Robbins Reef Lighthouse & a foggy dawn on the bay
If your a resident of a large metropolitan city anywhere on the globe like New York, LA, or London, no doubt you have become used to the never ending noise level that comes with living in it. At all times of the day we are drenched with noise. Now we all tend to tune it out half the time, but something somewhere IS always making noise, and it's part of our daily lives. On this early summer morning it was no different as I rose up before dawn to try and capture scenes of the city at sunup.
Tuesday is trash day in my neighborhood, and soon the rattle of trash cans and garbage trucks would be greeting my neighbors as they rolled out of bed. It was only around 4:30 so for me it was just the sound of a few cars driving by now and then greeting me as I rolled sleepily out of mine.
My camera bag, already packed from the night before, was sitting on one of the living room chairs. Soon I was zipping out the door with it, racing for the bus stop so I could beat the sun to its customary spot in the morning sky. The forecast last night called for a foggy morning and there is nothing I love shooting in more than that. I planned to go to the park that runs along the shore behind the Yankees minor league stadium and see what the city looked like in this predicted early morning fog, as the esplanade there gives you a simply fabulous view of Manhattan from its location at the northern tip of the island.
By the time I got off the bus at the ferry terminal the sounds of the city were already in full effect - nowhere near as loud as they'd be once rush hour kicked in, but even in the, relatively speaking, sleepy boro of Staten Island at 5:00am in the morning the sound of traffic fills the air.
I walked past the construction sight of the new mall they were building next to the ferry, then slipped past the saw horse that was in front of the sidewalk you travel down on the right side of the Yanks ballpark which takes you to the coastline and that view of Manhattan I was so anxious to see. Dawn had already begun, and looking out in the dim light I could juuuust make out Manhattan through the fog. As the sun continued to rise I was delighted to see that the fog indeed had a wonderful quality to it artistically speaking.
Very heavy, only the old lighthouse in the bay could clearly be made out in the early morning light, yet the fog was just thin enough for the shapes of the skyscrapers to be visible through it, giving the many tall towers an almost ghostly appearance, very interesting visually, if possibly it did make the whole citiscape appear a tad too monotone. But I could always edit this shot as a black and white if the rising sun just added some more contrast so I could display a wider variety of greys blacks and whites.
As the sun continued its ascendancy from it's night time resting spot, the dawn light started revealing more of the cities form as well as thin spots in the fog bank above it. Over the Freedom tower there was a large thinning spot in the fog and you could see a weak flush of pink spreading though it as the early dawn light did its best to add a tiny bit of color to this otherwise all grey scene. Sunrise would be in less than 10 minutes and I already had my equipment setup and now was just patiently waiting to see what this scene would ultimately turn into, and what parts of it I would focus on. I already knew the lighthouse was going to be the heart of any scenic shot on this sunrise today.
Soon dawn passed the baton to sunrise as the sun rose higher and higher, though it was still completely hidden in the fog. Even so it still managed to send a spray of pink above the Freedom tower that started spreading across the sky, turning the whole scene in front of me a very pale pink, it was utterly beautiful as well as awesome. I totally tossed out any thoughts of doing this scene as a black and white and now planned to emphasize the pink in the scene, pale as it was it was still amazing.
Two things struck me as I watched this scene unfold in real time. One, the majesty of it all. It looked as if God Himself was creating a massive painting right in front of my eyes on a scale befitting the King of kings. And the second thing was the sound - there was none, which added even more drama to the moment.
I have travelled to this general spot in an effort to capture more than one sunrise over the past 30 years and the sounds of the traffic could always be heard, even if at times only faintly, but today only utter silence. The building of first the Yankees ballpark, and now the mall right next to it, created a huge sound buffer between anyone walking through this seaside park and the bustling nonstop traffic of Richmond terrace this early in the morning.
It is not a normal thing for a resident of any city as large as New York to ever be out in it at any time day or night and still be able to hear a pin drop. It just doesn't happen. But here at this spot at this moment it did, and combining that with the ever spreading pink in the sky created a moment I will never forget, or could have ever envisioned when I turned in early last night, hoping I'd come across something worth adding to my scenic gallery this morning.
As I was capturing this scene with my camera I wished every New Yorker could be standing right next to me and experience this moment with me, because it was that incredible and I just knew that no matter how well I managed to capture this scene on film, or what I did in post production on my computer, I would fail utterly in conveying just how awesome a scene I was having the privilege of witnessing right now.
So if by some miracle one day every New Yorker eventually sees this photo, and even if they all think it is the greatest photo that I have ever taken, all I would say in response to them is " You should have seen this live".
NYCStaten IslandsummerfoglighthousesRobbins reef lighthousedawnNY baysld10
