A perfect picture of a perfect city...

New York - huge, vibrant, and bustling - also has an underlying sense of calm to it that I've not yet experienced in London and other metropolitan cities. I suspect this is partly down to the vehicles - the powerful 'gas guzzlers' that cruise along like limousines (and are increasingly under threat thanks to rising oil prices). The one-way streets host armies of cabs - lining up at the traffic lights in a uniform colour (the famous yellow), design, and quiet air of authority. They add to the overall atmosphere, certainly, but somehow don't dominate it, which is a relief to (car-phobic) me, and I suspect many others.

As well as searching for original viewpoints and subjects, I hoped to capture in one exposure the overall impression New York had on me - one picture to remind me how it felt to walk down the street. This image had to include a cab. Transport is central to the identity of places and eras throughout history - the big red London buses and Hackney cabs spring to mind. As do the differences between emergency vehicles around the world. To a tourist in unfamiliar surroundings these everyday objects are more conspicuous than ever, so inevitably feature heavily in promotional information and well circulated images that become cliches of themselves. This is the type of photograph I was after - a picture postcard to evoke the unique atmosphere of this ridiculously famous place.

Here are a few of my attempts...