Since I started using M cameras, I carry one wherever I go. Whenever I think that something is somewhat of a memorable moment I try to capture it and combine the results into small stories – Visual diaries of sorts. This is the Story of my Staten Island Trip in the summer of 2016. Since all the shots were taken around and after sunset the color palette I tried to focus on blue and orange as a color scheme.

New York City is probably my favourite place in the world and I have been somewhat of a regular visitor over the past few years. The city is so vibrant and photogenic, a character itself.I came to appreciate these aspects a lot when I started doing street photography a few years back. So I decided to spend the summer in New York to further my abilities and focus on photography.When I’m in the city I always try to find new places, areas and explore new things. However, there are a few spots that I always visit. The Staten Island Ferry being one of them.

I backpack a lot and tend to not spend much money on tourist attractions and touristy places in general. therefore the ferry has been my harbor cruise since I first visited NYC years ago. Maybe it’s because I am from the harbor town of Hamburg, maybe it’s something else entirely, but I always enjoy being on a boat. The breeze, the sights, the feeling of the boat moving. It’s very calming to me.

Over the weeks I had been concentrating on street photography, creating an Instagram profile and finding models to shoot with. So It was on one of the last days of my stay that I decided to go on the ferry again to capture a sunset over the skyline. There weren’t all that many people travelling, but there were two ferries operating at the same time and mine was delayed by a few minutes.

Usually when I arrived at the Staten Island Terminal I immediately caught the same boat back to the city. On this day however, with two ferries in operation, the boat returning to the city was already gone. Forced to wait for half an hour, I decided to go explore the area and checkout the view. Luckily I brought my cheap 110mm Mamiya lens and a Gorillapod, because the thunder storm that was brewing over Manhattan was gorgeous to look at.

The pictures in this Series were created on three different days with two different Leica cameras. Two days on the Ferry, day one with the M9 and day two with the Leica S (Typ 006) and the third day with the S from a Helicopter.

About Daniel:

I’m Daniel Dittus, a 28 year old photographer from Hamburg, Germany. I received my Business Degree in 2015 and since then have been running a bar/ event space full time and earning a bit of money with photography on the side. I received my first digital camera relatively early in the 2000s and shortly after was lucky enough to attend analog photography classes during my 2004 US high school exchange. I learned the basics of photography right before the breakthrough of digital.

To know more about Daniel please visit his official website and follow him on Instagram, Tumblr and Facebook.