New Year's Eve at Coney Island - Inaugural Ball Drop
The closing of 2014 and the entrance of 2015 marked the very first New Year's Eve celebration at Coney Island.
It also marks the changing of the guard as former Brooklyn borough president Marty Markowitz gave way to Eric L. Adams
Adams' first act was to create an NYE event for Brooklyn-ites.
There were successes and some things that could stand to be improved.
Take a look at some of the images below and we'll get into some of the pluses and minuses after that.
BTW: It's a gallery block so you click on the image to see the next one. Cool, who knew?
So, the bad first. The lighting, the lighting, the lighting.
For my purposes as a photographer, it was incredibly difficult to manage
The standard lighting from the boardwalk, and whatever ambient light the landmark gave off, was what was used to light the entire bullpen where the attendees stood.
Not at all 'media-friendly' but I suspect that this is something they'll look into when there's an assessment done. Hopefully.
The next tiny issue was that there was little notice to the public about where to look out for the night's festivities. When the artists left the stage and the MC finished his segments, the audience was kind of left to guess.
Fireworks began to go off and, as a group, we weren't certain about where to look although the water nearest to us was the best bet.
The last thing, and a pretty huge problem to say the least, is that the digital ball and countdown clock faced the direction opposite of the people who came out to see it.
I get that it faces the community and that it probably makes more sense in the long run, but it didn't work on this evening.
The countdown and cheer that we all have come to expect on such a grand occasion was lost.
No countdown over the PA system, nothing.
Everyone there was underwhelmed and confused.
Not to mention that the fireworks that followed were short in duration and not very spectacular to put it mildly.
That would have all been acceptable if it had all paid off.
With that said, I think the idea of giving Brooklyn residents an alternative to packing in with a million or so people uptown was great, and a long time coming.
The good?
There didn't appear to be any technical hiccups, the audio was done very well, and the fire dept. was on hand in case of emergency.
The borough, and the city, will build on this and I have little doubt that where we've begun will be an afterthought when we see what this event will be in the future.
'til then,
Don't be afraid to look up the answers.
- Henry