James Maher Photography — Local services in New York

My two teenagers (age 12 and 14) and my husband and I did the Iconic NYC private tour during an April 2019 spring break trip. My son and husband are serious photographers and my daughter and I were along more for the scenery. Everyone agreed the morning with James was a highlight of our trip, and my son especially liked that we had our own group. The variety of the tour was awesome. We started out in Central Park and had some nice landscape and wildlife photo ops with spring blooms just starting in the park and many ducks and a heron along the way. James is a native New Yorker and full of interesting random information, like how incredibly expensive it is to rent a hot dog stand in Central Park - who knew!? We went to the NY Public Library and went in to shoot the murals on the ceiling. James told us about a time when a workman accidentially stepped through the painted ceiling in the reading room, which required a challenging repair, a story my daughter loved. We walked along Fifth Avenue checking out the unique architecture of the Chrystler Building and to Grand Central Station. Inside GCS we checked out the constellations on the bright blue ceiling--one small dark square remains to show what the ceiling looked like before it was restored - all the years of indoor smoking had blackened the whole area. James engaged with everyone in the family, even those of us with minimal photo skills, and helped my husband and son find good angles for their more serious photo pursuits. We plan to do another tour with James when we are next in NYC. It was a very enjoyable few hours and I highly...

James is a talented NYC based photographer who does group and private photo tours in NY. I booked him for a private photo-walk and can highly recommend this approach. The price is very reasonable, and James is a walking encyclopedia of NY history.

Our booked day turned out to be completely rainy but James was not at all deterred. He was on time, and walked around lower Manhattan for about 5 hours (sometimes in pretty hard rain) with umbrellas and cameras in hand. James came equipped with hand towels so we could periodically dry down our cameras.

Because of the rainy weather, James changed up our itinerary on the fly and we headed underground to the subway for some pics. At lunchtime, James gave me an impromptu diversion through Chinatown for some delicious dumplings.

While, I have several years of photography background, I can highly recommend James to a photographer of any skill level. Whether you just picked up a SLR as a Christmas gift or if, like me, you've been shooting for over 20 years, he can adjust his guidance based on your background. I'm pretty sure James is a walking wikipedia of NY history -- he's a certified tour guide -- and I really enjoyed the history and backstory of many of the neighborhoods we walked through.

If you're looking for a photographing partner in Manhattan, I recommend that you book James now. After the tour, I signed up for his email mailing list. Pleasantly, he sends out ebooks and other training material on famous photographers and you feel like your training never stopped after...

New York City is an exciting place to photograph and what better way to see the city than with a (local) professional photographer.

During a May 2019 trip to New York City, my wife and I participated in a half-day James Maher ‘Street Photography Workshop’. In a word, it was simply a wonderfully rewarding experience on so many levels. In addition to being an accomplished street photographer, local historian, engaging tour guide and a patient instructor, James is above all, a down-to-earth unpretentious host who is eager to share his city with visiting photographers.

For the duration of the walking tour, James was able to showcase unique aspects of the city that we likely would not have seen on our own. With his extensive local knowledge, we moved seamlessly from one unique area to another while we photographed non-stop. As a result of his instruction, I feel as though my street photography technique improved dramatically in a very short period of time because James challenged me to move out of my comfort zone.

If you're a photographer travelling to NYC and would like to meet up with a well known local, please consider contacting James and booking a tour -- you will not be disappointed. In terms of equipment, I used a 24-105mm zoom and found it worked well in all situations.

Here is a sample of the images I created during...