Photos From My Favorite Secret Manhattan Overlook

In this case it’s a tiny public park with spectacular river views.

We left New York City early this afternoon. Our hotel was on Madison Avenue so I headed toward the FDR Drive on the Upper East Side. A confusing on-ramp near the U.N. left me circling and looking for the next entrance. It also allowed me to buzz by one of my favorite New York City photo locations.

The Upper East Side has been an affluent area as long as I remember. That may be why the stubs of some East Side streets have remained open and accessible. In this case a tiny public park with spectacular river views.

My vantage point was the foot of 57th Street looking toward the East River, Roosevelt Island and the Queensboro (aka 59th Street) Bridge.

18 thoughts on “Photos From My Favorite Secret Manhattan Overlook”

  1. I love looking at the Upper East Side from the river. More specifically on the 3 hour Circle Line boat cruise that circles the island. It starts out at the pier next to the Intrepid. If you haven’t done that, you really should! The sights from the water are fabulous.

  2. Geoff, you NEVER disappoint with your photos. These are just wonderful! LOVE that stitched panoramic… Have you always loved photography? Just wondering if you did it as kid and kept with it or if you took formal courses? Ever shot any lighthouses or seascapes?

  3. NYC is an awesome place to visit! I was born and raised in Manhattan(Washington Heights) and return to visit my family there often! But I like being able to live in Ct?

  4. It’s not so much that it’s affluent, which is true, but because it’s low rise. And the reason for that is geologic: the middle of Manhattan is, essentially, swamp with no bed rock within reach. The lack of skyscrapers in that part of the island isn’t the result of intelligent city planning, but God’s sense of humour.

  5. My dad lives at the corner of 57th adn Sutton…great spot!

    I agree with other posters who would rather live here in CT. NYC is great to visit, but I’m not much for the ‘concrete jungle’ lifestyle.

  6. A friend of mine once said, “New York City is a great place to live but I’d hate to visit there.” I agree there is so much to see and do and learn and grow. Your photos are nice, as a meteorologist I hope you appreciate the appropriateness of good
    clouds.

    1. That top photo uses an 8mm fisheye lens. Extremely wide angle lenses like this always distort everything outside the center of the frame.

      As lenses go this one is reasonably cheap. It is fully manual meaning I have to focus and set the aperture and shutter speed by hand.

      It’s a fun lens to have in my bag.

      1. When I used wide lenses (anything smaller than 28mm for 35mm film), I’d just set the infinity DoF mark at the F-stop for a reasonable shutter, 1/125 is fast enough for these lenses. For the 8mm fish-eye, I’d guess that would focus from about a foot to infinity at 1/125. Be lazy, my good man.

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