Trip to NYC. Any recommendations?

[gcardenal]

Hi,

In April I'll spend 6 days in NYC.
Any photo spot recommended? What should I not miss?
I pretend to take with me my Agfa Isolette, my GF1 and my EOS33, but I'm kind of worried if this is too much.

What would you take?

Thanks!

 

[EthanFrank]

I'm in precisely the same boat (5 days in mid April), so I'm listening as well! 🙂

 

[filmfan]

Do a search and you will find this same question asked many times with great answers.

 

[imush]

too much of what? the city or equipment?

You can find just about anything in this city... It depends what you are looking for. There are no "must sees", or there are too many, which means the same thing.

 

[gcardenal]

Too much gear. 😀

 

[jsrockit]

The GF1 and a film camera should do...

What are you into photographing? What do you want to see?

We can give you a lot of info if you tell us what you like.

 

[gcardenal]

Sorry, I should have been more explicit.
I like street photo and portraits, and also architecture.
I was planning to take the GF1 with my 14 and 20mm.

Thanks!

 

[Lord Nikon]

Personal favorite path through NYC - especially if you only have 1 day to see as much as possible.

Start on the brooklyn side of the brooklyn bridge.

Walk around there down closer to the river a bit. There are great shots of manhatan bridge, the NYC skyline from brooklyn, and a little park down by the river.

After that cross over the brooklyn bridge. There are always tons of people around on the brooklyn bridge.

Walk up center street.
A bunch of strets come together at astor place, 8'th st, 4ave. Its fun to shoot around there.

From that area go to Washington square park. Enjoy.

After that walk up washington square east/university plaza (the east side of the park) to union square park.

Enjoy union square park.

From Union square park walk up broadway. See the flatiron building. Its quite an interesting and attractive building. Maddison square park is just across teh way from the flatiron building, but IMO there are MUCH better parks for taking people pics. Feel free to prove me wrong though. Its still worth the detour on your way uptown.

From there walk up 5'th avenue (NOT BROADWAY!!!! Stay to the right at the fork opposite the flatiron building) for good views of the empire state building. Its hard to think of a better NYC landmark than this.

Continue on up to 42'nd street staying on 5'th avenue. Turn RIGHT for a pretty good view of the chrysler building.
Turn around, and walk back towards the library. The library pretty cool architecture on the outside, and a couple decent photo-ops inside but also a bathroom. They do try to restrict photography in certain areas but thats OK.

Once you get out of the library walk on 42'nd street to times square. Enjoy times square. I can never decide if I want a long or short lens in times square... but if your comfy with your gear you should have no problems.

This is a couple miles so far, plus whatever you spend in the various parks so maybe you end your walking trip here and hit central park another day, but if your feeling up to it:

From times square get on Broadway (top left corner of times square, left at the fork) and continue up to 59'th street. This is the beginning of central park. Enjoy central park. Wander around a bit - the twisty and hilly paths will be a welcome change of scenery from the rest of NYC. I would strongly advise that you get to the bethesda veranda & fountain. Plenty of people hang out here, and the archetectural shots are quite nice too!

If you make it as far as the big reservoir you will see some VERY nice bridges on the west side of the reservoir.

Alternately, if you find yourself on 5'th avenue before the reservoir the Metropolitan museum of art, or Guggenheim museum both offer plenty of photo ops both inside and out although they do charge admission to get in.

 

[mbdiesel]

And based on other recent stories, don't take pictures of NYC police!

 

[jsrockit]

And based on other recent stories, don't take pictures of NYC police!

Nah, it's ok... most of the time. 😉

 

[intheviewfinder]

Personally I skip Times Sq as it's more like Disneyland than New York City. But hey, if it's your first visit have at it.

First off, if you have a smart phone get a NYC Metro app it will be well worth the couple of bucks you spend on it.

Here's a few sites I'd recommend...

As someone else mentioned: Brooklyn. Spend the day. Take the F train to York St. It will put you in DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass). You can walk along the East River and catch some great skyline views of Manhattan.

Also there's Jane's Carousel set on a spectacular spot between the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges, in a Pavilion designed by Pritzker Prize winning French architect Jean Nouvel.

There's lots more to see in Brooklyn but if you must, you can than wend your way back over the Brooklyn Bridge to lower Manhattan.

An enjoyable walk is along the High Line. The High Line is a park built on the old Meat Packing District's abandoned elevated rail line so you be above the fray and catch some interesting sites. It's on Manhattan's West Side and runs from Gansevoort St in the Meatpacking District to West 34th St near Penn Station/Madison Sq Garden, between 10th & 11th Ave's. You can catch the A, C, or E to 14th St & 8th Ave. In fact have lunch up there. You stop off at the indoor Chelsea Market. It takes up a whole block enter the 9th Ave ('tween 15th & 16th St's) and exit the 10th Ave side with your snacks. Then meander over to the High Line.

Lastly you should take in the 911 Memorial but you'll need to reserve a space now. You might be too late but it's definitely worth a shot (April's usually not too busy). It's free but they're trying to contain the amount of visitors on the the site. Look around on the web you should be able to find the reservation system pretty easily.

And if you gotta get on top of something, do the Rock rather than the Empire.
--Rich

 

[gcardenal]

Thanks a lot for your comments! I'm looking forward to the trip.