Saturday, June 8, 2013

NYC: Central Park


 Central Park. I think more than anything this was the most impressive site in NYC. I find it hard to comprehend how the architects of New York could have imagined how important it would be to save such a large part of the city for this purpose.

The park is enormous. It's really gigantic, and you can get lost walking its trails. Some parts of it are well traveled and see countless visitors every day, other parts are distant and out of the way and mysterious. All around it, like a wall, are tall buildings to remind you that this piece of real-estate is among the most expensive in the world. Still, the city of New York, with its costly skyscrapers and bustling businesses, does not creep into the area of the park. The welfare of the citizens outweighs the economical pressure. As I've said: truly amazing.









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This is the third part of my third day in New York. A busy day where I took hundreds of photos, starting at dawn at the Brooklyn Bridge Park, and moving by foot up to 14th street (Union Square). Then a subway ride took me to spend the afternoon in Central park. More images below...


Entering the park at the south edge, on 59th street. Some statues:



Everywhere except the deeper, more densely wooded areas of the park you can get shots like this: the natural green forest (which only looks natural, really) and the buildings coming up in the horizon like impossible mountains.




I had fun with both my wide angle and telephoto lens. These were all taken at the southern area of the park.


As I got to 'conservatory water', a large pond at the east side of the park (at the start of 74th street east), I saw some photographers and birdwatchers. They were all trying to get a good look at some peregrine falcons living on the side of one of the buildings.


I only had the 300mm at my maximum focal length, but I still got some nice images.


Deeper in the park you really feel like it's some sort of wilderness. Some evidence for human presence is usually not so hard to find. It reminds you that it is all artificial. Unbelievable, but there it is.


So there are also lakes and castles in the middle of the park. I don't know if the resolution allows seeing it, but there are people sunbathing on the grass on the other side of the lake. Above them in the image is the skyline of the east side, once again reminding you that it may look like a summer resort somewhere off the Atlantic shore, but really it's smack in the middle of one of the most densely populated cities in the world.


...and Buddhist monks. I was being really clever, since the girls in the back were posing to get their picture taken by their mom, while I was being all stalkery about that. No, really I was just stalkery about the monks.


My journey that afternoon took me through ponds, walkways, zoos, bridges, wild forested areas, castles and giant sport courts. It ended around 86st street, about two thirds of the way up the park, at the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir. Its basically a huge lake, spanning almost the whole width of the park.


To finish this post off, here's one of my favorites from the day, taken in the deeper, more forest like regions of the park.


For several more images from this set, go to my facebook page...


Next up, day 4 (and hopefully less than three different posts just on that, because even I am getting tired of this!)




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