We've been away from 1st Jan through to the 10th, on a mixture of business and pleasure. The pleasure part was a trip to New York. I went with my wife and youngest daughter to visit my eldest daughter, who moved to New York with her husband last year. She lives in the centre of Manhattan and we were able to stay in her apartment - so that was great. You can see a few of the snaps below.
I had been to New York only once before and it was a real delight to be there for several days, especially staying in Manhattan. We were able to get a good sense of Manhattan, which I had not realised was so restricted in area - it is small island measuring only 3 miles wide, and hence all the skyscrapers. The metro travels up or down-town only, and with most roads arranged in a grid (north-south and east-west), finding your way around becomes quite easy.
They say it can get cold in New York. It was freezing, like minus 5C, which felt like minus 11C. If you took your gloves off for more than a few moments then your hands became very cold, very quickly. That did not stop us from Ice-skating in central park, which was a nice way to pass some time outside. We also went to the Statue of Liberty and then Ellis Island - but the queues were quite long and I have never been so cold, my feet were almost numb! Ellis Island is well worth a visit. It is where immigrants were processed and so you get a very good sense of the history and origins of America - it was also heated inside, which on that day was very welcome!
The business part was something very exceptional. Samantha and I belong to a professional network of wedding and portrait photographers from across the world -
Digital Wedding Forum - and so we went across for the annual convention, which was held over 4 days in Tampa, USA. There were over 500 professional photographers from all over: USA, Canada, Europe, South America and Australia. The convention was packed full of teaching seminars, with top photographers from around the world, and the chance to network and meet other professionals. So we have come back refreshed and alive with plenty of new ideas for 2008.
It was, in the words of our fellow american photographers, totally awesome! We met so many great and inspirational photographers. Samantha had a mentoring session with
Garrett and Joy Nudd, two amazing photographers based in the States, and I had a mentoring session with
Mark Lutz, another great photographer based in the States.
We attended seminars by
James Walters, who showed us some very helpful techniques for off-camera lighting,
Yervant, who is based in Melbourne and is known across the globe as a true high-end wedding photographer, and
Cliff Mautner, who is based in New Jersey and is an exceptional, award winning photographer and one of the few in the world to be sponsored by Nikon. There is much else to say that I won't extend the list - but you can guess, mixing face to face with such great photographers is both a privilege and an inspiration.
So here are some pictures from New York. They were either taken by me or my daughter:-
I don't need to say much about this one!
Ellis Island is well worth a visit. It has been made into a visitor centre, as it no longer functions as an immigration centre, but it has been fully restored and is very well laid out.
This is inside the main building at Ellis Island, the large hall, where immigrants gathered for processing.
This is the Manhattan skyline on the way back.
As a special treat, we went for a short helicopter ride over Matthattan in the early evening and this shot was taken as we were coming into land. There was little opportunity to get the camera settings 100% right on this one!
Labels: Journal
