Coney Island, home of the (in)famous Cyclone roller-coaster and annual world famous Nathan’s hot dog eating contest. Difficult to imagine, but this past Memorial Day was the first time that I ventured out there for a visit. I had seen and heard about it many times on TV, in photos, and read about it in the newspaper, but never had the urge to visit. When my mum came for a visit we decided to head out there. She has seen the majority of NYC and I wanted to show her something new. It was well worth it.

It was quite an interesting visit. Walking along the boardwalk from one end to the other, we sometimes felt like we were back in Eastern Europe. You could hear the random people passing us speak their native tongue (Russian, Czech and Polish). Slowly, minute by minute, the beach and boardwalk woke up and filled with more and more people. It was fascinating to see how Coney Island “woke up”.

Following are a couple of photos I captured. To avoid the crowds and traffic jams we ventured out to Coney Island (from Connecticut) early in the morning, arriving at the boardwalk around 8am. Surf Ave was still empty so we were able to park close to the boardwalk. After a quick lunch at 1pm we drove back home to Connecticut. I highly recommend heading there early in the morning to enjoy the relatively empty boardwalk, because in the afternoon it gets really crowded and parking is really difficult to find. If you are heading there from Connecticut you also have to be mindful of the JFK and Whitestone bridge traffic. Coney Island can also be reached by subway from Manhattan, however, it is quite a long journey and I believe it is the same line that people take to JFK.

All black and white photos were taken with the Leica M3, Summicron 50 (Rigid) and Kodak Tri-X 400, developed (XTOL) and scanned (Pakon) at home. All color photos were taken with the Leica M-A, Summicron 35 and Cinestill 800, and developed/scanned by Richard Photo Lab. The sun was blasting full power all day, so most photos were shot at f8 or f5.6 and 1/1000 shutter speed. I am quite happy how well the Cinestill 800 performed.