Lens-Artists Challenge #188 – A Special Place

NYC, WORLD TRADE CENTER, COLOR
Welcome to the World Trade Center, NYC

“I would give the greatest sunset in the world for one sight of New York’s skyline.”

Ayn Rand

This week our guest host, Karina, challenges us to choose a special place – or places. Those who follow me know my feeling that Kiawah Island, which we call home, is a truly special place. Since I’ve featured it in several recent posts however, I’ve chosen to highlight a completely different, but equally special place this week – New York City (aka, the Big Apple).

skyscraper, reflection, NYC
City Scenes

“If London is a watercolor, New York is an oil painting.”

Peter Shaffer

My husband and I are often in New York to spend time with our family there. I love wandering the streets of the city, camera or iPhone in hand, enjoying the hustle and bustle. My opening image captures a very large, welcoming wall art installation at the World Trade Center, while the image just above captures interesting reflections on some nearby skyscrapers. I especially loved the dichotomy of the little orange tower of the Corbin Building, built in 1888, in the center of a block of high tech, modern buildings.

graves, cemetery, new york
RIP in NYC

“Everything in New York is a photograph.”

Ann-Marie MacDonald

All of the images in today post (with the exception of the airport images) were made within a 5 or 6 block area of Lower Manhattan. I came upon the totally incongruous graveyard shown above in the middle of a busy New York street. Associated with St. Paul’s Chapel, made famous during the days after 9-11, it is no longer available for burials. The ancient graves offer a moment of peace in the middle of one of the most frenetic areas of NYC.

Inside and Outside the Oculus

“New York is the only city in the world where you can get run down on the sidewalk by a pedestrian.”

Russell Baker

I chose to feature the NYC Oculus, which I’ve included in previous posts, as a slider – with the exterior on the left and the interior on the right. The little cityscape in front of the exterior was actually a printed fabric used to hide some construction, and I loved the clever Eataly advertisement featured inside.

Dichotomy of Special Places

“No place epitomizes the American experience and the American spirit more than New York City.”

Michael Bloomberg

I thought the views from my airplane window showed an interesting contrast – New York City’s classic skyline compared to the wide open natural beauty of South Carolina’s Lowcountry. In my younger days I loved the electricity and pulse of New York. Today, although I’m much happier surrounded by the peace and quiet of our island home, there is much to be said for the fun of a few days in the heart of the Big Apple.

Sincere thanks to Karina for guest-hosting – we’re looking forward to seeing YOUR special places. Please remember to link to Karina’s original post here. Thanks also to Anne for last week’s Water challenge, and to all of you for your beautiful responses. I’ll be the host for next week’s challenge “Odds and Ends”, an opportunity to showcase all of those unrelated, unused images that don’t seem to match any of our themes. In the meanwhile, as always, please stay safe and be kind.

Interested in joining the Lens-Artists challenge? Click here for more information.

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90 thoughts on “Lens-Artists Challenge #188 – A Special Place”

  1. Pingback: Lens-ArtistPC22-188-0228-A-Special-Place – WoollyMuses

  4. I too love NYC, just getting out on the streets to walk and watch all that is happening. You’ve captured and highlighted some of the jewels of the Big Apple… and the first shot is wonderful, I’ve never see this before and it is something special. Of all the places, I did enjoy Central Park the most… I had the city to play around in but anytime I needed to escape it was perfect. Your graveyard shot for some reason brought back the memory – I think it is as you wrote “a moment of peace in the middle of one of the most frenetic areas of NYC.” There is a comfort there 🙂 Wonderful post, a great contrast to the quiet of Kiawah Island and such a diversity of great shots NYC offers is another nice reason to visit. Cheers to you and the Big Apple!

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    • Thanks as always Randall. That first shot is a great example of the ever-changing scene in NYC especially around the WTC and the Oculus. It wasn’t there 2 years ago when we last visited. It was great to see life returning to a semblance of normal this time around, although literally everyone, even on the streets, was masked and proof of vaccine required to enter any restaurant. I suppose that’s changed now, just 3 weeks later. And from then to now we have also a horrific war. Hard to imagine.

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  8. Hi Tina, As usual, I’m a late bloomer, but I wanted to see what’s going on this week with the lens artists. Your photos are a lot of fun. You do a great job with buildings, and tall buildings are especially hard to capture straight, at least! They are so overwhelming. I’m with Yvette on the graveyard. That’s an amazing find. I love the vertex of old and new. I love this quote, too. “Everything in New York is a photograph.”

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  9. Well, you sure are good at promoting NYC! I will never get there, so I am grateful to be taken there by your super lens, Tina! You know I love everything you post on the Oculus, I find it an incredibly interesting building. Strange to see something so different from Kiawah – but as usual beautifully done.

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  11. I completely agree with Ann-Marie MacDonald, and you illustrate it wonderfully. Really loved that photo from inside the graveyard. I think I must have walked past it several times. I also love these contrasting views of an airport’s larger surroundings and the concrete that you see up close. I’m sure you have more of them; they would make an interesting series I’m sure

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    • Me too I.J.! There’s always a “first” no matter how often you visit – this time it was the little graveyard for me. As for the airport, I was frustrated with the route the airplane took to the runway as we never got anywhere close to the skyline but you got the idea, right?! Maybe next time I can improve on that one LOL.

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    • Hoorah John!!!! So much to see and do in the Big Apple – I hope you LOVE it as much as we do. Be prepared for some very hot, humid weather in August though! Be sure to save some time to truly explore Central Park and make time for the museum at WTC which is very powerful. Also the High Line – an amazing aboveground walk surrounded by flowers and plants. I’m very excited for you (can you tell?)!!!

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  17. What great shots of one of my favourite cities! I would love to live as close as you do, to be able to visit more often 🙂 But your photos have transported me there today – thank you.

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  25. Hi Tina
    Thanks for the taste of New York City today!
    I actually remember times you have blogged (or shared comments) while you were in NYC and I always thought that was cool – or imagined where you were or what you were visiting –
    And so this post gives us a sample of what you soak up on your visits there.
    — and I hope to go to NYC more because it is six hours from where we live in VA (and get this – when I lived in western New York it was double that to make it to NYC)
    —
    Anyhow – the graveyard was really cool and have never seen that before – also the Corbin building shot shows the great variety there

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  27. Still haven’t made it to the Oculus – it’s on my list, but haven’t been back up to NYC since Covid. Loved the skyline and lowcountry contrast!

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  29. First blush, I was wondering about the airport pano. I did see the skyline, and read your description. I had to ponder it, lol.

    My NYC story is from Ginny. She went into the city with her daughter on a doctor visit at NYU. The walk from from Penn Station to NYU was 22 blocks. They did walk a few blocks before hailing a cab to NYU, but after buying lunch from a street vendor. Their cabbie, a physics PHD from India. He said he made more money as cabbie as opposed to teaching at the university level.

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    • Well the skyline shot was made through a dirty airline window from quite a distance with my iPhone so I don’t wonder that you were wondering LOL. As for your story, no surprise to anyone who’s been there! You can walk forever in the city but if you need to be somewhere there are cabs everywhere! I love to walk the city on a nice day – so much to see and so different from my everyday life. And yes, it seems ALL of the cabbies are foreign and the money difference doesn’t surprise me a bit!

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  30. I have never been to New York TIna, but you sell it well. Like Terri I love particularly the juxtaposition between the old grave stones and the tall buildings behind, and the World Trade centre mural is striking too..

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  36. Ah, a bustling city, that NYC, Tina! You’ve captured my imagination and the images of the iconic city. The juxtaposition of the old graveyard against the buildings is especially poignant. I can see why NYC is another special place for you.

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    • Thanks Terri – despite all my visits (and there have been many!) I’d never noticed it before. The city is amazing and I’m sure overwhelming to many visitors. It’s more like 10 cities in one with the many neighborhood varieties!

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