Snow Storm Street Scene

Because of popular demand, I'll keep posting snow storm pictures from New York, but what I actually wanted to do is wishing you a good start into 2011! Anybody has cool and inspiring resolutions? I don't have one. I just returned back home to Germany after almost eight years in the states. I guess that's change enough. Any resolution would be pretty redundant at this point.

It's really cool to be at home. I'm taking it slow. My hometown is somewhat slow paced anyway, and also pretty much snowed in. I'm spending New Year's at home with my grandpa who is now 93 years old. Even at this age, he is still the one fixing and repairing all kinds of things around the house. My family is pretty (re)productive, so he happens to also have a couple more grand children, five grand-grand-sons, two grand-grand-daughters, as well as a grand-grand-grand-daughter and a grand-grand-grand-son. Some of these newer family members barely know me as I obviously haven't been around much. They probably just see me as this weird uncle from America :)

Anyway, wishing you a great start into 2011!!!

Rushing Through the Snow

I get headaches when I think of the Flatiron Building. How do you photograph this thing? This might be my best try so far. I remember standing in front of it several times scratching my head.

Lederhosen

This is what New York City looked like yesterday after only a couple of hours of snowing. Isn't it crazy what's going on with the weather right now? I escaped the flooding in Southern California. Last week I stayed away from Europe because of the icy chaos that is going on over there. Between those two places I felt like on a safe island here in New York. Today I'm trying to fly again and suddenly the city looks like this. But I must admit that I don't mind. It's beautiful.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I hope you are having a wonderful time with your families. Does this time of the year make you also wonder a little? I mostly wonder how much money is kind of wasted by people buying each other nicely wrapped random items they don't really appreciate. Last night I walked through Midtown Manhattan at around 1 AM and the streets were crowded with last-minute Christmas shoppers. I feel like Christmas presents are a great thing to make children happy. However, grown-ups instead of buying each other stuff, could maybe do some more mature and helpful things during "the most wonderful time of the year".
I was in a store the other day noticing how busy, dense and hectic it was. Everybody was so determined while all those Christmas songs were playing. It immediately reminded me of some sort of lab experiment where the store is like a box full of little mice that get very hectic under the influence of supposedly calming songs.

Taxi Hailing

A loong time ago I promised someone to take a picture that would look like the painting you see below. Last night when I was walking some New York City streets I passed by this spot and remembered my overdue assignment. This girl happened to pass by, willing to pose for a few minutes.

Stardust

Something from New York for a change.

My 2011 Wall Calendar is Here!

It's finally here - I'm excited about this. This is the New York City wall calendar for 2011 with 12 of my best New York images. All images are from the HDR series.

After going through various print-on-demand companies, I decided to go with RedBubble.com as I really like the quality and design they are offering. They also present themselves a bit more artsy and serious, but less gimmicky than most other companies that offer similar services.

In case you want one, you can order it right here, and I think you can pretty much get it from anywhere in the world. So far it got mostly ordered from people who work around my desk. I received it today and pretty much at the moment I took it out of the box I got the first buyers.

Once you are on RedBubble you can choose your currency.

- The US price for example is $27.17 per copy.
- If you order from Europe, you pay €18.59 per copy.

There are rebates for those who buy more than 2.
Note that the prices do not include shipping. The shipping costs vary depending on where you are.




Let me give you a quick tour (you can click on the photos to see more details):

The cover




The calendar is printed on beautifully thick 200gsm satin art paper. Colors come out very nicely.




The design is modern simplistic



I hope you'll enjoy it, and feel free to send me your feedback!

King of Pop

New York City, 2010

All Star

A New York subway snap.

Nose Manual - East Village Skate Park

Actually, I don't know if it's called East Village Skate Park, but it's a skate park in East Village.

Picture was taken with the lightweight and inexpensive Tamron 28-200mm lens. With this zoom range it will probably be my lens of choice for Burning Man - an upcoming event I'm starting to get excited about as the date gets closer.

I thought I would try something new: If you follow the link to the lens and end up buying it, I get a small percentage of the sales price. I'm wondering if you guys would appreciate occasional links like that. Thinking about it, there are so many online stores where one can buy photo gear: where do you shop? I believe Amazon.com is the most known and trusted one.

Girls with Books

New York last Saturday. The heat during the day was unbearable, but the night was perfect to roam around, take pictures of things, listen to musicians and play some games of chess with street-smart strangers.

South New Yorkers

April 2009.

From a walk on Coney Island. CI has a somewhat special atmosphere during off season times. Probably because it is so old and appears so abandoned then. April is somewhere in between. You can already watch people, but it's not as crowded as during summer. I don't know what else to say. People I brought there either appreciated the experience or seriously disliked this place. You have to be there and experience it to do either of those.

Banana - NYC

Liquor Store

From a midnight stroll through New York yesterday.

Visiting New York

I took this picture yesterday after stepping out of Penn Station at 7 in the morning. Standing there with all my luggage I just had to take one. Arriving here from California, I had some interesting moments where I realized how large my (geographical) comfort zone has become.
It has been a fun stay already. Had some time with my friends and the chance to meet Annie, the author of "Fluck Tuesdays". Tonight I will leave my comfort zone however, and finally take off to Iceland. I'm eager to rent a car and drive the Ring Road around the island which should bring me to a large variety of landscapes. There is one problem though: I forgot to bring a valid drivers license :-D
Let's see how that goes..

Chinatown Intersection

Another picture from last year. This one was shot from Manhattan Bridge. Next weekend I'll be back in NYC for two days. A good friend asked me the other day if I'm missing my weekend trips to New York. The answer is no. I have lots of good memories of this dirty, noisy and overpriced concrete jungle. But fact is, I'm perfectly happy in California, which is by far the nicest place I have ever lived in. Except my real home in Germany I don't miss anything here, and I'm convinced that from now on my locations can only get worse. Anybody who knows me and does not come to visit me must either be broke or a big fool. Sorry guys, it's the truth. Take it as an invitation.

Anyway, after two days in New York, I'll take off to Iceland. My plan is to do a one week road trip exploring the incredible landscapes over there. There will be lots of hiking going on and most likely it is going to rain most of the time. I have to visit an outdoor store and get proper shoes etc. I'm still a bit challenged when being on my own outside of cities. Looking forward.

East River Bar

Brooklyn, NY

Superman

New York City

Superhero with Groceries

New Series - 24 Colorful New York Images

Click on the image to get there.