This is the boring part of Times Square, as you can plainly see. Hardly anything happens there… not much to see… hardly any lights… not much activity on the street. Quite dull, really.

I have a long photo adventure scheduled for Japan, and I’m very excited! I have a rail pass and not much of a plan… other than visiting a few places I’ve always wanted to go. After seeing countless movies, I have quite a romantic vision of what it will be like out in the countryside. I just am not sure what to expect… Do you guys and gals have any suggestions for must-sees or must-dos in Japan? I’ve been to Tokyo before, but never out in the rest of the country, which I plan to do this time.

And also, I am very glad you guys like the new feature here on the site. It looks like many of you have been dragging photos to Facebook, Twitter, and the like! I hope that “mouseover” works well for you… remember that that little thing does not appear unless you actually put your pointer on top.

This was taken in New York when crossing over towards Manhattan. There was a huge cargo ship from China pulling into harbor with the buildings of New York in the distance. I thought it was a fitting subject, so I snapped a quick one.

I also wanted to thank Cameron — a fellow photographer I met here in Las Vegas today. He works at the Lion King stage show here and he was nice enough to give my family a backstage tour after the event. It was really remarkable to see how everything worked… and my son and daughter were thrilled to meet Simba. It was quite a thrill! Thanks again Cameron — that was cool!

I am jealous for all the people that live in New York! They have a city that looks different at every moment of the day from every slightly different angle. I think if I lived there, I’d feel kind of guilty if I didn’t make it out several times a week at sunset to go shooting.

I shot this one from the top of the Rockefeller Center. They don’t let you take tripods up there, but I always see that as somewhat of a challenge to my manhood, and I take offense. So, consequently, I set my mind to smuggling my tripod in there, usually inside my overcoat or a big shopping bag. I mean, you have to, right? There is no other way to get a good night or evening shot without a stable surface (or a high ISO, which I don’t like).

Anyway, this was a perfect night. Later, after I shot this, I was graciously invited over to have dessert with Rudy Maxa (he has a travel show) and his daughter in Brooklyn. It was great to meet him and he was a super guy. I figured since I mentioned Rick Steves yesterday (who people on my Facebook comments were saying was not such a nice guy), today it was time for the very nice Rudy Maxa.

It was a nice clear night, which I normally don’t like for these sorts of shots. I prefer the sky to have some clouds and a bit of drama… but the best thing about a clear night is a little 10 minute window when the sky has a nice spectrum of blues and light reds while the sun plays with the atmosphere. Big cities always start to light up right around this time, so it’s prime photo-takin’ time. I thought the deco border of the building looked pretty cool, so I was aiming to have it become the bottom grill along the border.

For those of you that have never been to New York, Central Park is that big green rectangle in the middle there. You can see a few lakes, trees, and paths scattered about.

Why are my blog titles getting so long? Sorry about that… I guess with one post per day, sometimes there is a lot to squeeze in!

So, a few days ago I received a letter from the Smithsonian saying that I have another one in the running for the 6th Annual Photo Contest!  Cool!  Two years ago, I had 2 winners in the 4th Annual Photo Contest , and one of those ended up hanging in the Smithsonian castle in DC.  I know a few of you out there got to see it on road trips – maybe we can make another pilgrimage this year!.  I didn’t win anything last year in the 5th annual contest…  It was a bad year for me, what can I say?

The one that is in the finalist pool this year is the Times Square one that I have placed below.  Just below that, I have placed a NEW photo of Rockefeller Center that I have been working on over the weekend.  I hope you like it.

I will be speaking in Austin, Texas next week at the Digital Photography SIG on Thursday night, Feb 26 (next week).  It’s free to come – please do – I’d be happy to meet you in person!  I’ll be talking about photography and going through a tutorial.  If you are in Central Texas, be sure to stop by — it should be a good time!

Also, over the weekend, I was interviewed at the Pro Photography Show, which is a podcast that should be made available in the next few weeks.  I will be sure to put a link to it here whenever it goes live.

I have always thought this ABC studio with the curved marquee is the coolest building in Times Square. I am not exactly sure what is happening in that still there, but I think that girl is holding up a pregnancy test.

Here are some of my favorites from New York. I have a lot more I need to process over a long weekend — I look forward to that! But in the meantime, leading up to a little announcement tomorrow night, here are some of the best from NYC! 🙂

It’s probably one of the coolest places in the world for photography. I could have stayed on that helicopter all day long. Now that I have all the heli-jacking techniques I learned from GTA4, I might just try it the next time!

Here I am in the middle of Times Square in New York on a perfect night. The sky was this strange blue color of a cool dusk night and every light in the city was in full burn. Enjoy!

This was shot just SE of ground zero in NYC.