In New York for a day—where should I go for photos?

[gesteves]

Long story short, I'm going to New York City in a couple of weeks, but since I'm going to a conference, I'll only have one free day to go out and shoot. Where should I go to make the most of it?

(Besides the B&H superstore, of course.)

[Hill Country Hack]

Not asking for much are you. It all depends on what you like to shoot. There is all kinds of cool art deco type buildings, traditional sites such as Grand Central, Empire State, 9/11 memorial, et al. Staten Island Ferry, China town, Little Italy, Harlem.......Soho, Central Park, Broadway at night. The fish market (need to be there 4:00 a.m. I think)

Make a list, check locations on a map/smartphone and plan your route.

Good luck and share some of what you get.

[gesteves]

Ha, you're probably right, I'm asking too much. Perhaps I should rephrase my question as "where would you go, if you only had a few winter hours and a point & shoot?".

[dvtldav]

Look at "citifari.com" they do tours. Google "New York City Photo Tours" there a lot of tours listed there. If you don't want to take one of the tours maybe you can get an idea of where to go.

Dave

[SwissJon]

LoL.. I was thinking the same thing.. I've a 6 hour layover between flights on my way back from Toronto.. I have to change fromJFK to La Guardia.. Why not go via the Empire State building. Take a trip to the top and see the whole of NYC in one go?? Seems like a plan to me.

Home - Empire State Building

then stop off at Grand Central Station for a photo or 3.

If I had a few more hours, I might be tempted to visit the Statue of Liberty.

Statue of Liberty Tickets, Ellis Island Tickets, Statue of Liberty Tours and Ellis Island Tours – StatueOfLibertyTickets.com

Manhatten has always intrigued me. As has Harlem and the Bronx.

But I think for my first visit to the city, I'm probably going to grab a taxi from JFK. Go accross Brooklyn Bridge, wave at the statue of Liberty from Battery Park, then head up through China town to the Empire state building. Go up it if it looks like I might have time, then take a taxi back through the Queens tunnel and over to La Guardia.. It's going to cost me a packet, but I'll at least have done "New York in 6 hours".. We'll see.. Might be a little more hectic than that, plans can always change.. But it's going to be a Saturday.. Hopefully the traffic will be reasonable.

[gesteves]

Going to the Empire State Building sounds like a great idea; I've also heard about going to the Top of the Rock (the observation deck at Rockefeller Center) as an alternate suggestion, because it's less crowded and the lines are shorter, plus you get a probably better shot of the NYC skyline, since you'll get the Empire State Building in the shot.

Someone also suggested to me taking the train to the other side of the Brooklyn Bridge and then walk back to Manhattan at around 5 pm, to get a great view of the skyline at the golden hour.

I've also wanted to go to the High Line for a long time, but I'm not sure it'll be worth it in winter.

By the way, if you have time to go to the Statue of Liberty, I'd suggest taking the ferry to Staten Island instead—it's free and you get an amazing view of Manhattan on the way back:

[rosserx]

Go down to South Street Seaport. There's plenty to shoot, eat, drink and be merry.