After giving up going to Times Square for New Year's Eve, Leena settled in to watch the live webcast of the celebrations and I didn't feel like sitting inside (or let's face it, watching that all evening, which would be fun to be at, but not watch remotely).
I packed my bag, dressed warmly, put the 35mm f/1.4 lens on the camera and packed the 100-300mm f/too-high to try some long shots of the Times Square ball if I could find a place with line-of-sight and little security…
I walked down to 42nd Street, but couldn't see the ball from there for 43rd Street, then I went up 8th Avenue, around there, and when the police security cordons got confusing went into Central Park (yeah, yeah, alone in Central Park at night, yeah, yeah…)
I walked around Central Park a bit, enjoying some solitude and quiet, then went down 5th Avenue, then Madison Avenue to Grand Central Terminal to use the bathrooms, then back up to Central Park to cross to the west side, bypassing the police security… Then down 8th Avenue to home…
I got home before it got too close to midnight and people went nuts with noisemakers, especially the plastic airhorns that cause incredible pain in my ears. I got a few blasts of them, but not too overwhelming.
99% of the shots I took with the 100-300mm zoom had to be tossed in the trash, I just couldn't hold it steady for night shots.
As always, no captions when the photos are imported from Picasa, so they're all here...
