Welcome to part one of a new series, where I write about leaving my New York City apartment to venture outside and learn how to use my camera. I almost titled this “Bites and Sights NYC” as I will indeed be visiting some New York City attractions and sharing photos of cute restaurants, so the name fits. But I liked the idea of maybe working the amateur photography in the title so the intent here is clear.

My brainstorming session went like this:

Me: New camera, who dis?

Me: No

Me: Learning ISO taking photos like whoa?

Me: NO

Me: F-Can’t Stop, F-Won’t Stop?

Me: SHUT UP

Me: Photography school, shooting things that are cool?

Me: STOP TALKING

Me: What about Amateur Learns Aperture?

Me: WHY WON’T YOU…Wait. that’s not so terrible.

I am doubling down by also attempting to improve my mental health by not wearing pajamas in public while doing these things. This is increasing the amount of laundry I have to do, which is a downside.

But an anticipated upside is what I hope will be an improvement in my mental health as I actually go outside.  Then there is the writing component which is something I love doing 

This was probably too long of a way to say: Here are some things I did in New York City this week as a local learning how to use her camera:

Photography class!

I saw this cutie on my way there:

And this cutie on my way back to the train after:
In class, we had to introduce ourselves and talk about our goals for the class. Some guy lamented that when he hikes with friends,  he always falls behind because he struggles to change the camera settings and he wants to hike with his friends, not 2 kilometers behind.  Insert me “I love stopping to pretend I know what I am doing with my camera to cover up that I need to catch my breath.”

Crickets.

I still have no idea how to use my camera but I do now feel there is hope. After leaving class, I walked through Bryant Park on my way to the train and took this terrible photo:

But then I was able to manually change the settings on my camera and took this  less terrible photo. Progress!

Trying to figure out night photos:

The next morning I ventured out with my camera to take some more shitty photos because apparently that’s how you learn.

I went to breakfast at a cute Cafe named Flippers. I arrived shortly after 9:00 am and I would suggest you do the same should you go there. I got seated right away. But there were eleventy billion people waiting when I left.

Terrible attempt to get the Freedom Tower in the background. There’s a good chance you didn’t even notice it was there until I said it was since it is way too over exposed.

Japanese pancakes:

Fun fact: I accidentally deleted that photo off my simcard and had to go and find all my old laptops and figure out which charger went with which one until I finally found the one with the file recovery software I had installed years ago when I accidentally deleted an entire card full of photos.  Am I sure I want to learn how to use a camera?

Lemon ricotta French toast:

I really got that background blur mastered even if I wasn’t trying for it. I could not get a decent photo of this sign though:

You can find the website for Flippers HERE.

Cute restaurant across the street from Flippers, named Apasta Bar:

Me: That photo is kinda blurry

Me: Yes, I know.  We are learning, remember?

Me: Maybe you can call the series “Don’t Worry, Be Blurry”

Me: No

This photo worthy building that I absolutely could not capture on my camera.  I tried on my phone and got this crooked catastrophe:

Me: THAT should be the series name!  Crooked Catastrophe!

Me: Shut up

Me: Crooked pic because I’m a dick?

Me: SHUT. UP.

Do you SEE what I have to put up with being me?

Day three in a row of leaving my apartment saw my return to Bryant Park for brunch, at Bryant Park Grill, menu HERE. This is the first time in my life I have gone to brunch. I’m always refusing to eat out in exchange for saving every penny for travel. I don’t really want to get used to this and may seek out cute coffee places over cute restaurants.

Bryant Park Cafe:

I had to choose between the building being over exposed or the flowers being black.

Brunch:

I’m a sucker for mocktails.

I really don’t know that I want to keep posting photos of food.  I have zero interest in being a food blogger, nor would I be good at it.  I feel like I am soon going to turn this blog into a diary of what I eat when I am out and that is the last thing on Earth I want this blog to be.

Next up, I went to Summit One Vanderbuilt.  I didn’t even know this thing existed.  I haven’t been north of 42nd Street since I quit my last job in 2018 and the only time I have been to 42nd Street since then was before Covid and was only me walking from Port Authority to the subway.  Once I started Googling places to visit in NYC, this popped up.  HERE is their website if you are interested.

Chrysler Building on my walk over:

I bought tickets for 5:00 because it was the only time nearest the sunset that wasn’t sold out. I planned to go a bit early.  I didn’t go early enough.  It takes forever to get to the top.  This place is incredible but they did all this extra sensory bullshit that just doesn’t need to be there.

Views from the top with my camera:

View from my phone:

Stupid balls:

Stupid asshole who does not know how to use her fucking camera:

Stupid balls with better photos on my phone.  I am trying to not be frustrated, I took ONE camera class. You are not going to be an expert after ONE class.  But I wanted to throw my camera off the roof.

It is absolutely mindblowing how people would just abandon strollers in the middle of nowhere.  It is pretty difficult to get your bearings up here and I almost tripped about 50 times.

A family asked me to take their photo.  Normaly when I use someone else’s camera to take their photo, the pictures come out much better than on my phone. This time they came out AWFUL and I apologized.  Without even looking at them, the mom said “We asked you because you have a camera, so you know what you are doing. They will be fine!”  Um, no.  No they won’t.

And my final stop of the night was Town Hall to see Robyn Schall.

You may not recognize her name, but you have all seen this video that was everywhere back in 2020.

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A post shared by Robyn Schall (@robynschallcomic)

She was absolutely fan-fucking-tastic.

And that was my weekend. 

I did enjoy playing tourist in New York this weekend.  So much of it is completely unfamiliar to me as so much has changed since I last left my apartment. It would be kind of cool if instead of being home fantastizing about being anywhere else, I could look forward to weekends in the city I live in. It would be even cooler if I could stop looking at menus and putting prices into hotel costs.  Oh I want that mocktail but that’s the same price as one night at the hotel I stayed at in blah blah blahhhhh.  Or adding up that the cost of the 2 meals I ate out = plane ticket.

I have planned out my weekends for the next few weeks, until I leave for vacation in December.  I even bought an actual calendar and wrote my plans on it with a Sharpie.  Look at me go.

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(She says while stating she doesn’t want a food blog?)