What a treat…Joe took us into New York last night for a wonderful dinner at City Hall followed by an amazing production of Fuerza Bruta…

Images captured with Nikon D700, AF-S 14-24mm on Lexar Digital Media

Our final DLWS event for 2009 has flown by. What a great way to end the year…in NYC with Joe picking the locations and were they ever great locations…

Times Square is filled with interesting people. I saw a wonderful gentleman with his Leica that I wanted to photograph so, I simply walked up to him and asked to take his portrait and he graciously said yes.

of course, a visit to Times Square wouldn’t be complete without the Naked Cowboy…

Images captured with Nikon D3X, AF 16mm fisheye, AF-S 70-300mm VR on Lexar Digital Media

With only 2 1/2 hours of sleep I’m going to have to let the photos speak for themselves today…

Images captured with Nikon D3X, AF-S 24-70mm, AF-S 70-300mm VR, D300s with AF-S 18-200mm II on Lexar Digital Media.

Wow, what a day! That Joe knows New York like no one else and he was great to share it with our DLWS group. In the morning we visited Central Park…

After a short break where we went on a shopping trip at Adorama we were back out at it beginning with China Town, visiting Ladder 6 which is a great group of firefighters who graciously opened their station to us for awhile and even posed for a few photos…

We finally ended up on the Brooklyn Bridge for sunset where Joe had a treat and arranged for a ballerina to pose for the group. While she was taking a break I noticed her on pointe and had to photograph her feet…

I liked the spider webbing of the support cables…

…as well as the light and graphic patterns of the buildings…

Images captured with Nikon D700, AF-S 24-70mm, AF-S 70-300mm VR

I heard about Shaniko Ghost Town years ago but never made the three hour trip out there until Sunday. Taking a much needed break away from the office I decided it was time to go see what Shaniko was all about. I traveled east of Portland on I-84 through the Columbia Gorge to just past The Dalles and then turned south on highway 97 winding through rural Oregon with it’s farmland and little towns that time seems to have forgotten. The weather prediction was for partly cloudy which is exactly what I was hoping for and exactly what I got. With old barns, rural America and B&W on my mind I set off to explore new territory. And I was not disappointed as I found a wonderful old homestead with dramatic clouds in the sky; a perfect candidate for my first B&W of the day…

I worked the homestead from a few angles, working with the shadow and light, finding lead in lines to draw the viewer’s eye to the barn, knowing that I was working towards a nostalgic look in the final image.

The more I worked the scene the more images I found as if the old homestead knew I was a friend and began to reveal itself to me inspiring this five shot pano which I finished using NIK Silver Efex Pro to pay tribute to the spirits of those who had toiled on this land generations ago.

Finally continuing on to Shaniko I have to say that I was a bit disappointed in the actual Ghost Town as it is more of a tourist spot than ghost town but, not one to throw in the towel, I did some exploring and was rewarded with the old Shaniko Fire Truck. I have a favorite NIK filter set that I knew was going to be perfect for finishing the fire truck.

The day was just the creative shot in the arm that I needed to get back to work preparing for the final blitz of workshops and safaris of the year.

Images captured with Nikon D300s, AF-S 18-200mm VR II on Lexar Digital Media.