New York City

NY Liberty Victory Parade, October 24th, 2024

The New York Liberty are the WNBA Champions after a long and difficult season. Today, a victory parade and ceremony was held in Lower Manhattan in the Canyon of Heroes to honor these amazing athletes.

Hanging Out on the Brooklyn Bridge

For people who have yet to visit New York City, I’d like to point out that the Brooklyn Bridge is actually a nice place to just hang out. The City encourages people to stay up there and relax — there are many benches on the bridge along the walkway. You can sit and look at the Manhattan skyline, look over the water, people-watch, pose for pictures, and gaze at the sunset (or sunrise if you get up early enough).

A Visit To The Washington Square Park Arch

Washington Square Park, in the heart of Greenwich Village near New York University, is one of New York City’s most beloved public spaces. Within this vibrant park stands an iconic landmark: the Washington Square Park Arch.

Want to Photograph NYC? Bring Your Wide-Angle Lens

Photographing New York City presents unique challenges. As a photographer, you will have to contend with both cramped spaces indoors (such as inside bars, restaurants and the subway) and incredibly tall buildings outdoors.

The best way to deal with these disparate photographic challenges is to simply use a wide-angle lens all the time.

For our purposes, “wide-angle” means any field of view that is 35mm or wider. The 35mm field of view is great for capturing the city. 24mm is even better. My personal favorite field of view sits in between these two at 28mm.

No, Now Is Not a Good Time to Visit NYC

Consider me a pandemic junkie. I actually enjoy following the pandemic and the statistical trends of the virus, and I have since New York City was hit hard by COVID in 2020. I used to write a series of very popular Tweets early in the pandemic when information was poorly presented to the public. I would combine my photos of the empty and dead city with the grim statistics taken from the Department of Health in the hopes of presenting information that people could use to keep themselves educated and safe.

My NYC Vaccination Experience and Thoughts About Boosters

I was a vaccine holdout — not due to politics, but due to concerns about an eye condition I have called lattice degeneration. Lattice degeneration is a congenital thinning of the retina that leads to holes and tears in the retina. This condition puts me at high risk for a retinal detachment at any time. A retinal detachment is a medical emergency, requiring an immediate visit to the hospital and delicate eye surgery to repair the retina. If it’s not taken care of quickly, it can lead to permanent vision loss.

I was not sure how these vaccines (or actual COVID-19) would affect this condition since there’s little official research about how the COVID vaccines interact with a retina that’s already damaged by disease. My thought was that any micro-clotting caused by the vaccines could affect blood vessels in the retina and cause issues.

Women’s March NYC, October 2nd, 2021

Women’s March events were held all over the country in response to recent efforts by right-wing radicals to use the rigged judicial system to restrict the rights of women.

Using an Action Camera For Photography

GoPro pioneered the concept of an “action camera” – a tiny, rugged, easy-to-operate camera that is intended to be used to record action sports. In the years since the first GoPro was launched, many competitors such as Akaso and DJI have produced action cameras as well. Regardless of the brand, these cameras are primarily video-focused, and the newest ones are capable of recording crisp and detailed 4K and even 5K video. Though it’s not their primary function, most of these cameras are capable of doing still photography as well.

While they aren’t the best choice for general still photography, action cameras can be very useful as a photographic tool, particularly to capture very wide landscape shots. Here are some things to consider when using an action camera for photography.

Note: In this article, I used an Akaso Brave 6 Plus for all of the photographs.

The Real Heroes of the NYC Pandemic

There’s a recent article in the New York Times about how dangerous it is in New York City for the guys and gals doing food deliveries on bikes. They’ve become targets for bike theft due to their usage of expensive ebikes. Ebikes have been essential tools for delivery workers for years now, but have become even more crucial due to the high demand for food deliveries during the pandemic.

This isn’t run-of-the-mill bike theft, where a sneaky thief uses a portable powered saw to cut the lock of a bike that’s been locked up to a bike rack. Instead, these delivery workers are often robbed at gunpoint of their expensive ebikes and cash by old-school armed robbers.

Biden Victory Rally and March in New York City, November 7th, 2020.

This event was originally planned as a rally to protest Trump’s underhanded attempts to undermine the election. A coalition of groups including Black Lives Matter, gay rights activists, local community organizations, and NYC labor unions were slated to band together to protest Trump’s actions.

However, shortly before the rally started, it was announced that Joe Biden was the projected winner of the 2020 election, and instead of a protest this turned into a victory celebration.