New York! New York!*

*If you are singing the song in your head, I apologise as I know it will be stuck in your head all day but it had to be done. And if you escaped the reference but are now singing it, again, very sorry.

Ever since I was little I've been going to America with my family; I absolutely love it. I have been lucky enough to go to most of its great states but a small handful of them really have my heart and New York is one of them.
The film arts course at PCA run a trip there most years and I was very disappointed when I couldn't afford to go in my first year of study. So I started saving and in April 2012 we were off!

I can't believe how excited I still get in the taxi ride from the airport just waiting to see that first glimpse of the skyline, it may be dorky but to me it's magical!

View from the airport shuttle window on my little digital 'snap-shot' camera.

It was a different dynamic visiting it with a group of people, the majority of whom I didn't know but I came back having made a great new friend which was a real bonus.
When we first arrived I was adamant I was going to go off on my own and shun the usual touristy places which I had done quite a few times; but the timetable was relaxed and the group atmosphere was friendly so I went with the flow and really enjoyed it and we did end up doing a lot of new things anyway.
It was great to go back with photographic knowledge and to be able to put that to use. I could have and probably should have taken more pictures but enjoyed it nonetheless and picked up inspiration for other areas of interest such as writing. And of course now I have that knowledge I can put it to use next time as I know I wont be able to stay away for too long!
One of the main highlights has to be going to the Yankees game. I've always wanted to go but never got round to it so it was really exciting. Okay, so I don't really know much about baseball this is true but the atmosphere was amazing, I got a souvenir beer cup and I love cheering. Its a winning combination.

I don't usually play around too much with post production effects but I added grain to these and played around with the colour temperature settings to try to evoke an old film camera look of New York. I don't think they would work in a large scale but would be nicely suited to miniature prints.

Contrast of nature and man-made in Central Park.

A moving stopping point of 9/11 remembrance tiles that stretch all the way round a large fence in Greenwich village.

A personal favourite from Grand Central Station.

View from the Empire State Building.

N.Y.C skyline from the evening river boat cruise.

Unfortunately I didn't have my Nikon D7000 at this point and didn't want to just take a digital mini camera so for travel pictures I bought the Panasonic Lumix G2; a compact system camera which was brilliant for bridging the gap between a point and shoot camera and professional DSLR.

A glorious image of me at the Yankee stadium. Yes that is fear mixed with excitement you are seeing in my face there as I am not keen on heights and we were in the cheap seats at the back. 

Thanks to Sarah Packer for the image and in fact most of them that night as it took a mixture of beer and keeping still for the first hour to keep me calm.

A brilliant trip!

Blogaphobia? Well hopefully I am cured.

New year. New start. That always tends to be the general feel of January.
I've never been one for making resolutions and thinking a change in the year date will create drastic changes in my life; however this year I have decided to make a variety of goals and stick to them, some some personal and some more career orientated.

The most appropriate one to highlight here is to become more engaged with social networking, blogs etc. It is no secret from my distinct lack of posts that blogging isn't really my thing, I find it almost uncomfortably self-indulgent. But enough negativity because these forms of communication are a big part of our world now and I must accept not all ideas and thoughts can...or should be kept tucked away in my sketchbook. I very much enjoy reading other blogs and find all this 'tweeting' rather intriguing; so instead of sticking my head in the sand I have decided that I must be proactive and embrace it!
Starting with immediate effect, making a goal to do a post a week (baby steps people, that's enough for now!)

So there we go, now in the meantime prepare for an influx of posts that actually belonged to 2012.....