City Daily Photo Theme Day - Best of 2017

January 1 is the day City Daily Photo members post their best work of the year. It's theoretically supposed to be one picture, I think, but I'm greedy. These are my favorites. 
       

There is a tie for first, two photos taken a short time apart in Canyonlands National Park In Utah. The first is the baddest of the badlands. The second shows two men playing with their cameras, while only a child appreciates the awesome beauty of the scene.     

Portrait Of The Year

Our friend Olivier Perrin on the tramway between Governor's Island in the East River, New York City, on our way to midtown Manhattan.      

Leading to the Travel Photo Of The Year

Taken seconds after the last one with a 180 turn - the Queensboro Bridge from the tramway heading into midtown.      

Best Theatrical Picture

I've done a lot of theatrical photography in last year and this shot is my favorite - Chicago performer Matthew Markum doing Pollack: A Frequency Parable. Free jazz with words and abstract expressionist art.   

Best Grandchildren, Period

Audrey  and Ellie, taken in Clare, Michigan, within a few days of their second and fourth birthdays.

And last, another best picture of paradise, Playa Langosta, Tamarindo, Costa Rica. It's been here before. Thanks, Dave and Julie! 

More adventures await.

Manhattan - High Line - 16,592 Steps - My French Is Terrible

LONG day with Olivier. We met on Roosevelt Island (never been there before), a long, thin residential sliver in the East River. Then took the tram to Manhattan. Then subway to the High Line. Then walk and walk and walk. Then to the Whitney Museum. 

The health app on my iPhone says I took 16,592 steps, probably a one-day record for me. My legs hurt - Olivier is in better shape. I think I'm hot stuff when in France because I can get something to eat or drink, buy something, pay the bill and, on a good day, ask directions in the street. But general conversation with a Frenchman? Non. Olivier's English is equivalent to my French and it was a struggle at times. The noise level of the city didn't help. We tested Google Translate's bandwidth. 

These shots only scratch the surface of what I took yesterday. 

A Town So Nice They Had To Name It Twice

New York, New York, a helluva town.

The Bronx is up, but the Battery's down.

The people ride in a hole in the groun'.

New York, New York, it's a helluva town!

From Leonard Bernstein's 1944 Musical, On The Town. You might say that this was the pre-show on our hotel terrace before the fireworks started.

The top picture is the Queensboro Bridge, sometimes called the 59th Street Bridge for the latitude where it enters Manhattan. Us geezers will remember the song made famous by Simon and Garfunkle. The bottom one looks straight into midtown at about 55th and 56th Streets.