The weather here has been a mix of cool, overcast, rainy days and a few cool, partially cloudy days. One of the workshop attendees, who lives in New York, told us that the weather was unusually cool, overcast, and rainy for this time of year. Early April in New York is usually in the mid-60s to mid-70s, with mostly sunny days. This morning was one of those mid-60s sunny days.

It was cool enough in the morning that nearly everyone in New York wore a jacket, including me. I took the A train down to the Canal Street station and then walked down to Battery Park. I wanted to check out the view and get some images: New York Harbor, the Statue of Liberty, the orange Staten Island Ferry boats and the other harbor traffic. I found that a significant part of the shoreline was a construction site that prevented any viewing of the harbor. The only view of the ferries I had was a space between the Battery Park Maritime building and the ferry building.

I walked up the eastern shoreline of Lower Manhattan to the Seaport, where I made some interesting images from previous visits. The clouds had cleared, and the sun was out. It warmed up enough that I had to take my jacket off. The harsh, bright sunlight made it difficult to get many of the shots I would have liked to take; I ended up doing a number of silhouettes and shots looking up – skyscrapers and an interesting sky called to me.

I intended to start making some images in color, but I am "seeing" in black and white. I am not sure how it is for other photographers, but I find it difficult, if not impossible, to make both black & white and color images simultaneously. Right now, I see in black & white, looking for shapes and contrast. I cannot force myself to see in color right now, it does not work that way. A switch goes off in my brain, a binary switch, black & white or color. It is a switch I cannot access.

Around noon, I began to get hungry and tired. The cold and rainy weather over the two weeks before my arrival here had prevented my training enough to walk more than 4 to 5 miles. Plus, I had forgotten that it was "eclipse" day, so I headed back to the apartment. I had lunch, wrote, and headed out to see the eclipse. I missed the opportunity to catch some shots of people watching the eclipse. I suspect that the fatigue from the intense workshop over the weekend and my walk in the morning was a significant part of it. A pity, it was an opportunity missed! New York was well off the total eclipse path, but at 3:15 pm, it got dark.

Fort Tyron Park and the area around the Cloisters Museum were packed with people out to see the eclipse. It seemed like everyone in New York had the afternoon off. Instead of taking the opportunity of being in the park to make some images, I headed back to the apartment to take a nap. What a waste of an opportunity, something I will regret for some time.