Observing New York

Unlike our other vacations, we hadn’t really planned what we’d do in New York other than seeing some friends and a few shows that Sam had on her bucket list.

Thursday was wide open until 5pm so we decided to go to the Empire State Building Observation Deck. I’d been up there way back in 2007, but Sam had never been. Luckily the day was merely overcast and no rain scheduled to move in until the next day. We made it our goal to use all three of the outdoor observatories while nothing would fall upon us. At the Empire State they confiscate your tripod after going through security. This started a running theme in NYC, we wouldn’t be allowed to break out the tripod anywhere.

Oh – perhaps I should mention why this was especially annoying for both of us. Only two days before leaving on this trip we’d bought each other new cameras for Christmas. Now, with Sam armed with a DSLR and myself armed with a full-frame DSLR, we were barred from using these powers. Although, not really. With the better sensor and software (and higher ISO) of the A7 I was able to snap a lot of handheld night shots that I never could have pulled off with the old NEX. This became especially useful on the boat in the rain Friday night, but more on that tomorrow…

We went to Eataly for an early dinner, the pasta restaurant was closed so we at branzino and soup at the seafood restaurant.

Oh, and a lot of Gelato. Surprisingly delicious was the coconut flavor.

Next was the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Special, one of Sam’s bucket list items we were checking off on this trip.

After that we went to see the tree at Rockefeller Center and visit the “top of the rock.”

Without a tripod this was highly frustrating as the top is mostly a lookout with solid plexiglass sheets forming the edges of the deck instead of the traditional fences in place at most observatories. At least at the Empire State you can push your camera out beyond the wires and settle it on a ledge for a long exposure.

To be fair, there is a second level at Top of the Rock that does have ledges, but it’s inset from the lower level quite a bit, so the view can’t tilt down on a long exposure as much as one would like.