I flew back to New York at the start of February after spending three weeks back in London. I didn’t really shoot in London too much because, well I’m not really sure why, I only really got one picture I liked at Brixton Tube, but it was a good one.
Coming back to New York was strange, after such an amazing two months before Christmas in which I stepped out my comfort zone, framed my shots differently, pushed the button at times I normally would never have; my photography felt fresh again.
So that’s the good news, after such a good first trip, settling back in on my return was hard. The first day back it snowed which, obviously was fabulous, but it didn’t result in anything amazing because I was having too good a time in the snow.
It was a full week of mediocre shots before I was on Times Sq on a very windy afternoon. With the light in front of me a woman confidently walked towards me and I fired off at least six shots and she passed me smiling. Her coat, lit from behind, her expression and her confidence made the shot.
The following days images were good, I tried to step back, widen my view and capture groups, people alone in the city and more than just my standard close up portraits.
Then it snowed again.
This time I was ready and made my way to Times Sq, I’ll do a separate post about Times Sq because it is very interesting simply for the fact that New Yorkers hate it. The snow was stunning combined with the electronic billboards lighting everything up. So many people were there, taking pictures and enjoying the weather that it was very easy to grab shots.
The next 6 days were relatively uneventful, I feel like I fall back on a standard image type and more and more become unsatisfied.
Because New York is on a North facing grid it means that as the sun moves from East to West it creates fabulous areas of dark and light. Walking Northwards up 7th or 8th Avenue in the afternoon creates an effect not unlike the work of Bruce Gilden, who shoots with a handheld flash. It’s similar because the subject is lit brightly by the sun but the background is in darkness and the result made me excited again, something fresh for me.
March looks like a very interesting month.