brennanphotoguy
Well-known
Anywhere past Bushwick gets rough and I wouldn't "set up" anywhere. I lived off the Chauncey J train near Broadway Junction up until 2 years ago and can definitely say that's an unsafe area if you're not a local. My girlfriend works off the Broadway Junction stop in a mental health facility there still and there's definitely a lot of bad stuff that goes on at all times. You'll be fine in Bushwick during the day and into the early evening. Just always be aware of what's going on around you and if something doesn't feel right then leave. You'll be fine. Walk as much as possible, that the best thing you can do.
Well, magnificent hour is more like it... unless you are cris-crossing across town.
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
I was in Williamsburg just yesterday. Wow an Apple store where a pioneering bagle store use to be and formally Kings Pharmacy, a Whole Foods on Bedford and even a Corcoran Real Estate. Pretty soon Bedford will be like West Broadway in SoHo. LOL. Anyways I lived there when during the day people on the Southside basically stayed off the street before it was conquered by hipsters.
Anyways seemed like I saw mucho amounts of strange and odd looking people in the new Wiliamsburg.
On the weekend there is a FREE water Taxi Ride to IKEA in Red Hook just below the South Street Seaport. The ride is kinda brief, but I suggest having a a long lens like a 90. From Red Hook you can check out Gowanus and make your way back towards downtown Brooklyn.
I will say this: there are a lot of guns in Brooklyn, in Brooklyn there are a high amount of shootings for New York, and if I want to get shot Brooklyn is a good place to go where there is a higher probability than say Queens or Madhattan. I would also say probably a higher chance to be shot in Brooklyn than even the Bronx which is a much poorer borough.
To be safe here is the best advice: New York is likely the most safe large city on the planet. You pretty much can go early in the morning to even the worst areas and explore to really see the city, but very bad areas that are poor kinda change closer to dusk when all the riff-raft, drug dealers, and career criminals emerge. Kinda think of visiting bad areas and shooting when the underworld is sleeping. Definately some areas change drastically at night and clearly are not safe.
I do not like neck straps, but if I use one I wear it bandeleer style so that I am less vulnerable to getting choked. I also like to keep my hands free and to not be burdened by lots of gear. I tend to carry my camera in my right hand using a wrist strap, but also it is a weapon held in plain sight that is kinda aggressive. Know that sometimes I carry up to three rigged Leicas (mostly carry two all day), but it appears I can always fight if I have too.
I hope I'm stating the obvious: Wear shoes that you can either run in or fight in. I like either sneakers or construction boots, be prepared for both.
Cal
Anyways seemed like I saw mucho amounts of strange and odd looking people in the new Wiliamsburg.
On the weekend there is a FREE water Taxi Ride to IKEA in Red Hook just below the South Street Seaport. The ride is kinda brief, but I suggest having a a long lens like a 90. From Red Hook you can check out Gowanus and make your way back towards downtown Brooklyn.
I will say this: there are a lot of guns in Brooklyn, in Brooklyn there are a high amount of shootings for New York, and if I want to get shot Brooklyn is a good place to go where there is a higher probability than say Queens or Madhattan. I would also say probably a higher chance to be shot in Brooklyn than even the Bronx which is a much poorer borough.
To be safe here is the best advice: New York is likely the most safe large city on the planet. You pretty much can go early in the morning to even the worst areas and explore to really see the city, but very bad areas that are poor kinda change closer to dusk when all the riff-raft, drug dealers, and career criminals emerge. Kinda think of visiting bad areas and shooting when the underworld is sleeping. Definately some areas change drastically at night and clearly are not safe.
I do not like neck straps, but if I use one I wear it bandeleer style so that I am less vulnerable to getting choked. I also like to keep my hands free and to not be burdened by lots of gear. I tend to carry my camera in my right hand using a wrist strap, but also it is a weapon held in plain sight that is kinda aggressive. Know that sometimes I carry up to three rigged Leicas (mostly carry two all day), but it appears I can always fight if I have too.
I hope I'm stating the obvious: Wear shoes that you can either run in or fight in. I like either sneakers or construction boots, be prepared for both.
Cal
micromontenegro
Well-known
When in Brooklyn, forget photography for a while and focus on pizza.
Ok, I'm intrigued? Where should I be eating pizza?
micromontenegro
Well-known
If I could, I'd be at L&B right now.
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
John,
Next time you are in downtown SpaHa (Spanish Harlem) lets get go to the Pizza place at 101st and Lex. Mighty great pizza.
Cal
I think we've done that no? or is it a new place?
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
John,
Maybe we have, even so let's go again. LOL.
Really interesting is that a truely great boutique pizza joint is in my ghetto.
Cal
I'm down Cal. I wouldn't mind photographing around Harlem or up into Washington Heights / Inwood again sometime soon. Also, the Bronx.
ornate_wrasse
Moderator
I went with Cal on this water taxi ride from Manhattan (just below the South Street Seaport, as Cal says) to IKEA in Red Hook. It is quite the bargain and offers fine photography opportunities. I got some good pictures when Cal graciously let me borrow his 90mm lens.
However I recall it costing around $5 per person for this water taxi ride when we were on it. Or, is it now free again?
I think you are right if you don't have an IKEA receipt.
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Ellen,
It was $10.00 I belive because it was during the work week. On the weekends it is free.
It is only about a 15 minute ride. Have your cameras ready.
Cal
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
John,
From Red Hook a receipt is required to board to head to Madhattan I believe.
Cal
Prest_400
Multiformat
If the IKEA food store, grab a few "Kanelbulle" (swedish cinnamon buns) and off you go. Liked those things and they give quite an energy surge.
Cal is quite our RFFer for NYC, the C of NYC! If/When I'm back to NYC I hope I may be able to hit a meet.
We ended up in Bedford ave and it was an interesting area, albeit hipster... In all my last year trips I always ended up in hipster places, I always say that I do stuff of hipsters but not being one
<Beamed through Tapatalk relay>
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
J-D,
Somehow it has become hipster extream.
It seems like my abandoned industrial areas are all getting sanitized. I use to walk inland all along Newtown Creek.
Even the South Bronx isn't as filthy as it use to be. I have not seen the pack of loose Pit Bulls in Mott Haven, and in Port Morris it is oddly free from litter.
The good old days in Williamsburg were when during the day people who lived on the Southside stayed at home because it was not safe on the streets. The Domino Sugar Refinery was still operating, and for me it was like living next to a bomb factory. Back in those days the entitled hipsters left dog crap all over the place and Williamsburg was booby traped and mined.
I heard someone empty a handgun close by, and upon leaving my gated compound I would find a 45 shell casing in a crack in the sidewalk. One morning I got awoken by my neighbor who lived directly above me. A man had climbed into her apartment while she was sleeping. Oh the good old days before NYC was suburbanized.
In Greenpoint the cop that rented the top floor in the row house explained how Greenpoint was really a safe neighborhood with only two murders a year. Over the next two years those annual murders took place within blocks of my house: one was some guy that got ice picked in the brain while sitting on his mother's stoop one night; the second was a drunk who was beaten to death one night in the park. The first week I moved in a neighbor from down the block got mugged right in front of my house.
Then there was the multiple rapist who attacked hipster girls in Greenpoint and the Italian section of Williamsburg who one night mistook me for a girl from behind...
Cal
parasko
Established
Geez, c'mon you guys! I appreciate all the local knowledge you are bringing to this thread (thanks so much!!) but you're scaring the crap out of me even before I get there!
Geez, c'mon you guys! I appreciate all the local knowledge you are bringing to this thread (thanks so much!!) but you're scaring the crap out of me even before I get there!
You don't have to be scared... just be smart. Don't go to certain areas at night. We are talking about areas that some of us go because we get bored with other areas. No need for you to go there on this trip.
And Cal is talking about the past, not the present. Cal's NY is like NY from an apocalyptic movie.
brennanphotoguy
Well-known
First week I moved here I was sitting on my stoop drinking a beer after building IKEA furniture and there was a little scuffle in front of my apartment and all the neighbors were out watching too. Then the scuffle turned into a brawl and got a little bigger and some guys ran and came back about two min later and fired more than two clips into the crowd and everyone on their stoop just acted like nothing happened. The guys next door (drug dealers) said it was a gang fight and happens fairly often and asked if I'd ever seen anything like that in TN. I told them I was experienced with guns and used to them but hadn't seen anything like that. The cops came 15min later and I told them I didn't see anything and the guys next door came and asked what I told the cops and after that they kind of trusted me. Kind of. Saw 3 more shootings in two weeks. I was living in Bed Stuy. I always carried a knife with me when I picked up my girlfriend at night too. Only had to flash it once and luckily the guy wasn't packing and took off.
brennanphotoguy
Well-known
Like, jsrockit said, just be safe. A lot of this stuff happens deeper in Brooklyn where there isn't a lot of "stuff" going on to shoot or neat buildings and there isn't much of a reason to go unless you live there.