First Time Doing New York City Street Photography

New York City is one of the best places in the world for street photography. There are million interesting things happening at any given moment and thousands of photographers walking the streets to find them.

I’m posting these in chronological order so you can see how my photos changed throughout my two days in New York.

My first two photos were right after I left the airport and boarded a bus for Brooklyn. They’re not great, but I wanted to show that there’s definitely a warmup and adjustment period when starting on a new shoot. The third photo is the first one I thought could be pretty good because of the light and color. It’s decent, but not great, but it kind of gave me a preview of some of the opportunities to come.

New York City Street Photography

Over the course of two days, I spent about 5 hours taking photos and walking around 8 miles. Starting at Columbus Circle and the southern end of Central Park, I went through Times Square, Midtown Manhattan, Rockefeller Center, Lower East Side, East Village, Union Square, Flatiron District, Diamond District and definitely some more places, but that’s enough to list!

Orange Seat Subway Cars

I read an article a couple months ago that New York’s MTA is phasing out the old orange-seat subway cars from the 1980s as they’re nearing the end of their life span. So when I ended up on one, I was excited to see it!

The photo above is less about any one person and just looking to get the atmosphere and ambiance of a train that won’t be around past 2025.

I took these photos on my way from Brooklyn to Manhattan, which is where I planned to “officially” start my New York City street photography.

Columbus Circle

I started the street portion of my street photography at Columbus Circle and walked along the southern edge of Central Park. I worked to get right into it, moving in close for photos.

Midtown Manhattan

Most of my first photos are pretty straight on, but as I moved away from Columbus Circle and south through Midtown Manhattan towards Times Square, I worked to create more complex images with reflections and depth.

First Scene I Worked

At the corner of 56th & 8th, in Hell’s Kitchen, I spotted a cafe with nice colors, light, and reflections with people having an animated conversation in the window. This is the first place I stopped to take multiple photos of the same scene. It’s also one of the first photos I felt like had great potential.

Here are 3 frames. I think the third is my favorite.

Times Square

Times Square was, as expected, the most crowded place I walked through on day one. And the photo opportunities didn’t disappoint!

Holding the Camera Low

Since I was walking & photographing, all photos up to this point had been at eye-level. I wanted to take some photos from a lower angle to see a different perspective.

So for a bit here I walked with my camera held at my side below my waist and took photos upwards without looking through the viewfinder.

I had some idea of what I’d get in each case, but it was always interesting to see exactly how the photos turned out.

Final Photos of Day 1

As I left Times Square, I walked past Madison Square Garden and towards B&H, the famous photography retailers at 33rd & 9th.

I definitely got some of that famous NYC synchronicity as in the photo below with the yellow pizza boxes in front of the yellow door.

Day 2 – Walking the Williamsburg Bridge

I was talking with someone in Brooklyn where I was staying and they said it was a nice walk over the Williamsburg Bridge into the Lower East Side, so that’s how I started my day.

I can’t say I was excited about the photos I got ON the bridge, but it was a pleasant walk for sure. Here they are anyways…

I didn’t photograph much, until I reached Union Square and started to walk up Broadway. This was one of my favorite stretches of photos.

I was excited to see the Flatiron Building, but it was covered in scaffolding and the light wasn’t great, so I didn’t really photograph it. But across the street I got one of my favorite photos of the trip.

There were people waiting in line for some sort of branding “experience” and it was emitting steam that picked up beautiful rays of sunshine. When the bird flew through, I knew this was The Frame.

Oh, and that is the Flatiron Building in the background, so it did make it into my photos after all!

Don’t Rely on the Location

One thing that was important to me from the beginning was NOT to rely on the city itself to do the heavy lifting. What I mean is, yes, there are interesting things to see on every block, but how will I arrange them into photographs?

Photographing a “moment” is great, but light and composition need to be there for me to consider the photo good.

Diamond District

I wasn’t looking for the Diamond District, but when I saw it, I immediately knew what it was and walked that direction. I thought this was a great area to photograph with its jewelers and security behind thick glass and plenty of window shoppers outside.

Midtown Street Photography

From here I walked through Midtown to Rockefeller Center and that’s where I ended my NYC Street Photography day 2!

My Takeaways

I wasn’t sure where I wanted to start and which parts of the city I wanted to photograph, so I moved around a lot and hardly stayed in one place for more than a few minutes. For photographing people, Midtown Manhattan and Times Square were always busy, so there were plenty of photo opportunities.

I enjoyed seeing the Lower East Side; it had a much different feel. But since there weren’t as many people there, I didn’t find it as interesting to photograph.

I stayed in Brooklyn, but I didn’t photograph there much because most people in the area I was in were just going about their daily lives and I felt like too much of an outsider.

I was like if I had photographed them, I would be “othering” them; coming into their community and gazing at them as different from me.

In a place like Manhattan, there were a lot of tourists and people participating in the public spectacle of Midtown and Times Square. In those cases, I felt like that was a scene that I was a part of and documenting it felt more natural.

In future visits to New York City, I’d like to work to tell more specific stories. I appreciate street photography, but I generally prefer documentary photography and the intimacy it offers. I like to spend more time with subjects and for people to know who I am and why I’m photographing.

Viral Video

I also got a somewhat viral video out of the process when I spotted some Emmys in view of Central Park. You can check that out here.

Related Posts

For more on street photography, check out my other posts here.