I happened upon this scene with the descriptive "Crime Scene" tape while riding my bike.  I had the Nikon D600 and 24-120mm zoom with me.  Here are a few interpretations I did of the scene.

This is a standard perspective taken with a 50mm focal length and the lens aperture wide open at f/4. The sun just peaking out from behind the sign to adds some drama to the scene and further punches the crime scene tape by back-lighting it.

 

Here I went more for the immediacy of a happened-upon Instagram look.  I closed in with a longer focal length, allowed the sun to flare out, and later added the light-leak streaks to the right side.

To give the scene a more ominous look I kept the background dark and out of focus.  The 24-120mm lens had a maximum aperture of f/4 which is a bit too much to make the background completely soft.  To get around this limitation I moved in very close and off to the side of the sign.  This put me at the minimum focus distance of this lens so I would achieve the least depth of field with only the word, "Crime", in focus.

The past week without power in lower Manhattan we lived with candle light, and I picked up a number of photos of partially burnt candles.  All photos were taken handheld with the Nikon D600 and Sigma 50mm macro lens at a wide open aperture of f/2.8 and ISO 400.

The power outage in New York City affected the area of lower Manhattan from approximately 34th Street down to the Battery.  I took these photos near 23rd Street in the Flatiron district.  The uptown views show the contrast between the blacked out foreground against lights from the uptown section including the Empire State Building.

Looking north from 23rd Street the Empire State Building is brightly lit against the blacked out foreground.

Looking south towards the Flatiron building the city was totally dark except for the blurred running lights of passing vehicles.  The brightness from the full moon helped to silhouette the building against the sky.  An 8 second exposure with a Nikon D600 and 24mm focal length lens blurred the traffic.  I placed the camera at a low angle to emphasize the color and texture of the street.

 

In this image I liked the way the headlights flared out from the darkness.  Their immediacy draws the viewer into the scene with a sense of the dangers that existed in the darkened city.   Lights from a passing bus provided the upper horizontal red blurs in this 5 second exposure.

This image taken from the same spot as the one above has a different interpretations of the scene.  Here the effect is more from the perspective of a distant observer and is less threatening and more story-telling of the contrast between dark and light areas of the city.

I rode my bike to lower Manhattan early this morning to see the progress being made in the clean-up after Hurricane Sandy.  I happened on this scene of a wind-tattered flag rattling in a strong wind against a backdrop of the construction for the new World Trade Center -- a symbol of American resilience.

Taken with a Nikon D600 and 70-120mm zoom.  The camera was set to DX crop mode to increase the effective focal length of the lens to 180mm.

There was a full moon this past week which caused excessive high tide conditions that resulted in extraordinary water surges of up to 14' in the city.  This mass of water caused much of the damage to the New York area.

The blacked out part of the city had an eerie look to it lit only by the moon and passing traffic.  This is a 20 second exposure taken with a Nikon D600 at ISO 400.

I have been in New York with no electricity since Hurricane Sandy passed through here last Monday night. As a result, I have not been able to post to this blog.  Since the power just returned tonight,  I will begin posting some of the photos I took during the blackout. 

I took this photo with a Nikon D600 and macro lens using only the light from the flashlight I had with me over the past five days.

I found this sign on the door of a building one day when I had wandered out in search of some food.  It seemed to sum up the condition of my blog.  I took it with the Sony RX100 which I had with me at the time.

Here in New York the city is all but shut down as we wait the arrival of hurricane Sandy.  All public transportation is stopped and the bridges and tunnels are closed.  There isn't much to do but stay home and photograph raindrops on the windows.

This was taken up close with a 60mm macro on a Nikon D600.  I used the lens wide open to throw the background buildings completely out of focus.

As darkness approached the city lights began to come on giving a nice contrast in color between the warm glow of the city lights and the blue cast of the storm.

I had a little experimental fun with this one.  I attached a 60mm Leica R macro lens to the Fuji X-Pro1 using an adapter I found on Ebay.

For this dusk shot I stopped the lens down a bit to help define the background silhouette.