APRIL IN MANHATTAN
I shot all of the photos in this portfolio during April, 2022 in my hometown of Manhattan. They embrace twin springtime themes of flora and fauna – buds spouting on trees, especially cherry blossoms, and a nostalgic trip to the Central Park Zoo.
I began my Manhattan excursion, chauffeured by Gent Zeneli, in the Morningside Heights area.
At Morningside Drive and West 116 Street there’s a sharp dropoff down to Morningside Park.
Some views of the Park.
That’s my buddy Gent, dwarfed by a monument to Carl Schurz, on a plaza just above a lengthy stairway that leads down to the Park.
Having photographed the cherry blossoms in Washington D.C. and at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden in past years, my search for more of the same in Manhattan led me to Sakura Park, on Riverside Drive just east of Grant’s Tomb and north of Riverside Church.
The word sakura means cherry blossoms in Japanese. The Park owes its name to a gift of cherry trees from Japan in 1912.
My goal was to capture the cherry blossoms framed against an iconic man-made structure. Riverside Church fit the bill nicely.
I zoomed in a little closer here to emphasize the blossoms and structure.
Now I’m even closer, but using a different section of the church as the scenic backdrop.
If your gaze turns west from Sakura Park, it falls on Grant’s Tomb – another structure that serves as an ideal background for the blossoms.
This is precisely the juxtaposition of blossoms and structure that I had in mind.
Here I pair an extreme close-up of blossoms and structure with a more remote view that adds some criss-crossed shadows of limbs in the foreground.
Other images from Sakura Park: a father and son at play; a relaxed visitor; and a monument (sculpted by Gutzon Borglum, the designer of Mount Rushmore) to General Daniel Butterfield – a Civil War hero who is best known for having composed the bugle call “Taps”.
A fitting farewell to Sakura Park.
Here’s a meshing of some other buds, limbs and structure, viewed from a location near Sakura Park.
Zooming in on more of the same.
Now we’re on a street further north in Manhattan, and the structural backdrop is the George Washington Bridge.
This is my favorite of the bridge-buds shots.
We’ve now arrived at the Cloisters, the Met’s tribute to the middle ages, which serves as a background for some notable trees and flora.
These four shots of enlarging blossoms call for a clockwise viewing.
Here’s Gent again, but now featuring the man-made structure.
Some other shots from the vicinity of the Cloisters.
Now we’re up at the northernmost area of Manhattan, containing a ball field, Columbia University’s Lawrence A. Wien Stadium, and the path adjacent to the running track that leads down to the water.
And here’s the Henry Hudson Bridge across Spuyten Duyvil Creek, spanning Manhattan and the Bronx near where the Harlem and Hudson Rivers converge – a spot which the Columbia students have adopted with that large “C”. This is the end of my first April in Manhattan journey.
A week or so later, I paid a visit to the Central Park Zoo (entrance at East 64th Street and Fifth Avenue) to add some fauna to my flora tribute. Pictured here is the famed Delacorte Clock, where the animal figurines dance each hour when the bell strikes.
The exhibit areas are centered around a garden that contains a sea lion pool at its center. Note the views across the pool to the new skinny skyscrapers to the south and a dazzling squiggly tree to the northeast.
The sea lions are simply terrific and often preen for the crowd. Here they are – singly, as a duo, and in a threesome.
The best times to visit are the feedings, when the sea lions perform some nifty tricks to deserve their meal.
Here’s the best trick of all, with the sea lion seeming to be balanced over the water on the tip of his slim elongated tail.
Now we’re in the so-called “Temperate Territory”, a landscaped series of paths surrounding a small lake. The photos are of the snow monkeys that inhabit the area. (Can you spot two of them on the outcropping?)
Say hello to the fetching red panda.
But notwithstanding a lot of fuss and info about the snow leopard, I searched in vain for a glimpse of the real thing – so these billboards will have to do.
Well, I thought, the grizzly bear ought to be easier to spot. But all I could see when peering into his rocky exhibit was a man’s discarded jacket – causing me concern that the keeper had given his all. No fear – I soon learned that the exhibit had been closed for improvements, and the grizzlies would return from their temporary home at the Bronx Zoo after Memorial Day.
These odd-looking creatures are NYC harbor seals. But even given my Antarctic background, I didn’t enter the penguin house – something still bothers me about voluntarily going indoors while this pandemic seems to be ongoing. I bet it’s a great exhibit.
There’s some fine topography in the zoo – witness the mini-waterfall pictured. There are a few turtles. And this little girl has discovered . . . .
. . . some elegant swans.
There’s also a children’s zoo located north of the main zoo – see the handsome gate and adorable bunny rabbit. (The scene featuring the puppet master occurred just outside the gate.)
I’d swear I saw (and photographed) this elegant duck a few years ago, swimming in the wild on the lake south of the zoo. But now, the little fellow is on exhibit here, as are some pheasants and other fowl.
I do enjoy interactions between the animals and the kids.
More of the same.
I had an opportunity here to duplicate the theme of flora-fronting-a-structure that I used in Sakura Park. At the top is Temple Emanuel which sits just across Fifth Avenue. At the bottom are fore and aft views of The Arsenal headquarters of the Park's Department (that contains the gallery in which my exhibit of Central Park photos was housed back in April 2000).
I consider this dinosaur to be just about the most photogenic object in the zoo, and I posed it in many ways.
Here’s the closing shot, for which I solicited a nearby kid to pose in front of the monster.