Of the 20 or so bridges connecting to Manhattan, all but one are on the east side of the island, connecting the island to either Brooklyn, Queens or the Bronx.  There is only one bridge on the west side of the island, and that bridge is the George Washington Bridge, connecting the island to Fort Lee, NJ.

Built in 1931, the bridge is 4760 feet in length and is the most-traveled bridge in the world on a daily basis, carrying an average of 300,000 people every day.  It’s also one of the most photographed bridges in the city.

I’ve photographed the bridge in the past, taking these shots from various points:

Nightfall on the Hudson

The George Washington Bridge at Sunset.

The George Washington Bridge as seen from the top of the Billings Arches at Fort Tryon Park

Recently, I had the opportunity to go back to Fort Washington Park and shoot the bridge again, catching just as the sun set behind the Palisades, casting a beautiful orange glow across the clouds and sky.  And, of course, I had to get a shot of the famous Little Red Lighthouse at the foot of the bridge.

However, in the end, I made my choice.  I have my Top 10 shots.  I also included one additional shot which, while not in my Top 10 shots for the year, is a first step towards a different type of photography that I would like to get into and hopefully, I will expand on that in 2017.

So, without further ado, here are the Top 10 shots, in order of when they were taken.

“Pink”

I took this shot in February at the New York Botanical Gardens.  I love the vibrant color and the detail on the flower (I’m a big sucker for details in pictures).  I have no idea what this flower is called (do any of you?).   I purposely shot it with a wide aperture, to throw the background out of focus, allowing the main subject to stand out.

“Two Bridges”

The Manhattan Bridge at Sunset, with the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan skyline in the background.

You’re going to see a lot of New York City shots in this set, which, I guess, is logical.  I live in the city and it is full of wonderful things to photograph.

I took this shot in May, while in Brooklyn Bridge Park.  If you’ve never visited the park, I highly recommend it.  It offers stunning views of the Broooklyn and Manhattan Bridges, as well as great views of the skyline of the Battery (the southern tip of Manhattan — see below for an example).  It’s a great place to take the family and spend the day.

I like this shot for several reasons.  One of the things I learned this year is that a great way to add interest to a landscape shot is to make sure that there is something in the foreground.  I’ve shot landscapes in the past where there was nothing in the foreground.   They’re nice shots, sure, but nothing special.  Having something in the foreground, however, as in this shot, helps to give the picture depth.  In addition, I like the way the rocks lead your eye right to the bridges.

“Manhattanhenge”

This shot was taken on the day of Manhattanhenge in July.  Manhattenhenge is the term used for the four days a year when the sunrise or sunset line up with the street grid of Manhattan.  Here is the sun setting over 42nd Street.  It’s not often that us New Yorkers get to see the sun at the horizon — usually there are buildings or other obstacles in the way, so when it does appear at the horizon, we take notice. As you can see from this picture, *lots* of people stopped and took notice of the sun setting that day.

One thing I particularly like about this photo is the color.  Normally, the time around sunrise/sunset is called the “golden hour” due to the coloring of the sunlight at this time.  I don’t know what it is, exactly (I suppose I’d have to ask a physicist), but something about Manhattanhenge amplifies that effect, so that the sunlight is almost a golden red (does that even make sense?).

This particular photo happened to be my most popular of the last year.  After Manhattanhenge, I shared it on Facebook and it took off like no previous photo I had ever taken.  It ended up being shared numerous times and was seen by thousands of people.

“Verrazano at Sunset”

The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge at sunset in July, with Shore Park in the foreground.

I took this shot of the Verrazano-Narrows bridge in July.  I have an app (The Photographer’s Ephemeris – a great app, by the way), that showed me that the sun would be setting over the bridge and I wanted to grab a shot of it.  I set myself up on a hill overlooking the park and bridge and waited for sunset.  Using a narrow aperture (f//20), I was able to capture those sun rays in camera.

“Manhattan at Sunset”

The Manhattan Skyline at Sunset

I took this shot on September 11.  I went down to Brooklyn Bridge Park to take pictures of the Tribute In Light memorial that is put up every year to remember the victims of the terrorist attacks of the day.  While I was waiting for the lights to be turned on, I set up and began shooting.  The sun setting just beyond the tip of the island and the great cloud formations in the sky made this a scene I had to capture.  I had a tough time choosing between this shot and another one shot just a few minutes later when the sun had set and the lights went on (see below), but in the end, this one won out.

“Brooklyn Bridge/Towers of Light”

The Brooklyn Bridge with the Tribute In Light memorial to the victims of the September 11 attacks in the background. Taken in Brooklyn Bridge Park.

This shot was taken the same night as the previous shot.  After I had taken the shots I wanted, I wandered around the park for a while.  Eventually, I found this angle, which showed the Brooklyn Bridge with the Towers of Light behind them.  I don’t know if I can articulate why, exactly, I like this shot.  I suppose it has to do with the composition, the coloring, the lines and the lights.  But I find that I like it a great deal, and so it’s on the list.

“Pathways of Life”

As I said previously, I am a sucker for details in pictures, and this shot has details.  I really like the texture of the leaf and the way the lens captured all those wonderful veins.  But there is also another reason I like this picture – it’s one where I tested out a new technique.  You see, when I took this picture (September 25), it was still far too early for that sort of fall color here in New York City.  The leaf, in actuality, was completely green, the color in the lower left corner.  I added the remaining colors in Photoshop, and was rather pleased with the result.

“New York”

A sunset over Manhattan, south of 34th Street

For most of the year, I worked in the Empire State Building.  As a result, it was fairly convenient for me to go up to the Observation Deck and take photos.  I took this shot just after sunset on a November day.  Again, being a sucker for detail, I love this shot – the streets, the buildings and the background all came out beautifully.

“The Reading Bench” 

A peaceful bench to sit and read in the autumn at Wave Hill, Bronx, NY

I found this spot up in Wave Hill, in the Bronx.  I had been meaning to get there for a long time, but whenever I planned to go, something came up to prevent the visit.  Finally, in November, I managed to spend a day there.  From the looks of it, it’s a beautiful place to go to any time of the year, but at the height of fall color, it was spectacular.

I found this bench sitting under one of the oldest trees in the park.  With the fall color, the view of the Hudson and the Palisades, this looks like just the sort of place where you can spend an afternoon curled up with a good book.

“Red Rose Reversed”

This shot was taken earlier this month.  Again, being a detail “junkie,” I could not help but include this shot.  This year I bought myself a new flash, as well as a stand and umbrella and I have begun experimenting with off-camera flash.  This shot is one of those experiments.  I happen to really like the lighting in this picture and how the light falls off from the left side of the photo to the right.  I definitely will be experimenting more with this type of photography in the future.

There is one additional shot that I’d like to include.  It’s a shot that is not typical of my work, but it represents the type of shot that I’d like to do more of.

One of my favorite photographers is Brooke Shaden.  She takes these awesome photographs and composites that are surreal, dark, sometimes creepy and vivid with imagination.  While I don’t, in particular, share her dark tastes, it is as plain as day that she is incredibly skilled at telling stories through her photographs.  Just looking at her work makes me envious of her amazing skill and talent.  While I would not do things as she does them (I’m not that big a fan of the surreal or the dark – despite the shot below), I certainly would like to be able to tell stories of people through my photographs.  I did one last year, and hopefully will do more in the coming year.

“Freed From the Pages”

I took this shot for 52 Frames (my weekly photography group) when the theme was “Books.”  I don’t often shoot with people in the scene, and so, I wasn’t quite sure how to set up this shot.  However, through some creative dodging and burning (and the helpfulness of two of my kids), I was able to capture this shot.  While this shot isn’t one of my ten favorite for the year, I still love it, and certainly plan on doing more over the coming year.

And that’s it — that’s the Top 10.  What do you think?  Are there any shots that you think should have been included?  Do you think that any of these should have been omitted?  Let me know.  In the meantime, he’s towards better photos in 2017!

Zev

It doesn’t have the grand history of the Brooklyn Bridge.  It doesn’t carry as much traffic as the George Washington Bridge.  It hasn’t been immortalized in Simon & Garfunkel song like the 59th Street Bridge (also called the Queensboro Bridge and now [offically] named the Edward Koch Queensboro Bridge).   But yet, it has a charm and a beauty all it’s own.

There is a park that runs along the Belt Parkway on the eastern side of the Verrazano.  It includes a walking path that stretches all the way back to Ceasar’s Bay Shopping Center at Bay Parkway.  People run, jog and walk along the path.  During the summer, many people fish off the walkway as well.  Kids play in the park and it’s not uncommon to see kites in the sky.

From the Brooklyn side, you can often catch the sun setting behind the Verrazano.  Last fall, I caught it setting behind the Staten Island side of the bridge.  In late July, however, it sets behind the Brooklyn side.  This allows for some nice sunset shots.  I spent some time there a few weeks ago and came away with these shots.

The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge at sunset in July, with Shore Park in the foreground.

The sun setting behind the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in Brooklyn on a July evening.

All three of these shots were shot on the same day, within minutes of each other. I happen to like the fact that the composition and processing of the photos give each one a distinct feel from the others.

What do you think?  I’d love to hear from you.

The longest bridge in the city is the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.  It was built in the early 1960s to connect Brooklyn and Staten Island.  Until then, the only way to get to Staten Island from the rest of the city was by ferry.

Aside from its length, you could easily say that the Verrazano-Narrows is overshadowed by other bridges in the city.  It’s certainly not as legendary as the Brooklyn Bridge.  It doesn’t carry as much daily traffic as the George Washington Bridge.  It doesn’t have the antiquity of the recently-reopened High Bridge.  It hasn’t been immortalized in song as the 59th Street (Queensboro/Ed Koch) bridge was.

But yet, there is no denying that the Verrazano-Narrows bridge is still unique and special to New York.  Much like the Brooklyn Bridge, it’s construction was considered an engineering triumph of the day.  When completed, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world.  The two bridge towers, 693 feet high, are actually not in parallel.  Due to the curvature of the earth, they are about 3 inches further apart at the top than they are at the bottom.

I’ve lived in southern Brooklyn since I was nine years old, and the Verrazano-Narrows bridge is a visible landmark visible from most of the region.  I could see it just about any day that I walked westward along Avenue M where, off in the distance, the bridge’s eastern tower rises into the sky.

While the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge is not as iconic (and perhaps not as beautiful as) the Brooklyn Bridge, it does have a beauty all its own.  I recently took a stroll along the Belt Parkway last Sunday at sunset, hoping to catch some nice shots of the bridge.  As you can see from the shots here, I was not disappointed.  The bridge and the sunset together put on an amazing display that I was privileged to be able to attempt to capture.

As always, your feedback on these photos is encouraged and appreciated.  Please feel free to let me know what you think!

Zev

I had the good fortune to be shooting in Western Connecticut last fall.  I spent most of the day at Macedonia Brook State Park and, towards the end of the day, went, almost as an afterthought, to nearby Kent Falls State Park (since I am a sucker for a nice waterfall shot).

The shots I took at Macedonia Brook were nice, but I can’t honestly say that any of them truly resonated with me.  And the same held true for the waterfall shots at Kent Falls.  Nice shots, but none that made me say “Wow… that’s special.”

There was, however, a small covered bridge at the Kent Falls site.  It wasn’t very long… it spans a small little brook on the way to the falls.  The inside was dark and dusty.  Graffiti was scrawled on just about every surface.  However, there were a few windows in the bridge, and these looked out towards the grounds and the falls.  Looking at the windows, I couldn’t help but be struck by the contrast between the drab, wooden, graffiti-stained beams of the bridge and the bright, colorful and vibrant autumn grounds outside.  I saw that and thought it would be interesting to take that contrast and, perhaps, even play it up a bit more in a photo.

I took several shots of the scene and blended them together.  I purposely made the beams darker and drained some of the color from them while boosting the colors outside the window, all in the hopes of enhancing the natural contrast between the two parts of the photo.  Lastly, I decided to enhance the contrast even more by making the scene outside the window more resemble a painting than an actual photograph, almost creating a reality/fantasy dichotomy.

The final product:

And to think that this shot was not what I going to Connecticut to shoot that day.  I was going to shoot nature in a state park.  I went to the second park, as an afterthought, to shoot the waterfalls that were there  — not this covered bridge (which I didn’t know existed).  I could easily have focused on the first park or the falls at the second park to the exclusion of all else – but instead I found this shot.  Just goes to show that you never know when a photographic opportunity is going to present itself.

What about you?  Have you ever gotten a good shot that wasn’t planned but just happened due to circumstance?  What do you think of the picture?  Would you have processed it differently?  I’d love to hear.  Please leave a comment.

Zev

P.S.  Please be sure to check out the MyPhotoLessons blog for photography and Photoshop tutorials and lessons.  The latest one is an introduction to Photoshop layers and layer masks for the complete beginner.

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

This shot is entitled “A Bridge Into Autumn.”  I found this location in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, New York.  Everyone always assumes that New York City (of which Brooklyn is a part) must be wall-to-wall asphalt.  The truth, however, is that New York has some wonderful parks where one can escape the concrete jungle.  Prospect Park is one of them.

“A Bridge Into Autumn”

I happen to love how you can practically walk into this picture.  The leaves give just a hint of the color show that will arrive in the days and weeks that follow.  The scattered leaves on the ground tell the story of the yearly cycle coming to a close.

I plan to put up more autumn shots as the season progresses.