New York monos (image heavy thread...)

Hello all. More holiday pics!! It seems (and is!) ages since I posted any pics on the forum. I was on holiday in September, and started it in New York. I had never been there before and it is a truly fascinating place. We arrived in hot sunshine but pretty quickly tropical storm Maria (I think) arrived and we had a couple of days of proper deluge! I had the K7 and the Optio WG1 with me, and I used the Optio a lot owing to its waterproofing - the rain was SO heavy at times that I wasn't even convinced that the K7 and WR 18-55 would cope. The dullness also meant I processed a lot of pics into black and white; and I thought I would post a few of the monos here. There are more than usual so apologies if it takes a while for the thread to load up. Any C&C welcome. I hope you like these...

1. First up, reflections. This was taken with the K7/18-55 and a polariser, on the nice day when we arrived:




2. St Patrick's Cathedral on 5th Avenue, same day:




3. Downtown Manhattan from the top of the Empire State building - by this time the storm had well and truly arrived. This was taken with the Optio:




4. The situation at ground level (Optio again):




5. Taking refuge in the Museum of natural History, there are a great number of dioramas with stuffed animals. This one is the Rhinos, taken with the K7 and Sigma 30 f1.4:




6. Misty evening, Times Square (Optio again, and the cloudbase has lowered somewhat):




7. The empire state disappears into the sky... (Optio again):




8. The Statue of Liberty from the Staten Island Ferry (the ferry is a great bargain as it's free! This shot was K7 and (I think) 18-55 lens, although could have been DA70...) The cloud was showing no real signs of lifing:




9. Welcome to (Historic) Little Italy! (K7 and sigma 30 f1.4, from upstairs on a moving bus at night...):




10. Inside St Patrick's cathedral. This was K7 and DA15, at ISO1600, which is a bit further than I would normally push the ISO on the K7:




11. The USS Intrepid air and space museum, just as the clouds are breaking and the weather turning rather splendid again... (K7 and DA15):




12. and from underneath as well...(same setup):




13. and finally... Central Park from the Rockefeller Tower, first thing (well, we got the first lift up anyway, so about 0845 I guess), this is the K7 and 18-55 again:




I took loads of shots and I am still working my way through them, so if you'd like to see any more there's a ton of them on my flickr - including in glorious technicolour!, and available in bigger size. I'll no doubt post a few more on here in due course. After New York we went to Grand Bahama, so look out for the next thrilling installment...

Regards

Nice set of images Mat, endless possibilities there.

I was there in May for 3 days, i was on honeymoon, fantastic place, we both can't wait to go back.

Then went off to Abaco Island in the Bahamas... we must have similar tastes!

I am still working through my images...

Did you notice the optical illusion on the first image? I had thought it was a funny crop on the right hand edge, seems to slant inwards, top to bottom... It doesn't... I had to measure it, but still cool...

Very very impressed with the optio photos. Far better than anything i have ever got out of my W90!

Really like this set - impressive stuff.

Some excellent shots there, ironically helped by the bad weather and low cloud. Love the B&W conversions which really suit the poor weather. The optio shots were particularly impressive as they seem very sharp and lacking in lens distortions.

Lovely black and white processing. That little Optio ain't too bad is it! Bit grainy on the clouds on some of the cityscapes, but that's actually not a bad thing here.

Many thanks everyone for the kind comments. I have to say I thought the Optio was a bit of a revelation, and I was chuffed with the pictures it produced, although I tended to keep it limited to no higher than ISO200 (lower if I could get away with it) and generally had -1ev dialled in. The jpegs straight out of the camera are not as grainy as one or two of these might suggest, as I have added a little grain into some of the pics in PP. In the Bahamas I used the Optio underwater (snorkelling) so it will be interesting to see how those pics come out - suffice to say the weatherproofing etc., performed flawlessly.

Ali - great minds etc. on the holiday front We really loved both New York and the Bahamas..., New York is just how you imagine from the TV and films, whilst the Bahamas is so chilled out! The glass in the first image is from a building which effectively has flat glass walls, although they flared out ski-jump-style at the bottom near the ground. Part of that flared curved portion of the wall is what is in the picture - hence the slightly odd-seeming lines (I think)

Best Regards

These are all amazing images. For my the shot of downtown from the Empire State is the best, although the one from the base of the building, Little Italy and the ferry images are all remarkable.
I never really shoot B&W but I think I will have to try it out!

Cool set Matt. #1 and especially #3 are the stand-out shots for me !

Super set, especially #s 1, 2, 3, an 6. Although I'd like to see #6 without the converging verticals. If its a crop and you could correct without losing some of the Hersh sign its maybe worth a go

Really nice set of my favourite city. I'm very jealous...

K.

great photos, 6,7 and 8 are excellent

Thanks again all for the comments! The Times Square pic is the full frame from the camera (or as near as dammit - i think i have just straightened it by about a degree), so I think I would lose a fair bit from the top corners if I straighten out the verticals...

I have now completed processing all my New York pics (I have to say Kris, on the strength of this (my only) visit, I am rather taken with the place myself) so if anyone wants to see any more they can be found on my flickr. Now onto Grand Bahama...

Best Regards

Nice set, #4 is my favourite. NYC is a great place for mono shots

Thanks A'grove. You are right about NY. I definitely hope to go back there one day...

Regards