Ice skating rink in Central Park

Going past the Statue of Liberty on the Staten Island ferry

The Flat Iron – one of my favourite buildings in the world

The amazing Fuerza Bruta show

Water nymphs at Fuerza Bruta

NYPD – armed and ready

The beautiful Grand Central Station

Crossroads in Chinatown

Big yellow taxi

Central Park from the top of the Rockefeller Centre at sunset

The Empire State building and surrounding skyline at sunset from the Rockefeller Centre. Still feels weird without the World Trade Centre towers in the background.

Rest of the photos are here.

The squirrels were unbelievably tame.

A couple of pigeons having a chat.

This guy was a bit camera-shy.

And this lot just looked really lost.

A few more photos here.

All shot by a dude called Stéfan, who does a daily Flickr update.

Found on WildAmmo.

I’ve never really bought into New Balance as a brand. When I was a kid, they were worryingly too easy for well-meaning parents to confuse with Nike (good) or Nicks (bargain bin hideous). And thus they fell into the chasm of middle-of-the-road mediocrity.

I have never bought a pair, thought of buying a pair, or indeed known anyone who has openly claimed to own a pair of their shoes. But I do quite like their new site – 574 clips.

To promote NB’s limited edition 574 trainers, they’ve shot 480 different mini-films and 480 different Polaroids. It’s simple and fun, and almost makes me want to consider possibly contemplating a potential purchase of one of their products. Almost.

When it’s done well, tiltshift stuff always looks amazing. And for obvious reasons, trains are a great subject matter.The only problem is that they are also a very dull subject matter. Still, at least this video looks beautiful.

Found on Geeks are Sexy.

It’s a near-truism that we’ve almost run out of new things to invent. Pretty much every new technology is just a better, quicker, smaller or more colourful version of the last one (the masters of which are undoubtedly Apple). And so we come to next evolution of online (and offline) photos – the ‘gigapixel’. Which is basically French for ‘fucking high resolution’.

It’s been around for a while and image sizes are obviously enormous, so you need Speedy Gonzalez broadband to use it. I’m sure some practical applications will naturally follow, but for the moment, check out four cool examples at Gigapixel Photography.

I’ve just seen a truly amazing blog called Days with my father, about the relationship between a son and his 98 year-old father following the death of his mother. It’s beautifully written and candidly photographed, and shows a genuine and deep-running love and affection which you don’t often see in this cynical age. And for some reason this morning, it has really struck a chord with me.

In many ways I have been incredibly lucky with my family. But the biggest regret of my life is that I didn’t spend more time with my granddad after he went into a home some 11 years or so ago. As a toddler, a small child, a schoolboy and a teenager, we spent an enormous amount of our days together. He taught me how to play cribbage, whist and gin rummy. He taught me about birds (the ones with wings), stamps, and the love of a decent wedge of mature cheddar. In short, he was the kindest, chivalrous and most gentlemanly person I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. I was also his only grandchild, so he doted on me, and I on him.

Sadly, he went into a home at about the same time that I went away to Uni. It’s no excuse, but I guess I just got too wrapped up in the new life I was just starting to notice the old life that was slowly ending. My Mum sheltered me from a lot of stuff, and took the heavy burden of looking after someone with advanced dementia entirely on her own shoulders. She went through all the heartbreak, whilst I only saw it once or twice. So whilst my memories of him are almost entirely unsullied by his later years, there’s also a large part missing.

He died when I was 21. I was in the car on the way back to Uni after my Dad’s wedding when my phone rang. We were one junction away from the exit to my Mum’s house, and I was heartbroken for the first time in my life.

I still think about him from time to time, and no matter what, he always manages to bring a smile to my face. I just wish I could have told him that.

It’s pretty rare that you see good old-fashioned disposable cameras these days, unless you’re sat at a dinner table at a wedding or you’re checking out clownfish underwater.  But there’s still something inherently fun about the little plastic click of the button, the tick-tick-tick as you wind the wheel on, and the dolphin-bothering noise the flash makes when it’s ready.

The Disposable Memory Project is an idea so beautifully simple and charming that you end up willing it to succeed, if only to restore what little faith you have left in humanity. Their manifesto is as follows:

We’re leaving disposable cameras around the world. Hopefully, people will pick them up, take a few photos and pass them on, eventually returning home – so we can tell their stories.

And that’s it. The cameras have been deposited far and wide across the globe, and so far, 5 out of 107  have been used and returned, with  Camera 47 enjoying an epic journey from Cornwall to Cambodia via Thailand. Of course, not every picture that is taken will be perfect – far from it – but that’s not the point.

10 feelings. 10 photos. And remember, your first reaction is the only one I can accept.