Last night at 8.30 local time was Earth Hour, and 4000 cities world wide participated and turned off their lights for one hour, with great results. New York City on the other hand was a big disappointment… sure, some of the larger structures turned off (Empire State Building and the Citi Corp Building, but over all not many cared about it, and especially Times Square was the biggest disappointment… 4(!) out of 50+ large signs were turned off, and none of the retailers participated. What a drag…

NY skyline before Earth Hour:

NY skyline during Earth Hour:

Times Square during Earth Hour:

(pan around with your mouse, shift or apple/command to zoom, right click for fullscreen)

Ever since I shot the pano in April, I was unhappy about it (the second one), and decided to reshoot it (the first one), with more coverage to the left, and a bit more resolution.
About 400 megapixel.

I went to the 2007 Macy’s Parade balloon setup staging area around the American Museum of Natural History, which is quite a spectacle for everybody. Starting around midnight, I worked all night, up to the moment the parade actually leaves the staging area. I shot so many panoramas that I am still not finished editing them. If you are interested buying a regular print (i.e. 20-30in), or if you want to license or use them for something, send me an email. (Given the nature of the parade, I do not have any model releases for those). Let me know which ones you like

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Peg, who I met at the last day of the Tabla Rasa Show, was so kind to offer her rooftop for this great panorama. I think this is so far the nicest ESB panorama. What do you think?.
Digital, about 1 gigapixel.

I did another Wall Street panorama set upon request from Der Spiegel, but unfortunately they did not wanted to use it (yet). So, if you are interested licensing them, contact me.

Many many megapixel.

This panorama is a little bit an experiment… I wanted to get as much supreme court as possible into one photo. Hopefully I can get a panorama from the inside one day, since the hallway alone looks very promising.
Digital, about 400 megapixel.

I am continuing to work on my Chinatown series. It has become a bit difficult, since I really want to photograph a bit more of the street life, but none of the store owners want to speak english (anybody speaking some form of chinese and wants to help me convincing store owners?) Never the less, Chinatown has a fuzzy border in New York, and merges easily into the court quarter around Centre Street and this is a very nice example of one of those fuzzy borders.
Digital, about 550 megapixel.

It’s very interesting to see just how many rooftops are out there, and how they are used in the Upper West Side.
Digital, about 600 megapixel.

The lights and colors of this area were really attractive. I did try this panorama last week, but my memory card died on me, so I had to reshoot, and fortunately it turned out much better. The waiters of both restaurants were a bit curious to see what I was up to, but didn’t say anything. The moon over the Statue of Liberty was just a quick 7 panel panorama, nothing special, but I left the orange/yellow sky over New jersey as it really was. The moon was dark yellow, about 4 year old Gauda cheese. I did dial the orange down in the first/large panorama, because it was just a bit too much.
Digital, about 650 megapixel.

Alice in Wonderland (José de Creeft) was commissioned by George Delacorte for his wife in 1959 and is said to be the most beloved statue in Central Park. It is certainly, together with Hans Christian Anderson, the most approachable statue, almost like a playground piece.

About 500 megapixel

I visited the Hans Christian Anderson statue in Central Park in Winter 2007 (snow pano), but I was never happy with the result. The snow was nice, but there were tons of foot prints, the composition had to real weight, and the lens I was using back then was producing way too many flares. It took me a while to control flares, and I thought that it was a great night yesterday to go back to the statue.

About 440 megapixel

The Empire State Building is New Yorks most visible and most central icon.

About 650 megapixel.

I really never knew what the structure above the GWB approach was, until I walked by and found that it’s another bus terminal, servicing NJ… who knew?
About 350 megapixel

This is also a reshoot of an older panorama. It took me about 3h to shoot this, spending most of the time on the street with all the cars.

Digital, about 640 megapixel.

The Apple Store on 5th Avenue is probably the most iconic of all Apple stores, the glass cube personally designed by Steve Jobs himself. Since it’s 24/7 open, there is a constant stream of people visiting the store, but more interesting were the cab drivers waiting for people from the Apple Store, or getting a bite to eat. The food cart was making really good business, despite that it was 1.30 in the morning.

The 125th birthday celebration were in full swing with a light show on the bridge. I went back to the same spot where I shot the “two Bridges” panorama from, only this time I used the 85mm lens. I personally found the light show quite cheesy and garish, but I guess it attracted tourists.

I reshot the marina since last December, since I wanted to get some more of the boats and the water reflections in there.
Digital, about 600 megapixel.

South Street Seaport is an interesting mix between museum, tourist attraction and shopping and food mall. It’s one of those places where old New York meets new New York.
About 460 megapixel.

Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridge: since so many people really liked this panorama, I decided to reshoot it much larger, and this is the new and improved version that will soon find its way into the portfolio with the usual size of 243×76cm (96×30in).
Digital, about 400 megapixel.

Right around the corner from South Street Seaport is old New York, almost as old as it gets in the City. I thought it might be an interesting panorama, but I would need to find another location down there for something more interesting.

Somehow this bridge artifact deeply fascinated me, I kept coming back to it until I liked the panorama. Now I like it.
About 300 megapixel.

Broadway has so many facets while it’s making it’s way from north to south across Manhattan. It turns into a very residential area just north of Columbus Circle.
About 400 megapixel.

The Charging Bull bronze by Arturo Di Modica is the symbol of the financial district. According to wikipedia, the artist dropped the 3.2t sculpture off in front of the stock exchange as a present to the people of New York. The police towed it away and impounded it, public outcry followed, and the sculpture was moved to its current location in the middle of Broadway. While taking the panorama I had to stop at least four times because some tourists wanted to stand in front of the bull have have their picture taken. Let me know which of the two versions you like better.
About 350 megapixel.

Riverside Park South is nearly finished, it just needs some small touch-up, and it’s actually quite nice, and very inviting for sightseeing, walking and biking. I like the fact that they left some artifacts of the old piers in the water, especially the old railroad barge transfer facility. I was also surprised to see so many people there at night, despite the signs that the park is closing at 11pm. Why the park is closing, I do not understand. Afterall, it’s a major throughway for bicycles. After I was finished with those two panoramas I moved on to the next location, the 72nd Street Ballpark and was promptly harassed by at least four cops in two vans, stating that I was doing something suspicious (photographing), and that I was trespassing. I was of course the only one that they harassed, all the others in the park that I saw were left alone. This encounter was way different than the Triboro bridge encounter, where the cops were just bored, but professional and somewhat friendly, while those four were clearly just out of line. So I will take the last panorama at the Ballpark as soon as the weather is OK again, before 11pm, so they can’t piss me off again.
About 250 megapixel.