Over the Manhattan Bridge to Times Square

After Leena and I got off the phone in the morning I re-prioritized my tasks, as the bank closed at 1pm and seemed like it had to be the first thing taken care of, before grocery shopping.  The nearest Bank of America branch is fifteen blocks down from here and one block over.  Normally it would be two subway stops, but this weekend the R train isn't running in Brooklyn due to maintenance, so I took the N one station and walked the remaining ten blocks.

It was a pleasant enough walk, not too hot, not too chilly and I got to see a little more of the neighborhood up there.

At the bank I had to wait about fifteen minutes for one of the account representatives to become free and then Jamall helped me.  I explained what I wanted, to convert my Advantage checking account to a MyAccess checking account, and he tried to do it on the computer...  Unfortunately it didn't go very smooth because my account was opened in Oregon and he was trying to do it in New York.  It's one bank, but there are variations for each state...  He tried several different bank programs and none of them would let him do it.  Then he got on the phone with a support person who suggested a few things, but none of those worked, either...  In the end he said he would put an "order" through and it would be processed at a central center somewhere by Tuesday.

I told him I'd just moved to New York City and he suggested a few things to do see around the city, some of which I've already seen...  He mentioned there's a special event for children going on this weekend in Central Park so that sounded like a perfect reason not to go there, for me, anyway...  Where I said I worked and every place I've walked he pointed out "there's a Bank of America branch right across the street" and "you should take a look at the Bank of America Tower near Times Square," as he seemed to know where all of the New York branches were...

Finishing up there I headed back out again and made a stop at a Rite Aid drug store for soap, a loofa and a few other items...  I'd been to a Rite Aid a few times closer to my apartment, but this was on the way, and the clerk offered to sign me up for their membership program, which was free, so that I can get a discount on things.  They never offered at the nearer one...

I dumped my stuff off at the apartment and then went out grocery shopping and got a bunch of things there for the coming week.  All set...

Back at the apartment with the groceries I wasn't sure where to go next and spent about an hour tinkering on the computers and browsing the web looking for ideas.  I was considering checking out Long Island City in Queens as the Wikipedia photo looks like it could be interesting.

In the end I decided I'd walk over the Manhattan Bridge and try out a camera accessory I got from Amazon last week.  The accessory is a fisheye and macro lens attachment for a regular lens, which at $40 I figured I'd try before spending $650 on a real fisheye lens...

Up until now I only took a few pictures in the apartment and at night, so they didn't come out well, since the regular lens with the fisheye and macro attachments is so long that it blocks a good bit of the camera's built-in flash and leaves a long shadow on everything...

So, I packed it up in my backpack, put on my sweater and headed out the door...  I walked up to 59th Street, five blocks away, where I could pick up the N train.  It was by far the absolute most crowded I've ever seen that platform, as it had all the people who would normally wait for the N plus the R trains, on a holiday weekend...

Several N trains went the opposite direction before we got one going towards Manhattan and everyone piled in.  Huge numbers of people got off it at 36th Street and then again at Atlantic Avenue.  In fact, I was so "in the train" that I forgot to get off at Atlantic Avenue where I wanted to walk up to the bridge...

At the next stop I remembered my plan, so I got off.  Out of the station I didn't really know where I was, but wandered a bit and then found Flatbush Avenue, which I know cuts a huge diagonal line through Brooklyn.  It leads directly to the Manhattan Bridge, for traffic, but not for pedestrians.  I walked around a bunch of blocks near the bridge before I finally found a sign pointing walkers to the Manhattan Bridge, then I just followed those till I got on it.

It was fun walking over it, with a different view than either of the others I've walked so far.  Unfortunately, though, it has a high fence along the walkway, for safety, so it made taking photos hard.  I had to stick the camera and lens through a narrow, horizontal gap between the original iron fence and the added chain link one above it, and it just barely fit.  That meant that I couldn't angle the camera up and down more than a tiny bit, which with the lens combination I was using didn't give a lot of range...

The subway trains that run over the bridge were also ear shatteringly loud when walking only a couple of feet beside them (with fences and what-not to keep them away).

A few other people were walking it and another photographer and I stopped and talked a few minutes about taking pictures from there.  He had a thick Nordic accent and with the noise of the trains I had a little trouble understanding him.

Coming down on the Manhattan side it seemed to be over Chinatown, based on all the Chinese writing on the signs and the smell, even high up on the bridge, of Chinese food.

As I got to the end of the bridge I put my camera away again, not sure how safe it is to carry it on the streets, at least not when I'm by myself.  Then I walked all over and around that area, working my way north, figuring I'd try out that lens at night at Times Square.

I found a public restroom in Washington Square Park and outside that a black squirrel came running off the lawn and I'd swear it was begging from me.  It ran right up to my feet, standing on its hind feet and looking right at my face with front paws slightly outstretched.  I fiddled around trying to get my iPhone out to take a picture and it moved a little closer and struck the same pose.  Then while I unlocked my iPhone it came closer yet again.  Finally, when I answered the iPhone's query to not connect to any available wi-fi and it was ready for me to take a photo, then the squirrel ran away, under a fence.  On the other side of the fence it did the same pose, but I couldn't get a good shot because the fence...

Around 20th Street, give or take a couple, near Madison Square Park I finally took the camera out again where I saw the Empire State Building up, overhead, and then in the park with some of the lighting sculptures.  I didn't even bother trying to photograph the squirrels running all over.  I saw lots of other people trying to, and mostly not getting shots as the squirrels wouldn't hold still and it seemed like they were having similar problems to the one I had earlier...

I walked up 5th Avenue until I came along side the Empire State Building, then walked on the cross street there (forgot which street it was, might've been 32nd, give or take a couple).  From the opposite side of the street I tried tinkering with various settings on the camera and photographing the building to see if I could get the camera to capture the late afternoon, cloudy sunlight reflecting off the windows, without being either sharper or blurrier than what my eyes saw.

Soon I came to Broadway, near Herald Square and worked my way up.  At Herald Square there just a narrow glimmer of bright lights coming down the street from Times Square, expanding the higher up I got on the streets...

At 42nd Street I remembered that Jamall at the bank mentioned the ice skating rink in Bryant Park was set up, so I figured I'd walk that direction and take a look.  It sure was, but the short time I stayed there no one was ice skating, only the zamboni was out on it, smoothing the ice...  So I walked a few more blocks closer to the Chrysler Building trying to see if I could get a good wide angle shot of it at night...

Then back to Times Square and lots of night photos.  Having offloaded them, the results are very mixed, mostly a bit substandard.  And it was crowded, so I think a lot of my photos have people close by in front of them (at my height it's hard not to in a big crowd).  A walk up and then back down and I was ready to head back to Brooklyn again...

Now I'm home...  Tired, especially my feet from all the walking...  But it was a good day.

After looking at all the photos with the fisheye attachment, I think they're mostly a bit fuzzy at the edges of any sharp lines, especially at the outer edges of the pictures.  It's obvious why it's only 5% of the price of a real fisheye lens.  Of course, the lens I have it attached to is my widest one, the 18-55mm kit lens that came with the camera, which is also the cheapest and lowest quality of my lenses, so that might not be helping, either.  I wonder if the results would be better attached to a better lens, however, none of my others are wide enough to give the full, circular fisheye result.