Six hours in Queens

December by the East River can be a little chilly and the weather unpredictable. I set up my tripod on a pier in Queens to photograph the sunset over Midtown. Sunset was scheduled for 4.29pm and I had no reason to believe it wouldn’t happen on time. This would leave plenty of time for me to get my shot, take the NY subway back to Manhattan and have a Shake Shack burger before the restaurant closed at 10pm. I started photographing long exposures, needing to retake a couple when the water taxi docked in front of me on the pier. It started to rain but the clouds were moving fast so I stuck it out and waited a little longer. I continued photographing and made the most of a break in the clouds so I could experiment with a panoramic long exposure (I won’t explain here, but suffice to say, no clouds are essential for a long period). It was approaching 7pm and my tummy rumbled. Nothing an American-sized chocolate bar couldn’t temporarily solve. At that moment, a large cloud appeared on the horizon, so I continued to shoot long exposures, hoping the movement of the cloud would produce some interesting results. It did, but it also brought a flurry of snow and hail. The temperature plummeted with the snowfall and after four hours in barely zero degrees I decided to keep warm by pacing up and down the pier, whilst my camera was taking the exposure. I must have looked like one of those unfortunate captive bears in zoos, pacing back and forth. It was approaching 10pm and my dream of a burger, fries and root beer were fading, and I consoled myself with another chocolate bar. At 10.15pm after six hours at the same location all I could think about was warm food. I certainly had enough material and I made my way back to Midtown. Fortunately for me I discovered another Shake Shack situated in Manhattan, open until 11pm. If I hurried I could make it. Like clockwork the subway turned up and I arrived with 15 minutes to spare. After eating I ventured back out to Brooklyn Bridge to capture more images of New York. That was cut short. But that’s another story.

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