Fascinating NYC as a Portrait Backdrop

If you were born in the city you probably still like living here.  But I’ll bet you don’t have the same excitement as visitors or students or even those who have just moved here from somewhere else.

NYC has so many unique places not found anywhere else.  It’s really like no other place in the world.

Recently I did a NYC photo shoot with Ledun.   In August, Ledun arrived in NYC from Ankara, Turkey.  She’s a student and loves it at NYU where she studies marketing. She is excited to live here and enjoys the life while still working hard, studying, reading, and preparing for tests. These pictures will help her family get her feel for her life in NYC.

For the shoot, we meet in front of the Apple Store on 5^th Avenue.  It is a beautiful Saturday. The sun is out and it is warm. Most probably, it’s one of the last warm days this year.

Where shall we start? Everybody knows that full sun is the worst light for portrait photography, so we look for some shade.

The East side of 5^th Avenue is still untouched by the sun, so we start there. The crowds of people, so early in the morning, are impressive.  Once we start, a few tourists take pictures of us taking pictures. As a backdrop, we use the great reflection of the glamorous shop windows. The doorman at the Trump building doesn’t open the door for me, but of course Ledun is treated differently.  I was able to catch a special moment of the two.

To me it’s amazing that so many people walk around in the city and don’t even look at these unbelievable huge and great billboards you see only in New York. We used Cartier as another remarkable backdrop.

Inside Central Park it is really crowded.  Everybody enjoys this beautiful day.  But it’s so distracting.   To eliminate the commotion of all the people, we have to find some different camera angles.  Again the park fascinates me. There are so many great corners and hidden places.

After a late lunch break, we go below ground. I personally like the subway station at 49^th Street and 7^th, with the red brick walls. It’s great to look around and have fun with some of the billboards, and of course, show the subway trains in motion.

Times Square is a must but we both agree it is not the highlight of the day.  Too many tourists and too much construction going on.

To get away from Times Square, we walk over to Grand Central Terminal.  If you can, choose a sunny afternoon in and get that famous light falling through the windows. Despite the fact that it was Saturday, and the sun was going down, we still had some interesting pictures with people rushing in all directions.

This portrait session covered only a very small part of the city. Chinatown, Soho, the Village, Highline, Financial District, all the small parks throughout the city, and Brooklyn, are just a few more places to go for inspiring backdrops.

I’m thankful to Ledun for walking so far and not getting at all tired!

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Russell Baker’s quote: NY is the only city in the world where you can get deliberately run down on the sidewalk by a pedestrian.

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