New York, New York.

In September 2022, we visited New York City. On a Sunday, we walked along Fifth Avenue. You know, from the Bing Crosby song, “Easter Parade.”

On the avenue, Fifth Avenue
The photographers will snap us
And you’ll find that you’re
In the rotogravure

(Excuse my digression, but I had to look it up. A rotogravure is a type of rotary photographic press used in the newspaper industry at the time of the song.)

We saw Saint Patrick’s Cathedral and had a notion that we might visit the interior of the church, but as we approached, we saw that might not be so easy. Our first thought was that mass had just concluded.

Then looking left of the main entrance, I saw the imposing figure of a child standing well above everyone. We decided to stay across the street and I used my telephoto lens for these images.

I asked another bystander near us if she knew what was going on. In typical New York fashion, her comment was terse but not unfriendly. She said, “That’s Little Amal. You can look it up on the web.”

My search engine told me of the 12-foot (3.6 m) puppet representing a 10-year-old Syrian refugee. From the Walk with Amal website here, “Since July 2021, Amal has traveled to 15 countries and been welcomed by more than a million people on the street, including hundreds of artists and civil society and faith leaders, as well as by tens of millions online. Most recently she traveled through the United States, where she was welcomed in more than 40 cities and tens of thousands of people. Her journeys are festivals of art and hope that draw attention to the huge numbers of children fleeing war, violence, and persecution, each with their own story.”

On that September morning, she was welcomed by Timothy Cardinal Dolan. Amal spent time in the cathedral for prayer and reflection and also met with a recently arrived refugee family assisted by Catholic Charities New York.

Little Amal was constructed by the Handspring Puppet Company in Cape Town, South Africa. She is made of cane, carbon fiber, and other lightweight materials, and is operated by four puppeteers. One puppeteer controls each arm, one puppeteer supports her back, and one puppeteer stands inside her legs and controls her body movements. The puppeteer inside her legs also controls her facial expressions. This photo captures the puppeteer inside.

We were told by another bystander that this day was Little Amal’s last day in New York and that she would also be visiting Central Park later that day. It turned out, however, that we were misinformed. We walked to Central Park later and saw nothing special, but the park is a big place. We surmised that our timing wasn’t right or that we were in the wrong part of the park. Now that I am writing this, my web research notes that she visited Central Park on September 24, 2022.

Given recent events in other parts of the world, writing this post in the relative isolation of North Dakota about a refugee girl in New York is a powerful reminder to me of the shared humanity of all people, regardless of their religion, nationality, or background. Amal’s journey is a symbol of hope and resilience, and her visit to Saint Patrick’s Cathedral was a celebration of the diversity and compassion of New York City.

John Steiner

New York, New York.

Before departing from New York City on a cruise to Canadian ports, we spent a couple of days as tourists in New York. A short walk from Times Square we strolled down Fifth Avenue. Our timing was perfect to see that the Sunday service had just concluded and parishioners were heading out of the beautiful Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. If you look closely at the steps of the cathedral, you’ll notice a figure of a larger-than-life girl. In a future post, I’ll tell you the story of Little Amal and the nine-year-old Syrian girl she represents.

According to Wikipedia, St. Patrick’s Cathedral is a Catholic cathedral in Midtown Manhattan. It is the seat of the Archbishop of New York as well as a parish church. The cathedral occupies a city block bounded by Fifth Avenue, Madison Avenue, 50th Street, and 51st Street, directly across from Rockefeller Center. Designed by James Renwick Jr., it is the largest Gothic Revival Catholic cathedral in North America. The cornerstone of St. Patrick’s Cathedral was laid in 1858 and the cathedral was consecrated in 1879. We wanted to visit the inside of this beautiful and historic symbol of New York City’s Catholic heritage, but with the large crowd and Little Amal, we decided to wait for another time for our visit.

About the photo: How do you capture an iconic symbol in a photograph and not make it look like every other tourist photo you’ve ever seen? In similar situations, I’ve opted for panoramic photographs stitched together and looking straight on to be sure to capture the true height of those beautiful spires. This time, I tried a single vertical composition but I purposely tilted my Samsung S20U to be sure I captured the entire facade. I included the skyscraper in the background to emphasize the difference between this historic church and modern New York City. This image went from Lightroom Classic to DxO’s Silver Efex 2 for conversion to black-and-white. Click on the image to view it in 2K HD on my Flickr site.

I encourage fellow bloggers to create their own Cellpic Sunday posts. I never have a specific topic for this feature, and the only rules are that the photo must be captured with a cell phone, iPad, or another mobile device… If you have an image from a drone or even a dashcam, that’s acceptable as well. The second rule is to link your challenge response to this post or leave a comment here with a link to your post in the comment. Oh, and, you don’t have to post it on a Sunday.

John Steiner

New York City.

Our departure on our autumn cruise to Canada left from the cruise port on the west end of Manhattan. We’d never been to New York City before, so we really didn’t have any idea where many of the sites were located in the city. After our cruise, we spent a couple of days exploring and I’ll have some photos to share of that trip in a future post.

I knew the cruise port is located on the Hudson River, but I really didn’t know where the Statue of Liberty was located in relation to the port. As we departed, from our balcony, we watched as New Jersey went by, a little disappointed that we weren’t on the other side of the ship. That is, we were disappointed until I happened to look toward the front of the ship, and in the distance, I could see her, torch held high. It was then I knew that we would be passing by Lady Liberty.

I captured many images with both my cell phone and my Sony camera in hopes of finding the best ones to share. As it turned out, at the conclusion of our cruise, we did a harbor cruise and that boat brought us a lot closer to Liberty Island and Lady Liberty than the Carnival Magic did.

About the photo: Though I anticipate better images of Lady Liberty, I wanted to share one of the first images I captured of probably our most well-known symbol of freedom in this Cellpic Sunday post. Indeed, from our balcony, the use of my S20U zoom function shows off the flaws in digital zoom. I promise better images, but I share this one because it was the first time I’d seen Lady Liberty.

The lighting wasn’t the best due to our late afternoon departure, so the statue is mostly in shadow. Having just downloaded the latest version of Lightroom, I used subject masking and Lightroom did a great job of selecting the island as the main subject. I was able to raise the exposure of the island by about 3/4 of a stop. Any more than that, and the statue took on an eerie glow. Lifting the shadows brought out more detail at the base of the statue. I can see getting used to the powerful masking capabilities now added to Lightroom. After the masking and exposure tweaks, I sent the image off to Luminar Neo to take advantage of that program’s artificial intelligence to enhance the image further. Click on the image above to see it in 2K HD on my Flickr site.

I encourage fellow bloggers to create their own Cellpic Sunday posts. I never have a specific topic for this feature, and the only rules are that the photo must be captured with a cell phone, iPad, or another mobile device… If you have an image from a drone or even a dashcam, that’s acceptable as well. The second rule is to link your challenge response to this post or leave a comment here with a link to your post in the comment. Oh, and, you don’t have to post it on a Sunday.

John Steiner

New York, New York.

I could see quite a view of the New York City skyline from the upper decks of the Carnival Magic. Looking north on the Hudson River, the cruise terminals all have rooftop parking for guests. On the other side of the pier, an Oceana Cruise Ship, the Insignia was loading passengers for an 11-night east coast cruise to Montreal. In the background, much of the New York City skyline attracted my attention as this was my first trip to The Big Apple.

I was especially intrigued by that large structure that looked like a triangle behind the Oceana ship. In preparation for this post this morning, a little research was in order. That building is an apartment complex with some retail businesses on the ground floor. The unusual building located on West 57th Street is called Via 57 West. If you are interested in this unusual architecture, Wikipedia has an article here.

About the photo: I captured this panoramic image with my Samsung S20U. Originally two images, I merged them using Adobe Lightroom’s panorama stitching tool. I am always impressed by how well that tool works. There is almost never any telltale sign that the images were joined in software. After stitching and using the tools to straighten the perspective distortion, I sent the image to Luminar Neo for final processing. For a 2K HD view, click on the image above. It’s linked to my Flickr site where I keep published versions of my work in HD format.

I encourage fellow bloggers to create their own Cellpic Sunday posts. I never have a specific topic for this feature, and the only rules are that the photo must be captured with a cell phone, iPad, or another mobile device… If you have an image from a drone or even a dashcam, that’s acceptable as well. The second rule is to link your challenge response to this post or leave a comment here with a link to your post in the comment.

John Steiner

New York, New York.

In mid-September 2022, we set sail for the second time on the Carnival Magic. On this trip, we would head north to stops in Canada. We departed New York City’s cruise terminal at the western end of Manhattan Island on the Hudson River. As we maneuvered away from our berth, a New York City Police helicopter flew by a couple of times. I was able to capture a cellphone image from our balcony on one of the passes. As we turned to the south toward the Atlantic Ocean, they accompanied us for a short distance and then peeled off in the opposite direction.

About the photo: Captured with my Samsung S20U, this 108 MP photo was cropped to help remove some excess skyline and concentrate more on the helicopter. I was lucky to not have sunrays cover the helicopter. I reduced the contrast and straightened the image in Lightroom then sent it off to Luminar Neo to remove the strong blue color cast from the buildings. I used Enhance AI to improve the tone and bring a little more definition to the clouds. For a better look at the image in 2K HD, click on the image to view it from my Flickr site.

I encourage fellow bloggers to create their own Cellpic Sunday posts. I never have a specific topic for this feature, and the only rules are that the photo must be captured with a cell phone, iPad, or another mobile device… If you have an image from a drone or even a dashcam, that’s acceptable as well. The second rule is to link your challenge response to this post or leave a comment here with a link to your post in the comment.

John Steiner