Occupy Wall Street @ Zuccotti Park and Foley Square, NYC – 11.5.11

Occupy Wall Street is still going strong and I wanted to get down there again to photograph the movement. I figured November 5th, Guy Fawkes Day, would be a perfect time to go and the day certainly didn’t disappoint! Saw more great signs/protesters, a little bit of The Dark Knight Rises filming on Wall Street and marched with the Occupiers to Foley Square. Luckily, I wasn’t one of 20 or so that got arrested at Foley Square this afternoon.

I went to Zuccotti Park around noon and took some photos around the park for a half hour or so. I decided to walk down to Wall Street and take a picture of the street sign. I heard a lot of yelling and then looked down Wall Street and saw A TON of people there. I couldn’t go down since it was blocked off so I tried to go around. I saw people blocking off the road down on Pine St, and saw smoke down the street where the people were. Then I realized this wasn’t some protest on Wall Street, but the filming of the new Batman movie The Dark Knight Rises. I knew they were filming in Newark, at the city hall there but didn’t know it was going to be there today. Figures the one day I’d go down to shoot there and can’t get near the stock exchange haha. But was still cool to see all these Gotham City Police cars and officers around. Looks like an explosion or snow was on the street as well?

I decided to walk down to the Wall Street Bull, which I was there for maybe 2 seconds. The sun was right in my face and had to use fill flash to get a decent shot. After that, walked back up to Liberty Park/Zuccotti Park and took more photos of different people. Seems like every time I go there, someone knew pops up with a new sign. A march to Foley square was happening at 2pm so I waited around for that to happen. I began at the front of the march as they made their way around Zuccotti, and then walked up to Foley Square. At first I was going to just take some photos and go back home, but felt the urge to walk with the Occupiers and take photos up there as well. Seeing the faces of people stuck in their cars was quite priceless, granted I’d probably be just as pissed if I was sitting there as 1,000 people were marching down the street.

As we got to Foley Square, I hung back by a fountain and took shots from there as the marchers went to the front of the court house. I had a feeling police weren’t going to like that and just stayed back and photograph from a distance. I guess things got testy right as I was leaving as people were getting arrested for being on a public street. It’s funny seeing how many new laws the cops pull out of their asses.

Going down to see Occupy Wall Street is photo-gold and worth a visit. I’ll definitely be going back down, well weather-depending…

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Tags: 24-70mm f2.8, 70-200mm f2.8, batman, court house, filming on wall street, foley square, gotham police, gotham police officers, GPD, guy fawkes, guy fawkes day, new york, new york city, nikon d300, november 5th, nyc, NYPD, Occupy, Occupy Wall Street, occupy wall street march, ows, protest, protesters, the dark knight rises, the dark knight rises filming, Wall Street, Zuccotti Park