#project365 [day 74] Fifth Avenue Presbyterian

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Fifth Avenue at Midtown Manhattan, NYC, is known worldwide as the epicentre of designer shops and luxury retail. But like many other idiosyncrasies in the city, you can also find some sanctuaries for the soul. Here is the Presbyterian Church, located on Fifth Avenue at 55th Street. In 1875, when it was dedicated, it was the tallest building in Manhattan with its steeple rising 87 meters high. Designed by Carl Pfeiffer, whose engineering skills are evident in the technological innovations he introduced in the sanctuary. Wooden louvers installed beneath the pews allowed warm air to rise into the sanctuary from steam pipes in the basement. On warm days, enormous blocks of ice were delivered to the basement, where fans blew cooling air upward. The Sanctuary did not have modern air conditioning until 2003. 

-- Gear
Fujifilm X-PRO1
Samyang 8mm f2.8 Fisheye
-- Post
Lightroom : HDR photomerge, initial toning and final crop
Photoshop: Manual layer blending, sharpening and colour blending
NikCollection Color Efex Pro 4: Toning and Detail extraction

#project365 [day 71] up the Helmsley

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Back in day 66 I showed the entrance to this building and wrote about its peculiar location. The Helmsley Building is a 35-story building located at 230 Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, which was built in 1929 as the New York Central Building. Designed by Warren & Wetmore, the architects of Grand Central Terminal, in the Beaux-Arts style. Before the erection of the Pan Am Building – now the MetLife Building – this building stood out over the city's second most prestigious avenue as the tallest structure in the great "Terminal City" complex around Grand Central. Up until now, there is nothing of note about it, but since it sits in the middle of the avenue, in front of the road itself, traffic flows through the building. If you are driving South on Park Avenue, when you reach this junction you will go under the building and then over the Grand Central Terminal, before rejoining the Park Avenue Proper at East 46th Street. Traffic exits and enters the Park Avenue Viaduct through the building, through two portals, one for uptown traffic and one for downtown. 

-- Gear
Fujifilm X-T1
Fujifilm XF18-135mmF3.5-5.6R LM OIS WR
-- Post
Lightroom : HDR merge, initial tone and final crop.
Photoshop: Perspective correction, clean up and sharpening.
NikCollection Color Efex Pro 4: Toning and Detail extraction.

#project365 [day 70] This is Chinatown, NYC

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The chinese flag is flying high above a building in New York's Chinatown. On a country dominated by it's own flag, for an european this is always strange, seeing this flag on top of a building really jumped out at me. But then, this is Chinatown, the home of the largest enclave of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere. Located in Lower Manhattan, next to the Lower East Side and south of Little Italy with an estimated population of 100,00 people. The architecture is typical 19th century New York, like its surrounding neighborhoods, but at street level it does feel like you are in the far east, with shops occupying every available space, sometimes stalls set up in front of another shop window, and selling all sorts of foreign produce.

-- Gear
Fujifilm X-T1
Fujifilm XF18-135mmF3.5-5.6R LM OIS WR
-- Post
Lightroom : HDR merge, initial tone and final crop.
Photoshop: Perspective correction, clean up and sharpening.
NikCollection Color Efex Pro 4: Toning and Detail extraction.

#project365 [day 69] Little Italy

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The late Italian Food Center, now Gelso & Grand, in the middle of NYC's Little Italy is one of those iconic Lower Manhattan buildings that shines. With it's distinctive, and possibly soon to be extinct, external fire escape, beautiful red brick facadeand the glass frames on the ground level. The rusted sign left by the new owners adds a lot to the character of the whole building.
Little Italy itself is changing a lot, what was once known for its large population on Italian, is now being taken over by the expanding neighboring Chinatown, with only a few Italian stores and restaurants still surviving. 

-- Gear
Fujifilm X-T1
Fujifilm XF18-135mmF3.5-5.6R LM OIS WR
-- Post
Lightroom : Initial tone, final crop and vignette
Photoshop: Perspective correction, clean up and sharpening.
NikCollection Color Efex Pro 4: Toning and Detail extraction

#project365 [day 68] Brooklyn Bridge Tower

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The most photographed bridge in New York City, and probably the only one most people can actually name. The Brooklyn Bridge was a place I had put on the top of things to see and photograph in NYC. Crossing it was one of the most interesting walks of my week there, not only because of the views it offers all across Manhattan, Brooklyn and the East River, but also because of the sheer industrial beauty of the bridge itself.
This is a hybrid cable-stayed/suspension bridge and one of the oldest of either type in the USA, being completed in 1883 it spans almost half a kilometre connecting Brooklyn and Manhattan. The two towers are built of limestone, granite and Rosendale cement.

-- Gear
Fujifilm X-T1
Fujifilm XF18-135mmF3.5-5.6R LM OIS WR
-- Post
Lightroom : Initial tone, final crop and vignette
Photoshop: Minor clean up and sharpening.
NikCollection Color Efex Pro 4: Toning and Detail extraction

#project365 [day 66] The Helmsley Building Entrance

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The location of this building baffles me, as it sits in the middle of Park Avenue, but for today the focus in on it's beautiful main entrance. Built in 1929 and designed by Warren & Wetmore in the Beaux-Arts style, this was a created as a showpiece by the New York Central Railroad Company. That shows of in its ornate entrance and is carried on in the grandiose lobby that is marked by a beautiful row of chandeliers, the first of which can be seen here.

-- Gear
Fujifilm X-T1
Fujifilm XF18-135mmF3.5-5.6R LM OIS WR
-- Post
Lightroom : Initial tone, final crop and vignette
Photoshop: Minor clean up and sharpening.
NikCollection Color Efex Pro 4: Toning and Detail extraction