendations.
I think a few people may have been blogging 8 years ago, but the word hadn't registered on my radar. Facebook hadn't been invented. Or Youtube. And certainly not twitter. My main avenues of keeping in touch with a few friends and family then was by postcard/letters, the occasional email when I could find an internet cafe and the odd long distance phone call. As for photographs, I had my old film camera and waited patiently until I got home to develop my pictures.
That two month trip was amazing and I loved every minute of it. But there was something missing. I'd see these incredible sights, have experiences I wanted to share, have the odd moment of doubt, take part in an amazing event, but there was no one there I could immediately turn to and say, "Hey! Did you see that?!" There was a delay between the experience and being able to share it.
NOW? Wow!
We have every means available to keep connected and share sights and sounds. Broadband, Wifi, laptops, net books, mobile phones that can have us online in seconds. We are embracing, sharing, consuming media like never before and with free live video streaming we can broadcast our news within seconds.
My two month trip was a good practice run, but this time around things are going to be so much different, and I'll have my friends, family and followers viturally by my side.
