When I first started in photography, I worked exclusively with available light.  The reason was simple: I could not afford a flash.  And what started as a virtue made out of necessity became something of an esthetic.  High contrast, dark shadows, and prominent grain, the result of pushing Tri-X one stop, so I could shoot at an ASA of 800 (now, that was a fast film).  But as a street photographer, it did limit what I could do after the sun went down.

Digital photography changed all that, and we can now shoot at ridiculously high ISOs.  Add to that what we can do in post, and the streets at night are now wide open for business.  It presents its own challenges. Longer exposures, need for larger apertures (or a tripod), cameras struggling with autofocus, harsh light sources, often multiple and with different color temperatures, are just some of these challenges.  It is, however, worth the effort (and by all means, put your camera in manual).  We are rewarded with a kaleidoscope of colors, reflections, and deep shadows.  Or the desolation of an empty street. Or the shifting hues of the twilight.  

The images you’ll see here are notes I have been taking while channeling my inner Leiter.  I hope one day they will coalesce into my own love letter to New York, the amazing place life brought me to over two decades ago.

A brief technical note.  I have grouped the images into separate pages for the sake of performance. The pages load all the images at the start, and that process can be sluggish if there are many images in the page, or if the files are large.  I could have made the images smaller, but I wanted to give you the option of seeing them in a decent size if you are using a laptop, tablet, or desktop.  You can also use your phone, of course, but why would you want to do that?

PS. I still don’t know how to use a flash…