Trip to NYC to shoot photos

PaK

I will be taking a vacation primarily to shoot urban photos and I want it to be really successful.

There must a be more than a few polycounters who have taken photo trips right?

Any advice? I'll be going to NYC.

-R

Daz

take a camera

Moz

Take film.

MoP

I hear tripods can be handy, too.

PaK

heh, I shoulda seen this comming

I'm tryna plan it so that I can hit some nice spots and cover as much as I can in the 6 days that I have. I haven't ever done this kind of trip before and i was hoping someone who's accually done this might be able to help.

-R

Mishra

um, times square, union square, these places you can get to on pretty much any train.

if you go east (5th avenue, 4th avenue, 3rd avenue) so on, if you go to avenues a b and c they have some good architechture, acenue c has a bunch of gothic architecture and gargoyles and junk

Hunter

Hmm what sort of pics do you need.. (people, buildings, skylines, textures, vehicles??) that would be a start..

Heck I can just toss you in a car, and take you to a heapload of photographic / scenic areas in the city, or brooklyn etc etc. then you could spend the next 5 days blowing your money on booze and broads. LOL (j/k)

Rick Stirling

I've done a few, and I've done a NYC one.

What are you going for? Do you have areas in mind?

Take spare memory cards and batteries, I filled about 2- 3 a day, normally I used 2 sets of baterries per day.

Figure out what you want, and make a list. Do you want Central Park? It alone will take 2 days to photograph, so you need to prioritise. Brooklyn?Bronx?Harlem?

Thoses areas are all disctinctly different, and there are MANY areas that you dont want to go to without a local guide. Take Hunter up on his offer, as there are some areas where you DONT want to go with a police escort.

hawken

I was gonna say, take a friend or two. NYC can have some streets you might not want to venture down, even off Times Square.

Pseudo

Hit up the subway. Also hit up the subway at night. Granted, there are places that you don't want to go, but if you have a guide that knows his shit, then the NY subway is quite an adventure after nightfall.

I took a trip to NY to visit the different art schools shortly after I graduated from High School, and the most memorable part of the trip was getting lost on the subway after 10 o'clock at night. We got harassed for money, followed by a woman dressed up as a cat (who would only stalk around, instead of walk), and ran into a guy wearing a tophat selling us watches. It was really an awesome place, and quite exhillarating. Luckily, no one was robbed/stabbed/shot, so it was all in good fun.

Rick Stirling

Also, MANY MANY MANY areas require you to have a written license with you. Many people are utterly paranoid about terrorists, and whilst you will look lile a tourist taking photos in Times Square, when you are seen taking hotos of walls and doorways and streets etc, and taking hunreds of them, yo WILL be stopped by everyday people and by the police.

If you ake photos near governemnt building, you WILL be questioned - not MIGHT BE, but WILL BE. When I was there with apolice escort and official papers, the police were still checking what I was doing.

When I was there, it was illegal to take photos on the subway.

PaK

Oh man, some security guard gave me shit in san fran once time when I was framing a skyscraper shot. i thought that was a bit over-the-top.

Maybe I should wear lots of pink make-up and dye my hair before I go :P if they gave you trouble Rick they'll probably nail my ass to the wall.

-R

Ryno

Hey Pak, make sure to check out the Hudson hotel's bar. It's near Central Park. Very sweet hotel in general.

Make sure to take flat-ons in the shade for textures, and angled shots for reference.

I'll second the extra battery, and extra flash card idea.

hawken

It's also illegal to take pics on the London Underground. We had a bit about it on the GTP website from back in 2000:

[ QUOTE ]

R.Gething finds out more... with the LUT.

Rhmm. Although I am the talker of the group I knew this was going to be a toughy. I wasn't sure how to play this but I decided that If I lied to her we might get into some serious trouble.
My main aim was to secure the plans to Holborn station and have permission to get photos for textures. I didn't think I had a hope in hell, but its always fun to try to convince people. I've cut out a lot of the boring bits, ooz and aaz etc but in general, The conversation went something like this....

Rob "hi, my name's Robin Gething and I'm producing a game withsome friends. Its a free game and is really more for portfolio purposes. We are using real places set 20 years into the future"

Kate "go on"
Rob "erm.... well,.."
Kate "what's the game called?"
Rob "It called G.T.P, Global Terrorist Prevention"
Kate "......"
Rob "The reason I've rung you up is to see if I can get structure plans for Holborn station"
Kate "So what's the game about? and why do you want to use Holborn?"
Rob "basically its a great place for a shootout. Have you ever heard of a game called QUAKE??"
Kate "oh.... yes I have"
Rob "Well, Its now up to Q3 now and the developers have released the source code for anyone to use and make a new game.."
Kate "hang on, you want to use Holborn for a place for people to go around killing each other!??!"
Rob "yes and no, the game is task based as well. As the name suggests, it's a team game involving 2 factions, Terrorists and police"
Kate "Officially we can't endorse a game where people are going around and killing each other in one of our stations. People think that they are unsafe as it is"
Rob "Im not looking for you to endorse it, Im asking if we can get some plans for the station. I can imagine that you might have doubts on a security point off view.."
Kate "absolutely!!"
Rob "...But I assure you that only what people could see anyway is going to be used. We need the plans for accuracy only"

"NO!!!, WE CANNOT EVEN HAVE THE IDEA OF PEOPLE GETTING KILLED IN OUR STATION!"

LUT, confusing.

Kate "Im sorry, but no we cant get involved in this."
Rob "Do you mind if we could go down there with a digicam and take a few snaps then?"
Kate "People take pictures down there all the time, all I can suggest is that you go down looking like tourists"
Rob "Not terrorists"
Kate "I cant give you permission for that but I cant stop you"
Rob "Well, its a public place.. So you don't mind us making the place up from photos"
Kate "Please don't put words into my mouth. If you use our Logo in your game you are going to get sued"
Rob "cool, so as long as we don't use the logo everything will be fine, great!!"
Kate "NO!!!, WE CANNOT EVEN HAVE THE IDEA OF PEOPLE GETTING KILLED IN OUR STATION!"
Rob "Well, I think you have made your position clear on that. Im sorry we couldn't agree but..nice to meet you and thankyou for your time"
Kate "No problem. Nice to meet you too"

one of the cleaner stations about...

Well, There you have it. I don't think we will get arrested. SO WHAT THE HELL:) Those textures are going in but I think we might have to make up our own station. Maybe Holeburn station or something. My next mission is to convince some people who own a shopping centre in Bank, London that it would be cool to have their mall placed on the net for all eternity.

Watch this space....



[/ QUOTE ]

HonkyPunch

Bring back some pics of gargoyles for cheapy, and some of cows eating flesh, for me.

PaK

what about bums peeing on gargoyles. I'm sure I'll find that :P

Hunter

Pak you never mentioned when yo will be taking your trip ???

PaK

end of sept early oct.

-R

HonkyPunch

Hmm, cows trampeling bums!!??!

Hunter

PaK,

I'll be in Argentina (for vacation) from around Sept 17 to about Oct 2 or so.. If your trip is after that, I may be able to hook up with you and show you around a few places..

PaK

I'll put in for time off the first week of oct.

-R

Hunter

PaK, make sure you drop me a line.. Where are you traveling FROM anyway ? If you Email me and we can get into more specifics about what you may need to get pictures of or what is the basic subject matter of the project.. It will give me some time to figure some places out.. after all living here all my life I sort of have taken it for granted and theres probably tons of stuff i dont know myself..

hawken

PaK I'd suggest taking two types of lens if you're using an SLR or digi SLR. Get a wide angle lens and a really decent telescopic. Wide angle for ref shots and the zoom lens for actual texture shots. Zoom in as much as possible, this way you'll get very minimal distortion. Most new cameras come with a lens that will do both of these jobs

I need a new nikon... After 3 years of photography at college I sold all my equipment for some reason Now I just use a crappy cybershot.