Merry Christmas to all.......

Another year slowly coming to an end. I hope it was a good one for all of you. I just might have another post before New Years because I'm treating myself to a couple days in NYC and hopefully I'll get a "few keepers".  This will be my second trip into to New York at Christmas time and I'm hoping to visit some of the sites I missed on my first trip like the WTC memorial, Top of the Rock and Central Park. I'll be on a pretty tight time schedule but hopefully with some decent planning, I can visit all these places while I'm in town. Who knows, maybe we'll get a little dusting of snow while I'm there? I'm going in with a friend from my camera club on an early train leaving out of Providence, RI.  I've never taken a train any real distance so I'm looking forward to the train ride also. My friend did a little homework herself and found us a couple of affordable rooms in a nice hotel only a block or so away from Penn station, right in mid-town Manhattan. Nice huh?

This Christmas tree photo was taken two years ago on my first trip to the Big Apple around Christmas and it has special meaning to me personally. It was my first time going into NYC during the holidays and it proved to be a very enjoyable trip.  I've mentioned a few times on my blog that I belong to a pretty good sized camera club and a small group of us (7 of us) took an early morning bus into New York city back in December 2011. We only had about 8 or 9 hrs in the city total and we wanted to check out some of the popular tourist sites. Luckily for us, the ones we were checking out were all within walking distance of the bus station. We had to hustle to take them all in, but we got a chance to check out attractions like the Skating Rink, Times Square, Grand Central Station and Bryant Park. Bryant Park is right next door to the New York public library and only a few blocks from Grand Central Station. I had seen photos of it before and I knew it was known for having a beautiful tree and a nice display at Christmas time. 

I got a chance to see the park early in the day with my friends and I knew immediately when I first saw it that I was going to try to go back around dusk and shoot the tree again.  (pictured above). So when my friends ventured back to a pub closer to the bus station, I hustled over to Rockefeller Center and shot some more photos of the Christmas Tree and the Rink then rushed over to Bryant Park and got the shot above.  

I know that we all had a great time on that trip and that this photo will continue to be one of those shots that holds many fond memories for me. I hope you like it too. 

Remember, keep shooting and have some fun!