Somewhere in my infinite Tumblr browsing I stumbled (or tumbld) across a beautiful set of long exposure images. They were black and white shots of carnival rides, with exposures just long enough to blur the lights (but not too long where everything goes psychedelic.) Those images stuck with me, and I decided to see what I could pull off at New York’s finest amusement park…Coney Island. With Winter looming and my window shrinking, I set out late one Sunday night to see what I could find.
More Coney after the break…
After a long ride complete with feral children abusing both their nannies and the entire subway car, the Q train pulled into the last stop. The place was dark. No Wonder Wheel, no Luna Park, no lights. Despite what the schedule claimed online, the park was closed. So I faced a dilemma, turn home with my tail between my legs, or make the most of the trip. I think you can guess what I did.
Coney Island is just a strange place, made even stranger at 8pm on a Sunday night. Walking through the ghost town, with a slight sea breeze spitting fog across the boardwalk, it all felt just the right amount of eerie.
[gwu] Graham Whitaker Unterberger 
Carnie people, scary…small hands…
These are awesome Graham!
Great photos! Way to make lemonade out of lemons. The change from overrun tourist scene to ghost town is amazing.
I love the one of the two structures on what I think is sand. It’s really impactful. Was the sky like that or did you make it that way in photo shop?
Yes those are on the beach right off the boardwalk. That’s how the sky rendered on the film, I didn’t touch it. I think the lighter part is the clouds picking up the ambient light from the boardwalk.
so so cool. Way to stay photo journalist pure.
Just in this instance, I have no shame when it comes to a little manipulation