New York City Sunrise

Not to be outdone by the students in Michael Thoenne's Miami class, New York DPA Instructor John Bentham gave students an opportunity to catch the New York City skyline from Paulus Hook in New Jersey. There were just a few birds on the horizon that day, but they did catch a cruise ship as it came ashore. New Jersey offers a number of vantage points for catching the cityscape of Manhattan and no matter what time of day or which location, the results are rarely anything but spectacular.

For 5000 years, Paulus Hook was inhabited by the Delaware tribe of indians, (also known as the Lenape tribe) who hunted and fished along the river which inevitably became colonized by the Dutch in the 17th Century when Henry Hudson came along. Now the community has its own share of skyscrapers and is sometimes referred to as Lower Western Manhattan.

It was freezing but DPA Photo Instructor, John Bentham led the troops to brave the weather to get the shots. Here are a few group shots that show everyone in place.

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© John Bentham

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© John Bentham

Of course, each photographer also found time to follow their own visions.

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© John Bentham

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© John Bentham

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© John Bentham

There were a number of options for picture taking so a nice variety of images resulted.

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© John Bentham

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© John Bentham

As always, the sun did eventually rise, the shoot came to a close.

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© John Bentham

And everyone could come out of the wind, reflected here by the position of the flying banner at a horizontal angle.

Then it was to the ferry and back to NYC.

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© John Bentham

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© John Bentham

Mark Buonagurio's images of lower Manhattan, whether in color or B/W, capture the stillness of a modern metropolis still asleep. But with a slight shift toward the north of the city, a more vintage silhouette with swirling clouds above, was captured. All 3 images convey a soft and quiet sensibility of this ordinarily manic and chaotic destination.

Bob Cain conveyed a more pastel and impressionistic appeal and also focused on architectural portraits of single structures while the moon was still out.

Nick D'Andrea achieved a striking abstraction of the morning in a few shots and also captured a dark, almost Edgar Allen Poe version of the subject matter. Quite compelling.

Joseph Gray took a step back and created some very cool depth of field skyline shots. For the cruise ship he took a step closer and compressed the view in an interesting manner.

Off to the side, 500 feet away was this abandoned art deco sign hawking Colgate Toothpaste

That's our Digital Photo Academy founder, Richard Rabinowitz, in the shorts.
His mom did not dress him right for that freezing day!!
© Joseph Gray

When the sun finally showed itself, everyone went over to News Cafe in Hoboken, NJ, for eggs and a few laughs. After that, it was back to the studio for critiques and post capture discussions. Thank you to everyone who participated and helped make it such a great day!