Post Cards from NYC – Coney Island Edition

One of my goals this year is to post to my blog once a week. Some of my musings will be instructive, some will be inspirational, and others will just be about the images I have taken recently. And by recently, I mean over the last year! Yes, I know, I was very negligent creating posts last year. And now I have a backlog of images! I won’t make excuses for why. Let’s just say that we are all busy, and “things” have a tendency to get in the way. I think it comes down to priorities. However, now that I’m lucky enough to be working full time on photography, this is my priority. I’m excited about what I’m doing. And I’m eager to see where this journey takes me. I have some long-term goals, but I think its best if I take small bites and see what unfolds. With that said, here is the first in a series of three blogs called Post Cards from NYC. In this Coney Island edition, I have a few images from the Mermaid Parade and boardwalk for you. Enjoy!

Don’t Rain on my Parade

This visit was my first to Coney Island, and I was excited that it coincided with the Mermaid Parade. Now, I usually don’t take a lot of street portraits. I prefer a more candid style of street photography. But this event was full of people who wanted their pictures taken! There were all types of people participating in the parade. Young and old, thin and fat, and all stages of dress and undress! The common theme that linked it all together were the smiles on peoples’ faces, even though the rain tried to dampen spirits.

Shooting at the parade was a very different experience to anything I had shot before. I would call it more of a paparazzi style! I had a limited press pass, which meant that I could enter the staging area before the event, but had to stay behind the ropes on the parade route. If one of the participants stood still long enough for you to grab a portrait, there would be a dozen other photographers clamoring for an image too! You had to work very fast and keep your elbows up! Click on an image to see higher resolution files.

People Watching

Street photography for me is about capturing emotions and feelings. So although I had a lot of fun creating portraits, capturing people in a more candid way was what I enjoyed the most. Here are some images that exemplified the feelings of the day.

Coney Island Boardwalk

After the parade, I walked down the boardwalk for a bit. By this time the weather had cleared up and people were migrating to the beach. In these last images, I tried to capture some of the Coney Island vibes which resonate in this little seaside resort in Brooklyn.