Fine Art Color Cityscape Urban Photograph by Brad Rickerby - New York City

Taxi Cabs in Times Square NYC - Night

Night Cabs NYC

Photo by Brad Rickerby

Limited Edition Prints Available

This image was among my first in the City Light Series and was part of the original submission that got me a contract at Getty at a time when it was worth having a contract at Getty. I lived in New York City when this image was created and used to spend my nights, whenever I could, just wandering the streets looking for exceptional light with which to create an image. This image had great light so I had to work a bit to make the photo exceptional.

I found a place in Times Square where the traffic always stopped with three or four rows of cars so I could get some time to shot and also to have enough taxis to fill the frame (well yes, except for that tail light in the front middle that looks kinda like a Lincoln's to me, but don't tell anyone). It was great that the cab's did not line up straight. This gives a real feeling of dimensionality to the image. 

There are two ways to create this kind of image. The first is with a tripod and a long exposure. Just kick the tripod or jiggle the camera during mid exposure and you will get the shaken feel of this image.  I never much like carrying a tripod all over so I use the second method. Which is just to hand hold the camera and fire off several frames at once. When doing this I try to brace my body against a fence or parking meter or whatever support is available. I hold the camera in two hands, try to relax, take a deep breath and fire off 3 or 4 or 5 frames. It always seems that I am thinking about holding the camera on frames 1 and 5 and these are always unacceptably blurry. But the rest of the frames, where I'm not thinking so much, turn out to be very useable. 

This photo was created on film (Fuji, Velvia 50).  The exact setting were not recorded, but I know that the aperture was set at f2.8 and I'll bet that the shudder speed was in the area of 1 second. It was a 20 to 35 mm lens that I shook just a little bit at the end of the exposure.

Limited Edition prints are available. 

Please contact me at brad@bradrickerby.com