It's hard for me to believe it now, but I lived in Manhattan for eleven years (in various tiny apartments with thin walls and loud neighbors), from my early 20's to my early 30's. So I can tell you from experience that New York truly is "The City that Never Sleeps." On Friday nights, it was perfectly normal for my circle of friends (as well as thousands of other circles of friends) to start heading out for the evening activities at 10 p.m. I can remember one Friday night when I was coming home to my apartment at 2 a.m. and my next-door neighbor (a young guy who played in a grunge band) was just heading out for a gig downtown. (Did I mention it was 2 a.m.?) Such is life in New York City...
When I moved to Philadelphia with my soon-to-be-husband, it was a shock to us that the streets of our new city emptied out between 9 and 10 p.m. The only people still out walking around after that hour were hoodlums and homeless people. Everybody else seemed to be tucked in and tuckered out.
I guess it was a preview of my life to come. When you have a new baby, you're sleeping (or more accurately, not sleeping) at crazy hours. Naps are like gold. And even though my children have both outgrown their babyhood, I haven't grown out of naptimes. (The Spaniards really are onto something with those siestas, don't you think?)
Having a blog, I sometimes find myself typing away towards midnight, but the truth of the matter is that I'd rather be fast asleep at midnight at this point in my life, and more often than not, I'm nodding off at 10 p.m., the time I'd just be starting to head out the door during my New York era. I think the technical term for this is "aging."
But there's more to it. Since becoming a very active photographer, I've learned how essential it is to catch at least one of the "Golden Hours" when the sun is low in the sky, at the start and end of the day. I would've missed capturing some of my favorite photographs if I'd been snoozing the morning away. Images like this one:
Or this one:
I have all kinds of new neighbors to greet (and photograph) in the early morning hours. It's not just the early birds who are out for the breakfast buffet--I often see deer, foxes, rabbits--and they're long-gone by lunchtime.
That's the thing about morning: You have to catch it before it's gone.
How 'bout you? Are you a night owl or an early bird? Why? Let's hear it in the comments section below--I'm all ears!
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