I found out about this about 30 minutes before the event on Twitter. It sounded ridiculous and sort of gross, so of course I decided to go!
It’s basically an annual pre-triathlon celebration. Here’s an excerpt from the official website, they put it best:
The Central Park Underwear Run is a 1.7 mile fun run that takes place every year on the Friday before the New York City Triathlon. No transitions, no timing chips, no expensive race gear, just 500 strangers running around in their underwear. Another typical summer evening in New York City!
They were trying to break the world record (most people in underwear running together, something like that), so they had the sign-in post set up:
Today on their website they announced that they did break the record with 300 sign-ins, congrats.
In addition to the run, they also had a Jamaica themed costume contest where the best costume wins a trip to – you guessed it – Jamaica. There were a lot of Bob Marley themed costumes of course:
Not sure if they’ll announce the winner in public but I hope this Jamaican bobsled team wins. They were great, and they actually finished the run like that with everything still intact:
The run was open for everyone, not just for grown ups or humans or land creatures:
The “mayoral candidate” Naked Cowboy was the official starter of the run, and people really ran once it started. It wasn’t like a slow parade:
First finish was at around 9 minute mark:
The weather was hot and sticky (which was quite appropriate for this run). Yes, it was a hard run and was exhausting for many. But at the same time, it also gave another reason to smile and celebrate for many:
Note: this event took place on Friday, July 24th, 2009.
To commemorate the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s voyage and discovery of what is known today as New York City, Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks returned to the Hudson River for the first time since 2000.
This presented an unprecedented photo-op for anyone living in NJ, and I wasn’t about to pass this one. I even missed a free Jenny Lewis show for this. Am I crazy? Most likely…
I surveyed the area the night before and picked some possible spots. This one was my first choice:
The only problem with this was that they decided to close this area the next day! Also, there’s a huge free parking lot nearby: it suddenly became a $20 parking lot the next day (of course).
My second choice, also fenced off and closed to public (I love NJ):
So I settled for my third choice. Not too bad, could’ve been worse:
Anyway, people must really love the fireworks (or maybe they just love Macy’s). I got there 4 hours before the show thinking that I was early. I was wrong, all the streets were already jam-packed:
Wish I knew one of them rich folks with fancy houses there. Preferably someone friendly, like this person waving at the camera:
Finally the barges showed up, and fireboats came to rescue many bored audiences soon after:
You can guess what line this is:
Alright, show time! It happened really fast. Once it started, it almost felt like total chaos. Pretty exiting stuff, but kept me really busy and on my toes:
This video will give you a better real-time perspective:
And it was over in 30 minutes which, to me felt like 3 minutes. It really made me sweat. One barge was on fire, and apparently didn’t want the show to end:
To recap what went on during the 30 minute session:
I was on full manual exposure mode, making constant adjustments. This was necessary because I realized that there are different types of fireworks with different brightness/delay.
I was anywhere between 2.5 to 6 second shutter speed, f/10 to 16, and ISO around 200 to 400.
I used the built-in timer delay (5 second), and of course everything was shot on a tripod (except for the barge on fire photo which was hand-held with ISO 1600).
I used AF-C (Continuous-servo) focus mode. Auto-focusing was difficult because the fireworks were unpredictable, and therefore it was tough to let the camera know what areas to look for. I thought about using a couple of methods: one was just picking a stationary background object (like the Empire State Building) and sticking with it, and the other was to manually set the fixed focus based on the best-guessed range.
I tried using AF-C to pinpoint the explosions with single-area focus point, but it became too cumbersome. I eventually ended up using the method number one – I put my focus point on a background spot and just let the camera do its work. I think it was workable because the DOF was deep enough at f/10+, and thus allowed enough room for errors.
I mainly used the following lenses: Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8, NIKKOR 10.5mm f/2.8G ED, and NIKKOR 16-85mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR. Yes, I switched them several times since I only have one camera body.
There is one more important thing that I’ve learned from all of this, and I will keep it as a secret for now. Many of you probably know the trick already, but if you are curious please feel free to contact me in private.
I read some articles and tips on how to do this, and thought it was going to be tough. Well I was right, it was pretty tough. It was a great learning experience though.
It almost felt like Halloween with all the people flooding the streets afterwards:
Oh yes, and it took me two hours to get home… probably the toughest part of the day:
Note: this event took place on Saturday, July 4th, 2009.
Arrrg can somebody please stop the rain? The rubber grip on my camera lens almost came off because of too much water, seriously.
The High Line, despite all the ugliness that the weather had to offer, was quite amazing and pleasant. It’s pretty remarkable what they have done so far. Things look beautiful, and in some parts I could still smell the fresh cut woods from boardwalks, etc.
I was expectedly interrupted by many plain-clothed officers with umbrellas and iPhones:
But that didn’t stop me from taking so many bad photos as usual. Overall, it was an enjoyable experience even with all the rain. Visit www.thehighline.org to find out how to get there.
It’s been raining all week but the sun finally came out just in time for another round of bubble battle in Times Square. Again, loosely organized but well behaved event made a lot of people smile (and confuse those who did not know about it).
Perhaps they made a deal with the NYPD to stay within the little island where TKTS is located, but wish they had more people going out of bounds into the new Broadway which is now closed to traffic and became the Times Square beach.
It happens twice a year. The sun goes down such that it lines up with the horizon and grids of Manhattan skyscrapers. Surprisingly, a lot of people knew about this.
This day was particularly awesome because 1) the weather was very nice with clear sky and bright sunshine, 2) there was no secret service around harassing people so the first couple can have a date.
So many people were jumping onto the streets looking like emotionally-challenged werewolves, but really they were just risking their lives to get a shot of this photogenic moment (yes, I was one of them).
Next one is on July 11th and 12th (at around 8:25 PM) in case you missed this one. Be safe everyone.
