I got up at stupid o’clock one day in New York so that I could go to Brooklyn under the cover of darkness and try to take a few skyline shots as the sun came up. I wanted to be in the tree area shown at the bottom right of this shot, but as it was my first time to this area I failed in that.

Firstly, it took longer than expected to walk from the metro station of choice to this part.
Secondly, I gathered I would walk a relatively straight line to get to the area I wanted, and not be cut off by a freeway in between me and the intended location.
Thirdly, I had not anticipated a camera taking my photo and telling me I was trespassing for entering the park before 6am.

I guess people save that sunrise location for the time of year when the sun is coming up a lot later.

I settled for this view instead, which wasn’t quite as I wanted but will have to do me until my next trip there.

Hope everyone has a happy Friday, and a great weekend ahead.

My first trip to New York resulted in my first trips on the metro system, and the only thing I have to compare it to is that of the London underground. Here are my thoughts on the differences spotted:

1) The NYC metro seems to run all night long – this is awesome, especially when heading out to Brooklyn for a sunrise! Ours stops around midnight/1am.
2) The NYC metro didn’t seem overly busy at the times I was moving around on it. The London underground is often jam packed and rather hot and uncomfortable for it.
3) The NYC platforms seem to get litter removed, but not actually cleaned. I think the London tube staff do an excellent job of keeping it all clean and, well, less sticky.
4) The cost to ride in NYC is much better than here, $2.25 for a single journey instead of something like £4.30.
5) We have ‘rats’ that are small moused sized. NYC really have rats!
6) The London underground has swift trains throughout the day, arriving every couple of minutes on a good schedule. In NYC I was never too sure when a train may turn up, and it wasn’t always signposted at each station.

This last point did allow me to take a few shots here and there though, which is how I managed to get the above image

I visited the 9/11 memorial on my last day in New York.

I had been in Washington D.C earlier that week and attended a party at the Newseum where I had seen an exhibit on this historic day, and the antenna from one of the towers that is on display there. Much of the video footage in the exhibit was new to me, but still just as shocking; it was a very sobering thing to see at the party.

The memorial itself was being treated by most people as a simple tourist attraction where they felt they could sit and have a picnic and let their kids run around and climb over everything. Security weren’t too impressed with this and were happy to remind people that they are visiting a memorial, and that it’s unlikely the parents would allow their kids the same freedom to run over burial mounds in a graveyard so to show the same courtesy here.

I liked the memorial, I thought it was well designed. I visit memorials at most destinations when on holiday and read the names of people who have been lost; this is the first one I think I’ve visited where it means something more than a day in the past to me though. I remember this one happening and unfolding on the television in front of me, as I’m sure all of you do.

The above shot is taken from within the memorial, looking up at the under construction One World Trade Center. Once complete it will be the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, the third tallest in the world. I love the USA for that.

This is the inside of St George Wharf, a new build currently going up in London. I’m sure there is some logic as to why the stairs stopped on this level and yet the building carries on for eons after it, but that logic is lost to me and made further progress impossible, especially on a night like this one – it was very misty so exterior shots were a little pointless on this occasion.

Today I’m back from New York with a lot of catching up to do. Hope everyone is well.

As this post goes out I should be on a plane home from New York, so quite an apt image for today. I’m writing it in advance so it’s hard to say at this stage whether or not I had a blast, however I bet I did. Hopefully I’ll also have some awesome pictures to show from the trip as well.

I hope everyone had a great weekend…as soon as I’m home I need to start to unpack after the move, which already seems like so long ago!

It’s not by design that Fridays appear to feature an image with my hooded character, but I quiet like that it has been this case recently (though this will not continue for long as I haven’t been wearing it too much lately).

I feel this is an appropriate image for for New York, what with people rushing around you and seemingly nobody stopping to take it all in. I think I need to do a shot like this with people rushing on either side of the solitary figure.

Have a great weekend all.

I returned to my West Park set of images when looking for brackets to process recently, and found this item from the Green Curtain room. It’s fascinating looking around these abandoned places and finding old items like this, and the mind goes into overtime thinking of who had to use them and why. I have no idea if similar items are used in modern day hospitals, they probably are but part of me looks at this and thinks it is so archaic that they can’t possibly still bein use.

Today I’m taking the train up to NYC to start my vacation – hurrah!

And now for something a little different from the decay and dereliction that has been posted lately. Cornwall was a very sunny place, for the most part, when I visited late last year. We were very lucky with the weather, and the colours this brought out in the greenery was lovely.

I can’t remember the name of the place we were at when I found this flower (not sure what it is), but it was a great place, near a beach, and full of people enjoying a hot summer’s day.

One day I’ll take a photo of a butterfly, I’m sure.

For today’s image we’re heading back to the abandoned mills in the East end of London. One of the rooms had a great patched floor with wires piled to one side throughout, an extract of which you see here.

Currently I’m still in D.C where I will spend the next few days before heading up to New York – I haven’t had the chance to head out with the camera here yet, but will hopefully do so in the time I still have here, if the cocktail receptions ever end

I can’t imagine that my eyesight could be improved by using this stuff to wash them out, but I guess if you’re in an abandoned building then you shouldn’t be using any of the leftover products that you find there!

The trip to the US has started off well, though I’m finding DC to be rather a ‘flat’ city. Already starting to lose track of days though. Hope everyone had a nice weekend.