Blizzard in New York City (A Brief Photographic Tour!)

Well, I'm sorry I poofed, everyone. I was super busy, and then I was really trying to be the opposite of busy (with mixed success) and anyway...I'm home now, and back to "work" (and to actual work, too ;) ). I've got a few posts I meant to do in the last few weeks, but this one preempts them, because it's time appropriate. :)

So I heard on the 24th that we were supposed to get snow on the 26th. When I checked the forecast on the 25th, it said we should expect 4 to 8 inches, and I sadly made some phone calls to cancel a road trip I had planned for the next day, cause it wouldn't be safe to drive. Little did I know that by the time the snow stopped falling during the night of the 26th, we'd have gotten 20 inches in the city! So of course, as soon as I was sure it was safe enough to go out, I headed out to take lots of pictures. This resulted in two sets on Flickr: on the 27th, I went to Van Cortlandt Park, and on the 29th, I went to Central Park. This post is about some of the best photos of the lot, as is my usual practice at these times.

Van Cortlandt Park, which is the Bronx equivalent of Central Park and the closest park to my apartment (about a half mile away), is a lovely if rather natural looking park that doesn't get all that much use as far as I can tell. Certainly, the day after the storm, I was one of only 2 people to follow most of the routes I took (easily determinable by the other sets of foot prints). I didn't get out til late in the day, so lighting was a persistent issue, but I managed to get some excellent shots anyway. It was a very cold day, too, and still very windy (we had 70 mph gusts during the blizzard...).


So...this is the hill that I live on (the building on the right is mine). My car is barely visible over on the right (the four car on the right side of the street). It ended up taking 45 minutes to dig it out. :)


I don't usually make the things in my pictures, but I made an exception when I saw all the lovely fresh snow...


The wind kept whipping the snow up. I crested a hill, glanced behind me, and saw that the sunset was catching the blowing snow.


Not my footprints in this one...


This open area in Van Cortlandt park is the path that I jog on. It goes right by both those trees. Or at least it would if it wasn't completely buried in snow...






I had to wait for this shot...I kept not quite catching the geese as the migrated...but I finally got it. :)


This is the Van Cortland House Museum, which is one of the oldest buildings in New York City - it was constructed in 1748 by Frederick Van Cortlandt for his family, who owned all the land in this area. Washington and Lafayette both slept in the house during the Revolutionary War. It's now a living history museum that I have only ever visited once, on a school trip when I was in elementary schools (but I jog by it two or three times a week!). Apparently, it was only the fourth historic museum house in the entire country, as it's been a museum since 1897. Thanks, Wikipedia. :) It was very hard to get this photo; the snow drifts around the fence between me and the museum were 2 to 3 feet deep, but I found a way.

The next day, I had to drive out to Pennsylvania to pick up my dog, and then the next day I went out to Central Park to get more pictures before all the snow melts! Central Park was much more fertile ground for snowmen than Van Cortlandt was (where I only saw two...)




I love when I spot something awesome like this that another person has left behind to be discovered...


I really love this shot. It was so bright in this location that I just jacked my shutter speed all the way down (to the fastest) and my aperture closed as much as possible, and then just snapped and hoped it turned out. It did. (this is the an old reservoir; it's now just picturesque, and has a running path around it that I used to use when I was living in Manhattan)


Snowman of the day. I just loved this one. There was a great one wearing a mask, but sadly the lighting wasn't cooperative for that one...(but the pic is in the set)


Some of the trees still sported fall leaves.


I found a place where someone had tossed bird seed down; I spent a good ten minutes there, patiently waiting for animals and birds to assume positions that would photograph well. The best show is the next. :)




Sunset over Central Park South.

There are plenty of other pics that I think turned out well in the sets - I'm pretty happy with how both days photography efforts turned out, considering that I was adjusting camera settings and snapping shots with mittens on! :) Now the snow is starting to melt pretty fast - it's been warm a few days running, and it's going to be very warm (high 40s) this weekend, so I bet it'll be mostly gone by Monday. But that's always how snow is in NYC - even though it's depressing, it's at least familiar. And it's only December - we'll get more snow, with January and February still to come. :)

Happy New Year, everyone!!! :)