Tag Archives: manhattan

Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Urban/Street

Caffe Roma

July 13, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A street scene next to Caffe Roma, Little Italy, Manhattan

On the final evening of our recent week in New York City we headed back to the hotel. It is typical near the end of a such a trip to have a sense of things winding down. But I found time to make one more circuit of the surrounding streets of Little Italy and the edge of Chinatown to do a bit of night street photography.

I moved fairly quickly, and often made quick photographs while on the move, especially when people were the subject and they were not standing still. However, in a few places the buildings and the overall environment caught my attention and I paused for a moment to frame an urban landscape and then to wait for passers-by to populate it. This wall was quite a sight, with its huge and brightly lit painted sign, the red color of the wall itself, the light spilling onto the sidewalk, and the large painting of the woman at the far right. At this moment three groups of people coalesced: the trio interacting at the right, the two in the center who are lit by one of their smartphones, and the two unrelated figures at the far left near the bicycles.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Urban/Street

Gelato King

July 12, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Late-night passers-by at the Gelato King stand, corner of Mulberry and Grand, NYC

Another gelato stand! It seems that this is becoming a theme here. Of course, given that we were staying in a hotel located essentially on the border between Manhattan’s Chinatown and Little Italy districts, these kinds of places were everywhere: Italian deli on the corner, Italian pastry across the street, gelato and cannoli never more than a few footsteps away. (The fact that we were staying in this particular area was more a function of a good price on a hotel than of a desire to be in the middle to the tourist attractions of Little Italy.)

This photograph, if nothing else, illustrates a few things that I look for when photographing urban areas at night, at least when working with subjects like this one. It has a central focus point, and one that seems to provide most of the interesting light in the scene — namely the little gelato stand, with its light (and that of the cannoli stand just around the corner) spilling out onto the sidewalk and providing much of the illumination in the scene. (Additional ambient illumination from other businesses provides a bit of light on the figures.) I made a series of photographs here in rapid succession as people walked through the scene. In some there is no one but the fellow in the stand, in others a group is queued up to buy gelato. In this one the people are almost uniformly spread across the scene, with various orientations to the central light. On both sides women in lighter colors walk toward it; red and yellow tones show up in the attire of several of the subjects.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Urban/Street

Gelato and Cannoli Cart, Night

July 11, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Passers-by stop at a gelato and cannoli cart on a Manhattan evening

By chance, on our recent trip to New York City we ended up in a Manhattan hotel more or less on the boundary between the Chinatown and Little Italy districts. Little Italy these days seems to be more of a tourist proposition than a real Italian neighborhood, though I wouldn’t say the same about Chinatown. In any case, we were obviously in an area with a lot of people and quite a few potential photographic subjects. (While we stayed in this area, we spent the majority of our time in the city elsewhere.)

Some of the tourist-oriented areas actually have advantages for night street photography, with the main plus being that there is often a lot of commercial lighting to make the scenes and people more visible. This little stand (or pair of stands?) selling gelato and the ubiquitous Little Italy cannoli is a prime example. The bright lights inside the cart spill out onto the passers-by and the sidewalk, and there is enough additional ambient light to allow me to work without flash. And, in case you were wondering, I resisted the lure of the deserts on this evening – though we eventually gave in the night before we left New York. (I might have had a few desserts elsewhere though. Might. Maybe. I’m not saying for sure…)

Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

Napping Man on Bench

July 10, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A man taking a nap on a sunny bench in Manhattan

This is the second of a pair of photographs featuring this red wall near Washington Square in the Greenwich Village area of Manhattan. If my memory is correct, the building is part of the NYU campus. We were passing that way on a walk in the uptown direction from our hotel, and soon after I made this photograph we spent a good chunk of time enjoying the Sunday morning ambiance of the park, where (no surprise!) lots of stuff was going on: a piano performance, a couple of jazz groups, people exercising, folks reading the Sunday paper, “pigeon man” (a story for later), and much more.

New York City is a pretty warm place this time of year. (I can hear New Yorkers exclaiming, “Duh!” right about now.) Lots of people, including me, and find it enervating, especially when the humidity is high. As it usually is. Looking now at this photograph (which I made almost as much for its geometry, light, and color as for its human subject), I can feel that heat and humidity and relate personally to the urge to simply fall asleep for a moment on such a bench!

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: manhattan

Caffe Roma

Gelato King

Gelato and Cannoli Cart, Night

Napping Man on Bench

Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.