3 Days of Photography in Manhattan

Shortcuts:

• Image Collection
• manhattan Travel Photography Tips
• Using the Subway
• Is manhattan safe?
• Locations to Photograph
• Food and Drink: eating cheap
• conclusions about manhattan photography
• your rights as a photographer
• photo gear used

About this Post

I have documented a 5 day trip to New York. This post is about the time I spent in the Manhattan borough. This was my first trip to the financial capital city so even though I did capture a lot of moments on black and white film, most of the trip was more about experiencing the city and less about creating print worthy images.

Areas I’ve explored were between lower Manhattan and Central Park (midtown). Probably my favorite moment captured was seeing the 5 points in lower eastside, which is now Chinatown. The tenement Museum helped gain a more appreciation of the area and it’s history. I later discovered that I had walked right by Robert Franks house on 184st.

Image Collection

Here are a few images I have selected from Manhattan on black and white film.
The backstories and camera techniques are described here.

Manhattan Photography Tips

Make a Custom Google Map

Creating a custom map helps with the planning process – what location to visit on what day. Create the map on a desktop computer or laptop first. Creating drop-pins using the phone app doesn’t work as easily.

Using the Subway

Quick Tips

• Watch a 15 min Video
• Use mobile app and the MTA map
• Metro Card: the Unlimited option
• Take a taxi from the airport though
• Express vs. Local subways
• Use the Signage to know what train to get on

Use mobile apps and the MTA Map

I found the Apple maps provided train routes involving fewer transfers. I find that it is also more user-friendly. Google map doesn’t seem as accurate as it used to be but can provide more verbose details about the destination and also streetview feature is helpful. After searching for your destination just change the mode of transportation to transportation to subway and it will give you the station name , and what what train to take.

Getting Subway Tickets

Use either and OMNI pass or a Metro card. You purchase them at a machine at the bottom the subway stairs or from clerk at a ticket booth next to it .The Unlimited metro card is most efficient for a 3 to 7 day visit. It is $32 dollars nad you get unlimited rides. The OMNI pass you can download the app to your phone but is $2.90 per ride. During my visit I rode the subway about 10 times per day so it was better to use the Metro MTA card.

Getting To and From the Airport

Take a taxi. (LGA or JFK They are waiting outside the airport exit offering rides. A taxi ride from Laguardia to Brooklyn was about $50. Otherwise you’ll have to walk to a subway station or wait for your Uber to show up.

Safety Tip:
When exiting an airport keep an eye out for scams as “many illegal solicitors are unlicensed and uninsured”. Don’t take a ride from a car service you didn’t order through the app unless it’s a yellow taxi.

Express vs. Local

Local trains, such as C and E, make more frequent stops. But and express train such as the A, make fewer stops. If you get on an express line thinking it’s a local, you might miss your stop and have to backtrack. There are more subway trains that are “Local”. Watch this video covering the A.C.E. line.

Follow the Flow of Traffic

Most stations will have two entry points. Pick the side that follows with the flow of traffic in the direct you are going. Some have an underpass to the other side, but if not, you’ll have to go back out and cross the street and the Unlimited Metro card isn’t usable until 18 minutes after it has been swiped.

Using the Signage for Directions

This is important. When walking through the subway station there are signs that tell you what train goes where for that station. The destination point on the sign is always going to be the termination point for that line, which is the very last stop for that line if you look at a map.

Using the Ferry

Staten Island and The Statue of Liberty

This Staten Island Ferry is free and runs 24hrs a day. The ferry station is in lower Manhattan pier and will take you to Staten Island. You pass the statue of liberty on the way.

Is Manhattan Safe?

Watch your surroundings

Here is a color graded Crime Map with brief statistics. Consider the what neighborhood you walking through and the time of day you are out. Areas like Lower Manhattan and Central Park east seemed like no big deal for walking through. Hell’s Kitchen seemed a little dicy. I had now issues but was still carrying my camera slinged over the front.

Food & Drink: eating cheap

Hotdog and a Beer

I stopped in a dive bar called Rudy’s Bar and Grill in Hell’s kitchen. The draft beers were very in-expensive and the at atmosphere of the people there seemed laid back from what I could tell. Here they serve Nathan’s hotdogs to go with their beers.

Food Trucks

You’ll notice several Halal Carts in Manhattan. These middle-eastern cuisine trucks are quick and also have a couple of plant-based options. I wouldn’t consider them cheap though.

Ethnic Cuisines

In Lower East side you have a few ethnic communities in one area. I stopped at a Ukranian restaurant, Veselka, in East Village. It had a line down the sidewalk but was able to get in quick. It’s worth the wait. Other communities like, Little Italy and Chinatown are also nearby.

Locations To Photograph in Manhattan

Below I have listed a few notable photography opportunities in Manhattan.

Chinatown & The 5 Points

The Original Slum

Chinatown in Lower Eastside is New York’s largest out of 5 thriving chinatowns in the city. It’s festive, very busy, and has a lot of hidden speakeasy’s and pagoda-style roofs. It is also the former stomping grounds of the 5 points, commonly known as Martin Scorsese’s Gang’s of New York (not entirely an accurate history reference). The roots of diverse neighborhoods in the area can be traced back to this section of Lower Eastside such as Little Itally, Chinatown, Ukranian neighborhood, and various Irish communities that are now scattered all throughout New York.

Orchard Street

Historic Tenement Buildings

The 5 Points in Manhattan was the city’s most condensed melting pot of cultures crammed into Tenement housing in the 1800’s as a result of the industrial revolution. It was once the epicenter of daily drunkeness, riots, brothels, black and tan bars, crime, disease, and other vices. Today it is Chinatown. The 5 points intersection is now where Worth and Baxter cross (used to be Anthony & Orange). The main stretch of tenements and market trade was Mulberry bend, which is now Columbus park.

If you head towards Orchard street, where the Tenement Museum is, you’ll find less of a crowd compared to Chinatown. From there you can see a lot of the tenement structures still in use. This is also an area where Robert Frank lived over on 184th Bowery.

Manhattan Library

Ghostbuster Nostalgia

You are allowed to photograph in and outside of the building as long as no flash is used. Photographic opportunities remain mostly with the architecture of the building, you not a lot of time is needed here for that but the Museum itself is worth experiencing because it has nostalgia qualities. Nostalgia is big spark for creativity.

It’s a great place for a nineties kid to see where the Ghostbusters worked and also see the original stories of Bram Stoker’s Frankentstein. You can even get a glimpse of Richard Hell stories not far away from the stuffed animals of Whinny the Poo characters.

Central Park

Gothic Bridges and Archways

If you follow the Ramble trail you come across plenty of photogenic scenes with victorian gothic bridges and also brick layered archways. See the list here.

Bethesda Fountain

A lot of wedding photos are taken here. That’s not unusual for Central Park as a whole but the arches with a large staircase would be great for good lighting and storybook backdrops.

Camera Stores and Repair Shops

B&H Photo Supply

This vendor is already well known but it is a great go-to photo supply since you can get almost anything you need in delivered or pick it up in-store. It’s located in Hell’s Kitchen (Lower West Side Manhattan).

The Camera Doctor

Located not far away from B&H in Hell’s Kitchen. This place is professional, reasonalbly priced and they specialize in vintage camera repairs. I shipped my Rolleiflex 2.8E to them before arriving in NY and they repaired it quickly so I could pick it up in store. It took about 3 weeks.

Eliz Film Development

Located in chinatown and is a full service film development vendor. They sell film as well. 10-7pm.

Mentionable Photographs

Description:

• veiled Flatiron Building.
• 35mm monochrome film.

Description

• Empire State Building
• Double exposure
• 35mm monochrome film

Photography Resources in Manhattan