New York, Harbor 01

We went to the New York Harbor with a tour; this is from the inside of a tourist trap, looking out the window at the rigging from a couple of tall ships.

New York, Madison Square Area 08

Just a few steps away this image was captured. Lamp posts sometimes make an interesting subject in a composition.

That Fujifilm s7000 sure does a good job. I wonder how long it will be before I can (intentionally) do this with the big cahoona, my new Nikon D300s.

New York, Madison Square Area 07

The park is also an occasional refuge for the homeless seeking rest. It's hard to imagine that this person's first thought upon waking would probably be where he would find his next meal (or fix). The smiley face and good-day message on the bag gives an ironic smirk to the world as he lay sleeping.

To live like this must strip one completely of his or her dignity in a very short time.

New York, Madison Square Area 06

The statue of William Seward looks over the city beyond the park...

Not many people know this, but the assassination of Abraham Lincoln was a conspiracy which included the intended murder of other top government officials that shared his views. Seward was one of those, and during the same hour that Lincoln was shot someone broke into Seward's house and knifed him badly. Fortunately the man survived.

New York, Madison Square Area 05

This is what was left of the eight-person meditation group when we returned...

New York, Madison Square Area 04

A boy looks to his neighbor for guidance...

The wife and I took an early walk through the park, before the kids got up, and found a lot going on. One of those statues was the focus of a video being filmed, in which a circle of about eight people did meditation, including the statue as part of the group. Also, from a distance, I saw this group get started, with just the boy and what must have been his mother (who is standing to the left and was cropped out of this picture). As always, it is regrettable when I don't bring a camera.

We returned in time to grab the kids to join us about a half-hour later, and this time I brought the camera and captured all of the shots in this series on the Madison Square Park area. By that time, however, the circle of meditators had disbanded, and this group had grown by two.

New York, Madison Square Area 03

One of my favorite views of the Flatiron...looks like a ship determinately plowing through the turbulent waters of humanity.

Suppose it makes sense that cabling, which I removed, is used to keep the statues from toppling over the edge.

New York, Madison Square Area 02

A side view of the Flatiron...probably one of the most iconic buildings in the city (next to the Empire State Building and former World Trade Center). In the tradition of taking pictures of things through things this would have been better without the shadow on the left side of the building. And perhaps even better yet in wintertime.

We can see our fellow poking up again here on the right-side edge of the top.

I took the liberty to remove some ventilation pipes in both this and the previous posts. Also, the perspective tool was used to straighten out the edges a bit.

New York, Madison Square Area 01

This is the Flatiron building, taken on a morning walk in Madison Square Park - another reason the Hotel Giraffe is a great place to stay. Shortly after settling into the hotel we were startled to see life-sized, anatomically correct, male statues (naked no less) all over the place...some on the sidewalks but most on the tops of buildings, such as this one.

They were placed there by an English sculptor named Antony Gormley in a short-lived exhibit that was to be taken down just a couple of weeks after our visit. Not surprisingly, at first many calls were made to the police from folks who thought they were suicides.

New York, Empire State 02

This and the previous posting were taken at Madison Square Park.