Radio City Music Hall – New York, New York

After I posted the Times Square photos a few days ago, I kept on looking through my archives. I found a few more that I thought had that nice “Holiday in the City” kind of feel. It’s fun looking through these photos that I shot a year ago — they certainly bring back memories of that family trip. All images are from Mid-town Manhattan within a short distance of each other.

Up top is a photo of the world-famous Radio City Music Hall, home of the high kicking Rockettes. I like neon, and I frequently shoot them in Austin, but the scale in NYC is entirely different. It took me several tries until I got a photo without any cars whizzing by.

A half a block east of here is another New York landmark, Rockefeller Center.

The heart of the complex is the ice skating rink and the giant Christmas Tree. The security in this area is extra vigilant for photographers using tripods, which is a real bummer since I like to use them in these situations. As you know, I like to make high quality HDRs which mean using low ISOs — a tripod is really a must. Fortunately, I knew about the restrictions so I brought a special tool.

Instead of a traditional tripod, which I had with me but didn’t use here in Rockefeller Center, I used a small GorillaPod made specifically for mirrorless cameras. GorillaPods can be a pain in a butt to use. The are more fiddly than a regular metal tripod, however, they work great in these situations. I shot these angels by wrapping the GorillaPod around a metal barricade. Security didn’t seem to mind.

But sometimes, things come out great without HDR or tripods, even at night. Here is a another view of the angels with Saks Fifth Avenue in the background. Saks runs a short animated show projected on to the facade which I captured here.

Here is another handheld shot. I just loved these golden flags flapping in the wind. Except it was cold and the breeze certainly didn’t help.

I head west back towards my hotel and I’m on 6th Avenue, also known as the “Avenue of the Americas”. All of these buildings are 60 stories high, which are taller than the tallest building in Austin. They form sort of a wall that makes the area canyon like. Just a couple of more blocks west, on the other side of these buildings is Times Square.