New York on Film—April 2026

Whilst in New York, I decided to use black and white film for the first time, with mixed results.

Black and white felt fitting for New York somehow. I’ve realized after getting the scans back that the film does capture architecture very nicely, so maybe that's why I had that instinct. Or maybe because black and white feels more retro and New York feels older than LA.

The film stock was a higher ISO than what I’ve been using (400 as opposed to 200), which made it easier to get the right exposure, but the grain is much more intense. The grain made my focus issues and my lens' short focal length more obvious. Also the roll only yielded 24 photos as opposed to 36.

However, my main obstacle was not the film itself, but my own cowardice.

New York has great people-watching, which could make for great photos, but I'm still too shy to photograph strangers up close.

I took this on my first day in the city and immediately regretted that I had decided to shoot black and white. You can't see it here, but the cherry blossoms had blanketed the hillside in a beautiful shade of pink. This was apparently one of the first weekends of good warm weather since winter, and people in the city were definitely taking advantage of it. The main theme of this post is just that I’m in awe of how much people utilize public space in New York, especially when compared to LA.

This photo doesn't capture what I saw at all. It looks much more like the reality of what film is--A bunch of tiny pieces of silver. I still find it cool for that reason.

My girlfriend's cousin very graciously let us stay in her apartment. This is her cat Pumpkin, who ironically is not orange. I couldn't get her to look at me while I was taking this photo. She kept nodding off. I didn't have time to get another, but she is a beautiful cat.

I like how the two rowboats parallel the two towers of the building in this photo.

I shot most of this roll while hanging out in Washington Square Park waiting to meet with someone I know who goes to NYU. The students were great people watching.

I was surprised to see so many people smoking in public, but maybe I’m just not used to seeing people hanging out in public period.

This kid went up to this pool of water multiple times with both of his parents to look at his reflection. It was sweet. Wish I could’ve zoomed in to capture it better, but glad the grain obscures the kid’s identity.

This picture feels like it could’ve been taken at any point in the building’s history. In fact when I was taking it I did have the thought that tons of people have probably snapped this same photo in that same place.

Originally when I saw this nun she was on her phone, but I snapped the photo too late to capture that. Even though she’s far away, I decided against cropping it—I sort of enjoy all of the motion that’s going on around her.