New York Retrospective

I'm back home after travelling for another 16 hours door to door. The flight was very pleasurable having been able to upgrade to business for a reasonable amount and enjoyed a completely flat seat/bed. First time I've ever slept any amount of time on a long haul flight!

I wanted to reflect on the last few days. It has been a whirlwind of a week. We seemed to be on the go the whole time from early morning meets before 5 am until we retired late into the evening. The days and evenings were full and we were expertly led by Lee Frost who made sure we were in the right place at the right time to make the most of the scenes New York had to offer.

As for New York itself, it surprised me in so many ways. Not the views, anyone who has watched any movies or TV programmes can't help but to recognise the many iconic locations we saw. I wasn't expecting to feel so comfortable in the city. The inhabitants were unswervingly friendly and courteous. At odds with the depictions often seen through media. It was a generally clean city (I even remember passing a street cleaner challenged by some horse poo recently dropped on the road), albeit in need of some TLC, the road network seems to be in a constant flux of repair and improvement. The only thing I found slightly disquieting were the constant whiffs of dope as you walked past some people on the street (smoking dope has been legalised in the state). The weather, while bitterly cold early and late was good, other than for the first evening, when it rained heavily.

My friends in the group were great company and we enjoyed some great times together. I am sure a lot of our photography will be similar, but as I always find when you get together with fellow 'togs, it's the different interpretations of a scene that always surprise you. We photographed together, ate together and on many occasions squeezed together in the taxis we used to cover what is a very large city indeed.

I have just over 2,000 images to review and select from. Those I've shared are a mere snapshot of the city and feature the iconic rather than the soul of the city. I'll try to share a selection of the more intimate in due course. I've loved my days in the Big Apple, made all the better for the company I've kept and would heartily recommend the city to anyone that was thinking of visiting.