Afternoon walk in New York.
For the past several years, I’ve been successfully hosting my personal workshops mostly throughout Europe.
I’ve also consistently been asked when was I going to host a workshop in one of the most (if not the most), exciting and beautiful city in the world? The Big Apple, The City that Never Sleeps, The Melting Pot, and Gotham …all well known nick names for the incredible city most call New York!
The time has come. This September 21st 2016, ten of my fellow photographers will sit down with me at my well known “Meet and Greet” for wine and appetizers, signifying the start of my next personal U.S. workshop.
For the next five days, with the help of Morning Slayter my co-producer and expert on the comings and goings of this great city, we’ll be taking you to some of the most famous landmarks as well as some hidden gems not as well known to the average traveler and sightseer.
Morning is a filmmaker, photographer, and NYC historian. She has taught at the International Center of Photography in the school of continuing education. She has conducted seminars in Photography, and filmmaking. She was a gallery owner and specialized in vintage 19th and 20th century photography.
For those of you who live in the U.S. and for one reason or another have never been to New York, this is a great opportunity to not only experience it for the first time, but to go home with a lifetime of memories and compact flash cards filled with great photographic images.
For those of you living outside the U.S., this is a wonderful chance to scratch it off your “bucket list”, and to also take home photos to share with your friends, while describing your New York adventures during your family’s slide show.
The following is an itinerary of what my five-day workshop will be about. As many of you know, the final schedule for the week is passed out during the meet and greet. It’s based on two days of scouting before the start, and working out last minute logistics to give us the best possible light both at sunrise and sunset.
September 21st: My traditional “Meet and Greet” with wine and appetizers, to be at a nearby restaurant Morning and I will choose.
September 22nd: We’ll gather in the hotel lobby and make our way to the South Street Seaport to shoot the area at sunrise:
We’ll head back for breakfast and plan on meeting for the first critique around 10:30A.M. This first critique will be made up of six of your images shot before the workshop. This will give me a chance to see where you are as far as your level of photography.
Since this workshop is not a competition, there’s no standard, no benchmark in the way of expected expertise that you feel you need to have reached before attending. Everyone participating is here to have fun, take lots of photos, make new friends, say hello to old ones and even learn a few things; not to be judged by your peers.
Following lunch and after finishing the critiques, we’ll spend the afternoon walking around Central Park. Ramble Cave, The Bow Bridge, Literary and Poet’s walk are the best known and among the most photogenic areas we’ll be shooting.
September 23rd:
Put on your tennis shoes because we’ll be walking over Brooklyn Bridge at sunrise:
It’s about a twenty-five minute easy walk, stopping and shooting on the way. There might be some that will just turn around on the other side and walk back into the city. We can also walk under the bridge to Brooklyn Bridge Park and the Promenade to shoot.
For those of you who want breakfast, we can eat under the bridge in Dumbo. You can either take the ferry back to Pier 11 in Manhattan while doing a little shooting, or you can cab it back to your hotel to work on your images for class.
The class will meet again around 10:30AM, or TBD
Lunch might be during the critique, so we’ll find the nearest places to get a sandwich. In the early part of the afternoon, we’ll take a ferry to Ellis Island and take the (hardhat) tour of the shuttered hospitals. A tour most visitors miss out on, or don’t even know about. It’s an absolute must see:
https://www.statueoflibertytickets.com/Hard-Hat-Tour-of-Ellis-Island
After the hospital tour we’ll shoot exterior shots of Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty and the exterior and interior of the Main Beaux Art building where immigrants were processed in the late 19th and early 20th century. I think we will probably be on Ellis Island for 3 – 4 hours.
We can have an early dinner at ‘Pier A Harbor House’ in Manhattan near the Ferry for those interested, cocktails and photography talk will be on the menu.
For those of you that have seen Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty and would prefer to shoot elsewhere, the following is an alternative:
Depending on the light, and for those up for it, you can head back to the Brooklyn Bridge Park for a fantastic view of the bridge and city at sunset. Others might just want to walk around the city on the way back to their hotel.
September 24th:
We’ll be taking the morning off so that people can either catch up on sleep, relax, have a leisurely breakfast, and/or download images for the daily critique. You’re also free and encouraged to just throw a camera over your shoulder and walk around the city.
We’ll meet at 10:00AM for the daily reviews, then lunch.
In the afternoon, we’ll take a subway to the Santiago Calatrava Path Station. Shaped like the wings of a dove, architect Santiago Calatrava’s architectural achievement is considered to be the epitome of self-indulgence, lavish spending and wastefulness by his peers.
Since I’m not one of his peers, I don’t really care! For me it’s a photographer’s dream, and I would compare it to a kid strolling through Willie Wonka’s Chocolate Factory:
Afterwards we’ll walk to the West Side Highway, and shoot the fountains and memorial gardens until the end of the blue hour.
(Note: If anyone would like to go to the top of 1 WTC, the cost is $30.00 for seniors and $32.00 for adults and reservations must be made in advance)
September 25th:
As of now, nothing is planned for sunrise, so getting up and walking around the city in the morning offers a variety of photo opts as the sun comes up to light up the streets running East and West around the hotel and neighborhood.
We’ll meet at 9:00 for the class critique then have lunch. This would be a good time for the class to go with me to John’s Pizza on Bleecker Street. Being a pizza aficionado, I can tell you that John’s is the best I’ve ever had.
Walking around the village, and shooting some of the historic streets like Commerce, and then Washington Square Park is a great way to walk off a large Pepperoni and mushroom pie.
Later in the afternoon we’re off to the Cloisters arriving there by 3:00PM, where we’ll be able to shoot in and around the gardens during the Golden and Blue hours.
The Cloisters is a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and it’s devoted to the architecture and art of Medieval Europe.
September 26th:
The class will meet at 9:00AM, and afterwards street shooting is on the agenda; starting out with Chinatown:
I suggest Dim Sum Go Go for lunch before heading over to Times Square. For those that have never walked around this area, you’re in for a visual treat touching on overload!!!
As we get close to the end of the day, we’ll head over to the High Line to catch the last rays of sunshine.
We’ll head back to the hotel to freshen up, then it’s time for my farewell dinner at a place that captures the spirit of the City, selected by Morning and myself.
September 27th:
We’ll meet one last time for the final critique at 10:00AM, and the workshop will officially end at 1:00PM.
As a lot of you know, this schedule is not written in stone. As always it will be based on my scouting to determine the best possible light as well as working out any last minute details.
At any time on any day, you’re more than welcome to take off on your own. For those of you that have never been to New York and would like to take in a couple of museums, I suggest the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, and the Guggenheim. These are all fairly close to one another and can be reached through Central Park.
We’re working on the selection of two hotels that will be compatible with everyone’s budget; keeping them as close to each other as possible. According to Morning, the Downtown and Tribeca area is where it’s happening now.
Wonderful new hotels have been springing up and rates are considerably less than their counterparts in mid to uptown.
More importantly, most of our locations will be easier to get to where we’ll be staying.
You can also plan on coming to New York early or stay after the end of the workshop to take in the museums or a number of other famous attractions.
And then there’s Broadway Shows to see!!! For those that plan on signing up, I suggest you check out the Broadway show schedules and book your tickets well in advance.
The price of the workshop will be $1395.00 for shooters, and $300.00 for non-shooters.
This will include the Meet and Greet, ferries and tour charges as a group, and the farewell dinner.
The workshop will be limited to ten photographers.
I hope you’ll join me in shooting together in this amazing city…and remember what Frank Sinatra sang… “Start spreading the news.
Joe
