Storm clouds over Wall Street, New York
Dark clouds gathering over the iconic skyline of Lower Manhattan and New York Harbor, New York, USA. Image © fotoVoyager 2009.
A little bit late to be posting this one here, since the coming storm has developed into a typhoon of financial confusion and money chucking lunacy, but I thought I’d stick it up. This cityscape really misses the iconic towers of the World Trade Center, I’m looking forward to seeing what goes up in its stead when they’ve finished arguing about it. If anywhere needs the boost of some world class architecture it’s downtown New York right now.
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1/500 second, f5, ISO200 50mm
10763 x 3000 pixels. Please don’t steal this image, it’s how I make my living.
Lights of LA
Rivers of moving light snaking though city block after city block as this Californian mega-city sprawls off to the distant horizon. Image © fotoVoyager 2008.
Ah, LA… the glamour, the gossip, parties and film premieres, pop stars, exclusive boutiques and Playboy Mansion™. I, of course, see none of this. No it’s cheap motels and fast food for me, since all costs come out of my bottom line. However, there is a certain energy, an undeniable, unstoppable momentum to the place that’s infectious. All human life is here, from suburban soccer moms to sparkling starlets with chihuahuas, angry young men on corners to blissed out baby boomers dawdling in convertibles down the palm fringed avenues. You can see it all from up here, as the never ending atoms of humanity jostle and joust as far as the eye can see. It’s not a late night town though – most of them will be home by eleven, ready to wrestle with the American dream for a new chance on a new day.
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15 seconds, f16, ISO200 85mm
9995 x 1694 pixels. Please don’t steal this image, it’s how I make my living.
Empire cloudscape, New York
White cumulus cloud in deep blue skies speared by the antenna array of the Empire State Building in Midtown Manhattan, New York. Image © fotoVoyager 2008.
Waiting, waiting, waiting. That’s what you do if you want the shot. The sun to come out, the rain to clear, the Australian tourist to get of the way. Or the cloud you can see coming to drift slowly, oh so very slowly, into position front and centre over the needle of the most iconic building in the Americas. Great stuff, well worth 20 minutes jostling to keep position. One of the most spectacular views in any city, anywhere on the globe.
Ever wondered why the really big skyscrapers are crowded around Midtown and then don’t rise up again until the Financial district? Me neither until the disparity was pointed out to me by one of my friends, then you wonder why, so I looked into it. Unsurprisingly (and reassuringly if you’re stood on the top of one like this) skyscrapers need to be built on solid bedrock and the three types of strata that make up Manhattan island take a big dip somewhere around 42nd Street and don’t come up for air until Washington Square and the glacial rubble that makes up the surface between these areas isn’t solid enough to raise these cathedrals to commerce. The bedrock can be seen in a few places, including this eruption of Manhattan Schist in Central Park:
It was only when I was researching the geology of New York (when I say ‘researching’ like I know what I’m doing, I of course mean noodling through Wikipedia during my morning coffee break) that I realised I had a shot that illustrated the story so well. How fortuitous. Anyway for those of you with longer attention spans, there’s much more about this subject here.
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Top: 1/160, f8, ISO200 20mm 5500 x 3067 pixels.
Bottom: 1/125, f6.3 28mm 9999 x 3315 pixels.
Please don’t steal these images, it’s how I make my living.
Morning in America
Dawn of a new day as the early morning sun illuminates the white wooden porch of a traditional style suburban home. Image © fotoVoyager 2008.
And we’re back, just in time for the Xmas break. After spending a couple of weeks travelling around Florida scouting for locations and shooting in the sunshine I’ve renewed my affection for the States and the political journey it’s taking. This presidential transition period is an appropriate time to re-appropriate Ronald Reagan’s influential 1984 slogan and it fits this image perfectly. Very few societies can produce these inspiring leaders that not only captivate their own electorates but countries and people around the world. Just when outsiders were beginning to feel the beacon of hope that America has been for many was dimming, the voters of this complex and vigourous nation have relit it brighter than ever. Good on ‘ya. It really is ‘Morning in America’ once again.
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1/125, f10, ISO200 28mm
12894 x 3000 pixels. Please don’t steal this image, it’s how I make my living.
Mobius Arch, Alabama Hills, California
The first glint of sunrise bursting over a natural arch in the Owen’s Valley, California, USA. Image © fotoVoyager 2008.
I’d got up early to take the classic shot of this eroded granite arch framing the summit of Mt. Whitney as the sunlight illuminates the rocky spires of the Sierra Nevada and had got all the usual shots like this:
Which is a great shot, but not exactly original. As I was dawdling down the gravel of Movie Road to get into position, a huge SUV roared past in the dark, pulled up at the wash out and another photographer began hauling a large amount of equipment out of his vehicle. I gave him a cheery wave and commented that it was now a race to the rather small space underneath the arch. He growled something bad temperedly about never losing and rushed off into the desert. When I got to there he was fussing with a huge amount of camera stuff and a tripod that must have weighed more than several small children (my usual unit of measurement, learned from back-breaking experience). He wasn’t very pleased to share the space and resisted all overtures at conversation, but when he realised I was taking panoramas he suddenly perked up and wanted to know all about it then proceeded to take some himself. Cheeky git.
Anyway, I got the core images then left him to his old school landscape bagging. Remembering one of my cardinal location shooting rules I climbed round to the other side and got the far more dramatic sunburst shot at the top. Always look behind you, you never know what you might be missing.
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Top image: 1/125 second, f13, ISO200 20mm. 7000 x 2738 pixels.
Bottom image: 1/125 second, f3.3, ISO200 20mm. 3200 x 2200 pixels.
Please don’t steal these images, it’s how I make my living.
Badwater, Death Valley, California
The dazzling white salt flat at the bottom of the Death Valley basin, the lowest point in North America at 86 metres below sea level. Image © fotoVoyager 2008.
When you’re on it, the surface is not as dazzlingly white as it appears from afar. The salt (and it is mostly NaCl, like you put on your food – I taste tested it) forms a thin crust and is squeezed into the hexagonal cells you can see here through evaporation cycles. Near to the road you can be surrounded by sightseers swirling on and off tour buses, but walk out into the heat haze in the centre and you can experience the total immersive silence of a true desert wilderness. It takes a little while to get out there because the flats are about 5 miles across in the middle, but you really get a good sense of the scale of this remarkable natural phenomenon. A couple of days later I crossed the Panamint range on the left of this image into the Owen’s Valley to head up to Mt. Whitney, the route of the Badwater Ultramarathon from the lowest to the highest point in the contiguous US. Elite competitors (or lunatics, take your pick) can cover the 135 mile, 13,000 ft. route in under 24 hours. I drove.
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1/180 second, f13, ISO200 28mm
9496 x 2948 pixels. Please don’t steal this image, it’s how I make my living.
Queensboro Bridge and East River, Manhattan
The intricate suspension lattice of the Queensboro Bridge and red cabin of the aerial tramway from the Upper East Side over the East River to Roosevelt Island. Image © fotoVoyager 2008.
The Roosevelt Island aerial tramway is a great New York institution and the only commuter cable car in the USA according to Wikipedia (which as we all know is a completely accurate and unbiased source of information). The few times I’ve ridden it across the East River is has seemed to carry only residents, sporty types playing tennis on the island’s courts or patients and their carers to-ing and fro-ing from the hospital beside the cable car station.
As the 2nd Avenue station is just a couple of blocks behind Bloomingdale’s, I not sure why this remarkable public transport system ($2 a ride, just like the subway and you can use the same Metrocard) isn’t stuffed with tourists taking the exciting ride over the waters of the East River to get a great view back from the island’s western promenade. From the UN Building and the the skyscrapers of Midtown along FDR Drive to the exclusive apartment blocks of the Upper East Side, it must be one of the world’s most iconic panoramas. The island is a tranquil residential oasis with little or no traffic compared to the gridlock on the other side.
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1/160 second, f8, ISO200 20mm
10747 x 4000 pixels. Please don’t steal this image, it’s how I make my living.