Sometimes, it pays to loosen up and have fun.

I had been planning to shoot with Sarah for a little while, and on Wednesday we decided to meet outside the World Financial Center in New York City. The sun was going down and for lighting I'd packed just a single SB-800 flash, one lightstand and some gels. But that was all we needed.

As the sun was going down, I put an orange gel on the flash to give it the look of the sun. Later, when it was dark, Sarah noticed the path was lit with blue lights. So, I put a blue gel on the flash and kept shooting.

By the time we were done, we'd made some neat images. The key was to go with the flow and shoot whatever the environment presented. You can view the whole set on my Flickr page.

I was in New York City yesterday for a meeting, and brought along my D300 to take some photos afterward.

Well, my initial photowalk turned up absolutely nothing. So I had some sushi -- it started to rain just as I got there -- and came out again just after the rain stopped. I love shooting after a rain, as the wet surfaces create great reflections. Add sundown to that and you have a recipe for some nice images.

I was quite pleased with what I got. I put a slideshow with all my images from the set on Flickr. Enjoy.

When I was in New York City earlier this week, I stopped by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and noticed two street performers doing a routine for people gathered on the steps.

They were very entertaining and I took these pictures.

I was in New York City today and decided to take a bit of time and travel up to Central Park for some HDR captures.

This is the first one I processed, looking toward the East Side from within the park. I shot this as I liked the water, building and gray sky together. Technically, I took 9 exposures on a tripod with 1EV difference between each and combined them in Photomatix. Then, processed in Photoshop and Lightroom.

I happened to find myself outside NY Gov. Eliot Spitzer's office this morning in Manhattan just before his resignation.

Fortunately, I had my Nikon D300 and Sigma 10-20mm wide angle lens. I took some pictures of the media as they gathered, eagerly awaiting any sighting of the governor. I had to move on to a business meeting, but thought the scene was worth recording.

I spent some time in New York City today and took a bunch of exposures for HDR. Here's the first finished image Here are the first two finished images.

I used my new Sigma 10-20mm lens for this. It's a superwide zoom and my first Sigma glass. A great lens so far. Sharp, nice color and fine build quality.

I took some pictures last Friday during a rainy day in New York City. Rather than not shoot, I decided to make the most of the rain and bleak sky and work them into my photographs.

And toward the end of the day, the clouds moved off and the sun broke through.

Importantly, I had just picked up my new Nikon D300 that morning, so I was anxious to test it out. I'll post more about this once I have a chance to put the camera through it's paces, but I'm pretty certain already that the D300 is a significantly better digital body than my old D200, which I sold. Anyway, enjoy the pictures. (If you like, the whole set is here.)

I was in New York City's Bryant Park last week after an evening event and saw they had built a new skating rink. People were enjoying themselves and I decided to make some images.

Feeling artistic, I shot at a slow shutter speed and panned along with the skaters. I figured the motion, reflections and post-processing together could create some interesting photographs. Hope you like them.

Happy Thanksgiving!