My fingers were about to fall off. They had been out of the gloves for too long. Winter had come early this year, and I definitely didn’t pack warm enough for this cold New York weather. I took this photo during an early November sunset between the Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan Bridge. I hadn’t seen the sun since I had arrived the day before, but at this moment, I caught a glimpse as it fell behind the buildings. This is what I had been waiting for.
Earlier that afternoon, my sister and I walked through Central Park. I was hoping to see bright red leaves, but unfortunately the red had turned to brown. Dead leaves and overcast skies didn’t make for many compelling photos. The conditions in the park weren’t great, but I did get to see this guy entertaining people with his giant bubble-maker-net.
We cut our losses and left the park. I had to get over to Brooklyn before sunset. This would mean surviving the subway to make it across the bridge on time. Honestly, I was trying NOT to look like a tourist on this trip, even though I was taking pictures of everything. I did figure out the subway pretty quickly, but those first few rides made it obvious that I was an out-of-towner. I probably studied the map for about 10 minutes before I decided to take the 6 train headed towards the Brooklyn Bridge. In hindsight, it should have been pretty obvious.
After a 20-minute subway ride, I was finally walking across the Brooklyn Bridge for the first time. The walkway was packed, which was surprising because it was overcast and freezing. The pedestrian walkway is a wooden boardwalk on a raised platform, in the middle of the bridge. The foot traffic would place an added challenge on getting any quality shots while walking across. When I did catch a break in the flow of people, I had to act quickly, or others would enter the frame. As I set my camera bag down to get a quick shot, I noticed that besides the wooden boards, nothing else was between me and the East River, a few hundred feet below. Shouldn’t there be some other support system? I’m not a big fan of heights, but I couldn’t have been the only person to wonder about that. I snapped this shot and picked up the pace after that.
After making it across to Brooklyn, I navigated myself to the small park between the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges. It was around 4:30 at this point, the clouds were starting to clear just as the sun began to set behind the buildings in lower Manhattan.
I set up my tripod and got ready to take the shot shown above. Here is how I did it:
A tripod is a must. This shot uses a long exposure to create the impression of cloud movement (over 30 seconds for this shot).The camera needs to remain still to keep the stationary objects in focus.
After securing my Nikon D7000 to the tripod, I added some neutral density filters. These filters are designed to reduce the amount of light hitting the censor. The filters make it possible to leave the shutter open for a prolonged period without washing out the image.
My Camera was set to Manual Mode. Aperture (The size of the lens opening) is very small (in the f/20-22 range). A small aperture allows less light to reach the sensor. Shutter speed is set to ‘bulb’ mode. Bulb mode allows me to control when the shutter opens and when it closes. ISO is set to 100, the least light-sensitive setting.
I used a remote trigger to tell the camera when to open and close the shutter. Because the shutter will be open for a long time, I could create some camera shake by touching the camera, resulting in a blurry image. The remote trigger helps to keep the finished product as sharp as possible.
I love showing movement in my photos because it creates something that cannot be seen by the naked eye. Fortunately, the clouds broke at the perfect time, allowing me to capture the cloud movement as the sun sets behind the stationary bridge and buildings.
Braving the cold was worth it, as I got some of my favorite shots of the year from this excursion. After shooting for over two hours in the cold, I was ready to find my way back to Manhattan.
