New York in the Snow

This past December, my daughter and I left for our annual and possibly last (she'll be 18 soon) trip to New York for the New Year's Holiday.  We heard it would snow during our stay; we didn't expect a Snowpocalypse.  

After an hour in a holding pattern, during which the tower decided whether to divert us to Kennedy, we finally landed in La Guardia with the snow already falling.  It turns out we caught one of the last flights into New York just before the snow hit. Soon after we landed, the airlines started canceling flights and stranding passengers. 

Well, we were in New York during a blizzard.  That meant two things: first, hunker-down and stay indoors till things pass; two, get out as soon as possible afterward because the entire city is now one huge photo-op. 

It also gave me the opportunity to try out my new Leica M8.  I had bought this camera specifically for the purpose of having a high-quality but light-weight camera I could travel with.  After years of lugging my 1 series Canons around New York without much snow, I found myself in the aftermath of a blizzard with a camera I really had only just begun to learn how to use.  Sometimes greatness is just thrust upon us, I guess.


To my mind, New York in the winter has always been synonymous with black & white photography.  I guess it's all the classic movies I've seen most of my life.  It was always either fall or winter in these movies and they were all in B&W.  I also love the feel of it.  B&W is just more "subtle and interpretive" than color photography.  B&W "images are not direct renditions of their subjects, but are abstractions from reality, representing colours in shades of grey."  Wikipedia.  B&W captures the essence of a scene, the very feeling of a scene without the distraction, the baggage if you will, of added color.  The eye is free to see the substance of the scene without being overwhelmed with color.


I have uploaded eight images to the Gallery.  They represent various scenes from New York, rendered in high-contrast B&W.  The images are offered for sale in sizes ranging from 8x12 to 20x30.