As luck would have it, I ended up with a business meeting on Monday morning in the Bronx.  We decided to use this meeting as a good excuse to visit Manhattan for the weekend.  And of course, if we are going to visit someplace, we might as well fold in some photo shoots. Unfortunately, we ran into the same type of weather as in Boston last weekend.  It was very hot and muggy.

We put together a quick plan: shoot from the “Top of the Rock” at sunset, shoot from Battery Park toward the Statue of Liberty at sunrise, and maybe from Central Park at another sunrise.  And, while in the NYC there are certain musts: a New York Bagel, “real” pizza, and a new restaurant.  Armed with a shoot plan and food possibilities, off we went.  Unfortunately, it was very hot. We walked toward the Flatiron district and hung out in a shady park, took a few pictures, sweated a lot, then headed for dinner in a cool restaurant.  We tried “Bhatti” which turned out to be an excellent Indian restaurant.  We liked it so much that we ate there the next night too. Still hot from our shoot and now hot inside from our meal, we had enough and called it a night.

Flat Iron Building (Nikon D800, 28mm, 1/125 sec at f/5.6, ISO 200)

Flatiron Building (Nikon D800, 28mm, 1/125 sec at f/5.6, ISO 200)

We got up extra early for sunrise and looked out the window to see threatening clouds and rain drops on the window. It didn’t take long for us to bag it and get some more sleep.  I guess we are not so hardy after all.  When we finally did get going, the temperature was rising quick. We decided on a walk through the Italian section and a stop at “Lomdardi’s Pizza” which has been known as the the best pizza in the city. It was good, very good.  But, not quite as good as New Haven pizza. Again, it was hot.  After a very short walk, we headed back to the hotel to cool off and ready ourselves for a sunset shoot on top of Rockefeller Center.  Although there was a nice view of the city, it was quite difficult to get a good shot as there were a lot of tourists (I guess we were tourists too).  We snapped a few, enjoyed the breeze some 70 floors up, and headed out just as the sun set.

Sunset from Top of the Rock (Nikon D800, 50mm, 1/125 sec at f/4.5, ISO 250)

Sunset from Top of the Rock (Nikon D800, 50mm, 1/125 sec at f/4.5, ISO 250)

We thought about a final sunrise shoot on Monday morning before my meeting.  The forecast was, you guessed it, hot.  And, there would be no clouds to create interest.  So, once again, we opted out and decided on sleep.  I hope this is not a portent for future vacations.