New York City, Part I // January, 2015

At the tail end of January of this new year, I traveled to New York City for a very special occasion. It was the 70th birthday celebration of one of my dearest clients and friends, Janet Carrus. She is an inspiration to me, as she is a hard working independent film producer, on the board of numerous non-profits and travels for ballroom dancing competitions. She is one of the most beautiful women I know, inside and out. As you can imagine, I could not miss this event! I made sure to bring my camera along so that I could capture people and things that caught my attention while I roamed the freezing cold city, that I love dearly.

The Dream Downtown Hotel only opened in 2011, so it is fairly new. I stayed in one of the standard rooms there, and while they were decorated in a very cool, stylish and futuristic way, they were incredibly small. I'm sure there are more spacious rooms available if you're willing to spend a few stacks. I would definitely go back to party at their Ph.D. lounge.

Without knowing about it, I walked to Bryant Park to find a winter carnival. It was set up into tents of food and activities such as ice skating (pictured below), juggling (pictured above) and a silent disco party (also pictured below).

I stopped by a coffee shop called Think Coffee because i saw a sign outside mentioning that they were a socially and environmentally conscious company. They have six locations in NYC, so if you're in town then you should go by there and support them! I was chatting it up with this lady while we waited for our brew. I wanted to capture her sarcasm in this shot.

This guy requested I take his photograph outside of the coffee shop, but didn't ask where to find it.

While walking further into the West Village, I found the best bookstore ever! Marc Jacobs opened this little gem, called Bookmarc, with tons of awesome photography books. I wanted to buy every single one. This was our cashier. He knew I was taking his photograph, but pretended not to.