04/06/2026
Hard to believe I took this photo of NYC Photo Women a year ago today, April 6, 2025 on the Red Steps in Times Square.
It was more planning than I have EVER done for a shoot. I am more of the spontaneous photographer and this was months of planning. First, I set up an appointment with TJ Witham from the Times Square Alliance to tell him my plans and we met in early February. He and the entire Times Square Alliance loved the idea and were all on board. They could only give me 1 hour to block the steps off and that was more than enough time.
Then, I started spreading the word to ANY woman who has photographed in NYC, any genre, any year. I searched all over, posted on groups, found emails, and contacted lots of women, including Pulitzer Prize winners and other award winning photographers. Well known women and women just starting out. It did not matter..as long as you were a Photo Woman in NYC.
The date was Sunday April 6 at 10 am with the rain date a week later on April 12.
Originally, I was planning on lighting it but went down a week before and somehow, totally forgot there was statue right in front of the Red Steps. Another photographer and his daughters met me there and we were all joking saying “who moved the statue here?” We all thought it was further back. So lighting it was out.
I then contacted Nikon to see if I could borrow a 45 megapixel Z8. My friend Linda lent me her Nikon Z6-3 and I used my 10 year old Olympus OMD-EM1-2, the smallest sensor camera and a 20 megapixel Micro 4/3 camera.
It rained EVERYDAY prior to the shoot. I had to make a decision. One woman from California emailed the day before asking if the shoot was on and she was going to take the red eye. I made the decision it was a GO about 7:30pm and hoped for no rain. Everyone was told to arrive no later than 9:45am and they would be put into position.
I arrived early, as I always am. There was an accident en route and we had to take a detour which added stress. One woman emailed that because of the dampness, she couldn’t make it as she just had surgery and was in a lot of pain. I told her there would be people to help her but she was in too much pain. It was so sad that she couldn’t make it as she has always been someone I admired greatly. As I was driving there, it was still raining..drizzling but still wet. So, no one could sit down on the steps, which is what I wanted. I started shooting at 9:56am and then stopped and said “whoops, we are 4 minutes early..no one move.” I kept an eye on my phone and at 10am, the rain stopped and I started shooting with the 3 cameras-all set the same - ISO 2000 at F9.
After climbing on a ladder and taking some shots from the bottom of the steps, I moved to the top of the for a few more shots at then I was done. All in all it took 5 minutes and 58 seconds and when I was done, it started to rain..hard! It stopped for the whole time we were shooting. The following week..on the rain date, it POURED ALL MORNING!
The photo was in The NY Daily News the following day, and it ran big. The NY Post covered it as well including on line. Several newspapers in Europe ran it, NY 1 News did a piece about it as well as Willie Geist on NBC News.
The turnout was much larger than I expected since it was raining. Before the shoot, I heard from people-negative nellys, asking “why are you doing this? Seems pretty stupid.” The stupidest thing was these were from WOMEN! One, after seeing the photo, messaged me saying “I am so sorry I was negative. This was incredible and I hope you will do it again so I can make sure to show up and apologize in person.” No need for apologies..I never take anything personally and this WAS for ALL the women who have ever taken photographs in NYC. This City has SO MANY talented women, all making a difference, all pages. The other reason for doing this, and I don’t care how this comes across was this- “who else could and would have done this? NO ONE.”
Let’s see if the viewers can tell which camera took which image-the Nikon Z8 at 45 megapixels-the Nikon z6-3 at 20 megapixels, or the Olympus OMD-EM1-2, a Micro 4/3 with 20 megapixels. ALL images were ISO 2000 at F9. See photos 1,2 and 3.
At some point, I will plan another.
And I know my tiny sensor Olympus will handle it as it handles everything else I shoot…
