One Word Photo challenge: Ultramarine

| terryb

This photo is my response to the One Word Photo challenge: Ultramarine, taken while visiting New york City a few weeks ago.

For a daily, weekly or annual fee, you can pick up one of these distinctively blue Citibikes, ride it, return it to the same location, or drop it off at yet another Citibike station. The bikes are shared all year, twenty-four hours a day, from numerous locations throughout the city.

DSC00062 2 citibike 4x2cp terry_boswell wm

I myself have yet to ride one. I doubt my nerves could handle navigating New York City traffic while mounted on a bike. I’m decidedly less than the best at cycling and prefer to propel myself through traffic with the solid shell of a four wheeled vehicle around me or to pick my way through it with the predictable control of my own two feet. Unlike when on a bike, I don’t totter or weave when I walk or drive!

Perhaps one day I’ll seek out a Citibike station near a bike path (no cars allowed 🙂 ) along the Hudson River or through Central Park and give it a go, but for now I’ll skip the Manhattan bike experience!

Thank you Jennifer for this One Word Photo Challenge!

10 thoughts on “One Word Photo challenge: Ultramarine”

  1. I love your shot here for a few reasons – first – excellent take on the the color of JNW! and then in the shot – this almost feels staged with all the bikes lined up on left and all the people to the right – the split is then defined wight hose thick white lines.
    then terry, I love the signs – from the hand to the warning of “road work” – I think I still have to chew on those. but it is a great street photography shot that grabs life today.

    now, my last though had to do with all those bikes being in blue – and it reminded me of when down in Florida people were getting robbed because they had rental cars that were easily described as rental cars – and after those early years in the 90’s – they have made rentals cars more discreet – so I just wonder how long it will take to make the bikes blend in more (or never – ha!)

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  2. Thank you! Some of what you describe I achieved with a smidgeon of cropping. The white lines weren’t quite coming out of the corner of the photo and that’s where I wanted them. There was also a very large ugly, ugly back side of a roadwork sign at the top of the photo which I cropped out. That sign almost prevented me from taking the shot at all, but I saw the crowd in front of me on the move, my own position changing as I walked… I lifted my camera and snapped, with cropping in mind, before the scene changed yet again!

    I don’t know if there has been a problem with bike theft or not. The blue bike would be hard to camouflage without paint! 🙂 I recall reading about theft and rental cars a few years back, but the article I read had to do with the contents of the cars being stolen and not the cars themselves. Rental cars often contain everything that a person is traveling with, including computers, cameras, GPS, passports, jewelry and any other number of items someone couldn’t live without while on holiday or business. The cars easily being identified as rental cars just screamed, “Hey, I might be filled with a lot of great stuff that should have been locked in the hotel safe!”

    Thank you again for your kind words 🙂

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      1. I have a similar photo of the Bixi bikes in Toronto, and I took their picture for the exact same reason … but for the life of me, I can’t remember what colour they are.

        It’s going to bug me and eventually I will have to look it up 🙂

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          1. I went back and found my photo. Yup, those are the ones. Funny, I don’t remember them being black. I was picturing them as red. I must be having a senior moment.
            … but I still really like the photo I took 😉

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