There are many places to see the Manhattan skyline and I have yet to shoot from all of them.  However, I do have three favorite spots that I frequent:

1.  Brooklyn Bridge Park

Brooklyn Bridge Park is located on the northern tip of Brooklyn, just across the East River from lower Manhattan.  The park itself is very new – construction began in 2008 and the first part of it opened in 2011.  Even if you’re not going to photograph or enjoy the skyline, it’s a wonderful place to relax, bring the family and enjoy some time outdoors.  You could spend time eating from one of the shops here, riding Jane’s Carousel, playing in the playground with the kids, and enjoying the spirit of Downtown Brooklyn.

Of course, the view of the southern tip of Manhattan and the Brooklyn Bridge are magnificent.

One of my favorite shots taken from here is a panorama that I took on a photo walk in May 2014.

Lower Manhattan NYC Skyline & Brooklyn Bridge

If you can get here towards sunset when there are lots of interesting clouds in the sky, you’re practically guaranteed to get a great picture.

Downtown Manhattan as viewed from Brooklyn Bridge Park

The next two places are actually in New Jersey, which is across the Hudson River from Manhattan.  From here, you can get terrific shots of the west side of Manhattan.

2.  Liberty State Park, NJ

Liberty State Park (located in Liberty, NJ) is not (in my opinion) as vibrant and lively as Brooklyn Bridge Park, but that doesn’t mean that there’s nothing to do.  There are places to sit, eat and enjoy the wonderful view.  You can also see and photograph the remnants of the railroad that used to run through the area as well as visit the Empty Sky memorial dedicated to the people who perished in the September 11 attacks.  And if you have kids, you can’t go wrong visiting the Liberty Science Center.

But again, for me, it’s all about the pictures.

From here, you can get wonderful shots of lower Manhattan during the day or night.  Some of my favorites are:

As an added bonus, you can also take some nice shots of Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island from here as well.

3.  Weehawken  Waterfront Park

I’ve only been at this park twice, but it was where I captured my favorite NYC skyline panorama.  From here, you can see practically the entire west side of Manhattan, from the George Washington Bridge in the north to the Verezzano-Narrows bridge in the south.  If you want a shot of the Empire State Building lit up from across the river, this is the place to go.

The first time I was here, I came on the night of a full moon, hoping to catch the moon rising over the city.  The result?  Well, judge for yourself…

Aside from the fact that it’s a nice image, this picture also has additional meaning for me as this panorama was the first canvas print I ever sold.

There are certainly other great places to go to shoot the New York City skyline and I plan to continue exploring them in the coming months.

What about you?  What are your favorite places to go to see the skyscrapers of Manhattan?   Have you taken any great pictures of the skyline?  If so, I’d love to see them.  Feel free to share in the comments.
Zev

I chose to try my hand at the Tiny Planet technique.  This is a technique where you take and bend it upon itself (that’s the best way I can describe it) to create a panorama in the middle with the sky all around it.  You can see examples of this sort of thing here.  I decided to try something like that, but to do the opposite — where the panorama is on the outside and the sky is in the middle.

The first step to doing this is to create a 360 degree panorama.  I chose to create a 360 panorama of Times Square (shown below) .  Times Square is such a vibrant and active place that I was sure that this would be a great subject for this type of shot.

A 360 degree panorama of Times Square.

Afterwards, I took it and imported it into Photoshop.  After fooling around with it for a bit, I came up with this image:

As always, comments, criticisms and critiques are welcome, encouraged and appreciated.

Zev

About thirteen years ago, I went on a trip to Israel.  For that trip, I bought my very first digital camera — a Canon Powershot A20.  It was a simple point and shoot 2 megapixel (2 MP!) camera.  However, it had a panorama mode and as soon as I discovered it, I began fooling around with it.  Fast forward thirteen years later and I’m still creating panoramas.

This is a 360 degree panorama that I took in Times Square earlier this week.  I happen to like Times Square as it’s one of the most vibrant, active and colorful places in the city.  You can hear almost every language known to man spoken here.  You can find people dressed in almost any conceivable fashion, style or costume.    It truly deserves the moniker “Crossroads of the World.”

A 360 degree panorama of Times Square.

I created this panorama because (a) I like them and (b) I actually need to use this for another, upcoming photo project.  Tune in next week to see what I do with this. 

Zev

The only thing that is better than an image of the New York skyline is a panorama of that same skyline.  If there is a non-natural subject that is tailor-made for panoramic images, it’s this collection of buildings.

I was on a photo walk this past spring, which led us to the Brooklyn Bridge Park.  Most of the participants didn’t bring along a tripod (seriously, who brings along a tripod to a photo walk?), but I did, in the hopes that I’d be able to take some panoramas and sunset pictures by the park at the end of the day.   Fortunately, I was able to put it to good use when I captured this panorama at sunset, which made the whole day of schlepping the tripod around worth it.

  The bridge on the right side of the image is the Brooklyn Bridge, which connects Brooklyn to Manhattan.  I’ve walked over that bridge many times.  When I used to work downtown, I often walked over it and back during my lunch break.  The tall building with the antenna just right of center is the new 1 World Trade Center (aka The Freedom Tower).

Other cities have plenty of things going for them.  Paris has its famous Tower.  Seattle is rightly proud of its Space Needle.  Jerusalem, Rome, Constantinople, Damascus and others have histories so long that it’s impossible to think of New York as anything but a babe of a city compared to them, even after four centuries.  But the New York skyline is unique.  It’s one of the things that define the city and has no equal throughout the world.

Zev

I took some nice shots, but the shot I’m proudest of is this panorama of the New York City skyline.  I took this at sunset from Brooklyn Bridge Park.  This is a panorama of eight shots stitched together.

NYC Skyline From Brooklyn Bridge Park