New York Nights - Times Square and Columbus Circle

A couple of weeks ago I made yet another trip to New York City. On this particular trip, I decided that I was not going to take any Taxis or Subways. My goal was to walk to all my presentations, meetings, restaurants...and when possible, shoot images along the way.

As it turned out, I walked an average of 8 miles a day, but only had free time to shoot images during the evenings, since most of the daytime walking was rushing to get from one location to the next. But, as many of you know, this is my favorite time to shoot photos in cities, so off I went.

If you are a regular blog reader, you know that I usually stay in or near Times Square in the city. I have photographed here many times in the past, and try to capture something different every time.

This time, I decided to photograph some of the characters in Times Square. Here is Bart Simpson looking a lit lost in the city.

Elmo crossing the street (no, not Sesame Street).

I was shooting some slow motion panning shots when I saw these four characters walking across the street in front of me. Knowing that this would be a tough shot, I zoomed to 250mm, (sticking with my 1/2 second exposure since I had no time to change the settings), I panned along with the subjects and got this shot. It is not perfectly in focus but still makes me laugh.

I came across these two ladies who were modeling in the center of Times Square and grabbed a couple of shots.

This photo was taken from my hotel room (on the 41st floor of the Marriott Marquis). I saw this ever changing reflection on a building located about two blocks away, so I zoomed in 300mm and shot this.

The next night, I was walking back from a dinner meeting on 88th, heading back to 42nd Street, when I came across Columbus Circle. I have been to this location in the past, but never seen it look so nice with blooming tulips surrounding the fountains.

At this point, I did not have my 5D Mark III with me, so I used my iPhone to capture the image above.

I liked the composition of the image but really wanted to shoot this at the best time of the evening and with a really good camera. So...the next evening, my presentation ended early enough for me to grab my equipment and make the long walk back up to 66th. This time I made it in time to catch the deep blue skies after sunset.

Much better than the iPhone shot!

Some different perspectives, but equally beautiful.

A view looking down Broadway with the last remaining light in the sky.

For this last shot, I quickly moved to a spot where the blue skies still remained (facing the West) and framed this shot. A friend of mine told me that there was a nice view of this globe from down the stairs entering he subway station. I took his advice (thanks Adam) and shot this photo, which turned out to be one of my favorites of the trip.

(All of the photos were taken with the Canon 5D Mark III, Canon 28-300mm lens, Gitzo tripod, 128GB Lexar Professional 1000x CF card)