Philip Hawkins Photography: New York, New York

When I arrived in New York it was raining and overhung with overcast skies and clouds. As you know from previous blog posts the weather is never an excuse for not coming up with good photographs but it does mean you may have to work a little harder.

The pictures I was here to shoot are primarily going to be published as fine art prints so my purpose was to capture the majesty and grandeur of the city and to sum that up in one iconic image.

I’d already done an internet recce of New York so pretty much knew what I wanted and from what locations I wanted to shoot from. Because of the rain I decided to work primarily late in the afternoon and

early evening so I could capitalize on the dusk and night. You have to be very careful to avoid bland skies with any kind of landscape photograph so I knew that even if the rain didn’t stop I would still be able to get pictures after dusk when the skies start to deepen in colour and of course the city lights would come on in all the buildings.

For the majority of the time I walked everywhere which allowed me to get a feel of the city and its mood which would translate into the images I shot. I also managed to fathom out the traffic light and crossing system in New York. When the pedestrian light turns to a large red hand this

means do not cross. And when it turns to a large white man it means, hmmm, well, nothing really because the cars still come for you anyway! It also took me a while to work out that the straw they serve with your coffee or tea is actually an American tea spoon, or stirrer as they call it…so you don’t need to drink through it! Anyway, I had a few good meals and several Classic American Lattes, although I must admit I was glad to get back into a Costa Coffee on my return home lol!

I was constantly cleaning camera’s and lenses due to the rain. I use water proof covers to keep the equipment protected but inevitably on the shots where I was looking up the lens got splattered with rain drops that meant it needed cleaning between every shot. Living in Scotland I’m also aware how many rainy days can end with gorgeous light so I made sure not to quit too early each day and was rewarded with a reasonably nice sunset and early evening light on my last day.