For my day job (at the nonprofit National Association for Interpretation), we put on a workshop each year for our members. This year, our workshop was in Hartford, Connecticut, last week. It included a quick day trip to New York City, which was great.
Here is a quick rundown of the trip, with a handful of images and observations that I have. First up, New York City. Here’s the Hartford train depot as we’re leaving (“we” being myself and my friend and coworker, Jamie King). The picture actually came out nice, sort of mysterious:
We basically walked from Penn Station, through Times Square to Central Park, back to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Bryant Park, and the Empire State Building, before ending the trip back at the train station. Now, I have lots of pics, but I don’t want to bore you too much (too late!), so here are a few:
This sculpture is at Central Park’s Merchant’s Gate, near Columbus Circle. I think the picture came out nicely, though I might play with it as a duotone later on:
While we were in Central Park, surrounded by green pastures and trees, we found the ice rink. Like many of my pictures of Central Park, it’s a bit at odds with itself. The beauty of nature contrasted with the harshness (yet often beautiful in its own way) of the city scene, or the cold of winter ice surrounded by the greenery of the trees, sets a nice tone to the picture:
There were lots of examples of art within the city, especially artwork integrated into the architecture. When we visited Rockefeller Plaza (and the famous “30 Rock”), there were some beautiful murals inside the building. They actually reminded me of Eric Powell’s artwork actually:
As evening approached, we also were lucky to catch the Empire State Building in a beautiful glow, which gave it a different sense altogether:
Hartford was a city of different visions, set between the modern…
and the historical:
There was also a great museum in Hartford, the Wadsworth Atheneum. Much of that will be featured in a future article, but anyplace where I can walk into a “Thomas Cole room” is worth the whole trip. Not to mention the nice Rockwell. Outside of the building stands Calder’s Stegosaurus:
The week itself was very long and very tiring, but I was also able to hang out with quite a few folks that I only get to talk to once a year. That always makes it special (and makes for late nights), and if anything happens soon enough would be the one thing I miss most.
There were a couple of other things that could be labeled “odd”. The first is a message scrawled/scratched into a concrete column we walked by. Creepy:
Lastly, and these two photos work together more than separate, a couple of signs on a building we found in downtown Hartford:
and, on the door to this building:
Overall, if this was the last of the big trips, I think it’s going out on a surprisingly good note. A great time in New York, to which I owe the esteemed Ms. King a big debt, a great time hanging out with friends in Hartford (and making new ones), and a generally easy time with the work side of it.
