On Thursday we got up and headed down to lower Manhattan. Our first stop was the site of the World Trade Center. It’s so moving to see the memorial for all the lives lost on 9/11. We photographed Freedom Tower and then made our way over to the financial district. This part of town is a very old, historic area. I photographed Wall Street, the Stock Exchange, Federal Hall and Trinity Church. I am really into history so this was such a cool place for me to be able to photograph. George Washington took the presidential oath on the land where Federal Hall is built. Trinity Church is one of the oldest churches in the US, and it’s architecture and stained glass windows are absolutely beautiful. It is also where Alexander Hamilton and his wife Eliza Schuyler Hamilton are buried, which I found super interesting. I learned a lot about composition, white balance and shooting in difficult lighting situations.

Things have been so busy up in New York that it has been hard to get a blog post up every night so I’m going to blog about several days today. Wednesday was a very busy day! I participated in two different workshops: iconic New York and Central Park. We first went to the Empire State Building to take pictures. Zim, our instructor, showed us a really cool way to take a picture of the Empire State Building. If you hold your camera to the side of a specific building, you are able to get a picture of both the Empire State Building and its reflection. We then took blurred motion pictures of the subway cars while on our way to Rockefeller Center. We learned how to use shutter mode and slow the motion down in a handheld position instead of on a tripod which is how I have typically shot long exposures. I had never been on the New York subway before so that was a really cool experience! I feel that I was able to shoot some good photos of Radio City Music Hall from perspectives I wouldn't usually shoot. After that we made our way to Central Park where we took photos of some classic Central Park images like horse drawn carriages, the arch of trees, and street performers and vendors. Today I learned a lot about composition and changing your perspective in order to get better shots. Now, I’m off to another shoot! I plan to blog more later today.

Today we had a workshop  planned to photograph lower Manhattan including Freedom Tower but we had to reschedule due to bad weather. Instead, I spent some time working on a paper that I have due. I also spent time reviewing my photos from yesterday, picking out the ones I thought could go in my final book and editing them. The weather tomorrow is supposed to be better so I will be shooting iconic New York landmarks as well as Central Park. I look forward to working with our instructor, Zim, not only is she a great photography teacher, she is also an interesting person. She is a travel photographer who just visited her 48^th country!

  

I am so excited to be spending a week in New York City! It is such a vibrant, energetic city. I arrived on Sunday, got settled and did some last minute preparations for the workshops. Specifically, I went to the Apple Store on 5^th Avenue, which I learned is open 24/7, to buy a card reader with a lightning adapter that can directly hook up to an iPad so that I can upload and edit my photos on my ipad while in New York. Monday, I participated in two photo workshops. The workshop instructor who I will be working with this week is Zim, a professional photographer who grew up in Southern California but has lived in New York City for 15 years. Our first group workshop took place at Grand Central Terminal. The group was given access to a catwalk high above the main terminal where we were able to take blurred motion pictures of the main lobby below. I learned so much yesterday about shooting on a tripod, long exposures, matrix metering and exposure compensation. All of these are important in order to capture good pictures and motion in challenging lighting. The second workshop took place in Brooklyn where we had the opportunity to take photos of the Brooklyn Bridge as well as the Manhattan Bridge at sunset and at night. Here I used what I had learned earlier in the day to capture good night photos, and I learned a lot about white balance and what a difference it can make in a photograph. I can tell I am going to learn a lot about how to improve my photography this week while exploring New York City.

Brooklyn Bridge at Night-Julia Taylor

Today I continued to research how to make online photo books that can be printed out. I found one called Blurb that is hooked up with Lightroom, the software that I use, which seems like it will be super useful while making the book. Blurb is a feature within the Lightroom application that provides customizable layouts to choose from. It also includes different hard and soft cover book sizes and different photo paper quality options. I believe that because it will be all done within one app, the printing process with be smoother than any alternate method. One thing I have been unable to find is how long it will take for them to produce the book once I have set it up. I need to figure this out so that I can have a physical copy of the book done in time for the final senior project presentation. I also worked on getting ready for New York. I made sure I had all the equipment that I will need. I put in about 4 ½  hours today but I plan on making the missed time up over the weekend by continuing to research the places I am going to shoot.

I intend to shoot mostly digital photos in New York, but I do hope to shoot with film as well. I have not developed film in a while so this morning I spent time in the darkroom at Lovett refreshing my skills. While I was at school, I also did some work on our year long marine biology project. This afternoon I set up a film scanner and learned how to use it so that I can transfer the film I take in New York into a digital format. I also started researching how to create a photography book online. Tomorrow I will continue this research as well as continue researching the places I will be shooting in New York City.

I spent this morning researching some of the places in New York where I am taking workshops. I ended up only researching Grand Central Terminal and Brooklyn Bridge because the history of both are so interesting! What I found super interesting is that there is a secret terminal leading from Grand Central to the Waldorf-Astoria! It is a secret train platform that Franklin D. Roosevelt and other VIPs used to enter the Waldorf-Astoria. It has been out of service for decades but still houses the tracks, the train car, and the private elevator. FDR used this entrance to hide his disability from the public. This area is not open to the public but you can spot it out the right side windows of certain Metro North trains leaving the station during departure. I definitely want to try to spot this area!. Here are some more facts I found about Grand Central Terminal.

- Grand Central Terminal: Grand Central Terminal is the heart of the New York City subway system. Located in Midtown Manhattan, it serves nearly 200,000 NYC commuters every day.

·       It was built in 1871 and is home some of the most beautiful Beaux-Arts architecture in NYC.

o   Examples of Beaux-Arts characteristics: raised first story, hierarchy of spaces (grand entrances and staircases), arched windows and doors, artwork with a coordinated theme to assert identity of the building, Classical details, and polychrome (variety of colors).

·      It is the largest train station in the world with 44 platforms.

·      The Grand Central ceiling features a huge astronomical mural.

·      Much of the facade is decorated with famous NYC art statues.

·      The most common misconception is it being called Grand Central Station. According to railroad language in the early 20^th century trains coming from a station could travel in at least two directions, and only one direction from a terminal. Trains from Grand Central Terminal departed in only one direction: north. Trains also cannot pass through Grand Central, they can only go out the same way they came in.  They can reverse direction through a "balloon" loop, but cannot continue to any locations past Grand Central Terminal.

·      There is a secret terminal (Track 61) that was used to transport VIP’s and other important figures  to the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel

Something I found interesting about the Brooklyn Bridge is how much effort was put into building the bridge. It took 14 years, 600+ workers, and $15 million dollars to finish building the bridge, but there were also a lot of deaths during construction. Before construction even started the original designer died while measuring the land after a boat smashed his toes on one foot, and he died three weeks later of tetanus. Air-tight wooden boxes called ‘caissons’ were pinned to the ground by large blocks of granite where workers were lowered down in airlocks and used shovels and dynamite to clear bedrock. Once the caissons reached sufficient depth—44ft on Brooklyn side, 78ft for Manhattan—workers built their way up to the surface by laying granite.  As the airlock descended into the river, it filled with compressed air so the workers could breath, but it also dissolved a dangerous amount of gas into the workers’ bloodstreams. When the workers resurfaced, the dissolved gases in their blood were quickly released. This is called caisson disease; more than 100 workers suffered from excruciating joint pain, paralysis, convulsions, numbness, speech impediments and, in some cases, death. It’s amazing how hard it was to build this bridge and that it still stands today.

- Brooklyn Bridge:

·      It was completed in 1883 after 14 years of construction

·      It was the first connection between Manhattan and Brooklyn boroughs over the East River.

·      It is more than 125 years old and carries roughly 150,000 vehicles and pedestrians everyday

·      It is the first steel suspension bridge, boasting the longest span at the time: 1,595 feet from tower to tower.

o   1903: Williamsburg Bridge overtook it by 4.5 feet.

·      24  people died, including the original designer, while building the bridge.

·      The designer, John A. Roebling, figured out how to stabilize suspension bridges by adding a web truss to both sides of the bridge.

·      Brooklyn did not become part of New York City until 1898

·      1884: Circus entertainer P.T. Barnum took 21 elephants over the bridge in May to show that it was safe.

·      1885: Robert E. Odlum, a swimming instructor, became the first to leap into the East River below (He died)

·      It cost $15 million to build (more than $320 million in today’s dollars).

In the afternoon, I set up my new Ipad Pro. I chose the new IPad pro because of its bigger size, and the fact that it comes with stylus capabilities, making photo editing so much easier. After setting up my Ipad, I downloaded the Adobe software that I use to edit and develop my photos. I use Adobe Creative Cloud—specifically Lightroom and Photoshop—for my photos because Lightroom allows me to store and edit my photos within one app. I have both of these apps on my laptop but I am currently running out of room on my hard drive. Lightroom also allows wifi syncing, which is good so I can have up to date photos on both devices.

Sites:

http://www.nyctourist.com/grandcentral1.htm

http://gothamist.com/2015/02/20/waldorf-astoria_train_tracks_subway.php#photo-1

http://www.nyctourist.com/brooklyn-bridge

http://www.history.com/topics/brooklyn-bridge

http://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-brooklyn-bridge