This was taken from the north end of the Central Park reservoir, looking south towards the skyline of office buildings down on 59th Street

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I've signed up for a photo workshop called "New York at Twilight" at the International Center of Photography next month, and we were given this assignment to be carried out before the class starts:

"Please take 20 to 40 photographs – choose from a variety of subjects – people, self-portraits, your home, a car, cityscape – at twilight, dawn or when it’s completely dark.  Bring 4”x6” prints or JPEGS on a flash drive or CD to class so we can see them.  It’s good to select your best 10-15 photographs to show during the first class."

I'm not sure what I'll end up with for the assignment, but I thought I would include a few post-sunset, twilight views of the NYC skyline. I'll add more to this set as ideas come to me...
Note: this photo was published in an Apr 13, 2010 Russian journal with the title "Я в картинках, дубль 2:) ( http://morenwen.livejournal.com/549157.html ) ."

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This was taken from the north end of the Central Park reservoir, looking south towards the skyline of office buildings down on 59th Street

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I've signed up for a photo workshop called "New York at Twilight" at the International Center of Photography next month, and we were given this assignment to be carried out before the class starts:

"Please take 20 to 40 photographs – choose from a variety of subjects – people, self-portraits, your home, a car, cityscape – at twilight, dawn or when it’s completely dark.  Bring 4”x6” prints or JPEGS on a flash drive or CD to class so we can see them.  It’s good to select your best 10-15 photographs to show during the first class."

I'm not sure what I'll end up with for the assignment, but I thought I would include a few post-sunset, twilight views of the NYC skyline. I'll add more to this set as ideas come to me...
This photo was taken near the northwest corner of the Central Park reservoir near the spot where I photographed "jogging on a bright November morning ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/yourdon/3049152556/ ) ," looking south toward the skyline of office buildings along Cental Park South, which is about 1.5 miles south of where I was standing.

It was indeed a cold winter's day when I took this shot, and you can almost feel it by looking at the sky...
This was taken on the west side of the Central Park Reservoir, looking south toward the skyline of mid-town Manhattan. I wanted to capture the reflection of the clouds on the water (see? it's clean enough to drink! it doesn't even glow in the dark!), and I also wanted to use the HDR mechanism to highlight the rich colors and contrast between the clouds and the sky. 

All of this was done with 3 images, taken with a handheld camera that was resting on the iron-picket fence that prevents crazed New Yorkers and overly enthusiastic visitors and tourists from tearing off their clothes and leaping into the reservoir to frolic in wild abandon (all of which is allowed on Halloween night, but at no other time during the year). There were, consequently, no people in the scene (there's a jogging path that circumnavigates the reservoir, but none of the joggers are visible); and as a result, I was able to get a "clean" HDR result.

Note: for reasons that make no sense to me, this photo was published as an illustration in a Jul 31,2009 Digerat blog page titled "Digerat.com: pepacton reservoir map ( http://digerat.com/dig/pepacton+reservoir+map ) ." And it was also published in an Aug 6, 2010 Gawker blog, titled "Central Park Now Dangerous (Except Compared to Rest of City) ( http://gawker.com/5606256/central-park-now-dangerous-except-compared-to-rest-of-city ) ." And it was published as a background page in an undated (mid-Aug 2011) Tourbie website for New York ( http://tourbie.com/tours/New-York-NY/ ) . It was also published in a Dec 7, 2012 blog titled "Central Park Part III ( http://www.empireguides.com/2012/12/central-park-part-iii/ ) ."

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I tried an HDR (high dynamic range) photo once a year ago, but for some reason never pursued it. But it seems that more of and more of the "interesting" photos that I see on Flickr are HDR shots, so I decided to give it another try. The first of these HDR shots were taken from the rooftop of my apartment building at sunset, on the Sunday evening of 4th of July weekend. Subsequent shots have been taken out on the street, from the terrace of my apartment at night, and walking through Central Park at mid-day...

I still have a *lot* to learn about this stuff, but even as a first attempt I'm staggered by what the tonal-mapping software programs (Photomatix, in my case) are capable of doing...
Just a cold...cold day!
Blue Springs Reservoir southern Utah (8x12 ratio)
1979 c cr Scan-20121123-0002 b
Just a cold...cold day!
Just a cold...cold day!
Just a cold...cold day!
See photo in original gallery.