so i’m staying in manhattan and my hotel room has this picture of the empire state building in the bathroom which means i’m forced to look at it on occasion and ponder, “hmmmmm, that’s not a bad shot of the iconic building. i wonder where they took it.” i thought if i had time to meander through the city i might try to re-create the shot just for kicks. i’d award bonus points to myself for getting the cab in the photo which is a nice “new york” touch.

i took this photo to remind me of the orientation and headed out at 7am to find the second avenue deli on 33rd on the advice of a local in response to a request for a good deli before walking to the world innovation forum which was all the way up on 55th.

@snowdeal @kottke @anildash @alainabrowne Head south to 2nd Avenue Deli, 33rd Street between Lexington & 3rd.

— Jeffrey Zeldman (@zeldman) June 13, 2013

i’m walking across 33rd street from the deli with sandwich ( 1/2 corned beef and pastrami on rye ) in hand ( i’ll enjoy it later ) and i see the the empire state building but i can’t quite figure out where exactly they took the photo and i don’t have a whole lot of time to do recon before the conference starts. i have a lot of ground to cover since i have to make to 55th by 9am and i’ve set a goal of not taking a cab because i want to see the city on foot. i get to 7th street and start north and happen to glance down 34th street and, well, whadya know! that’s it! right there! the shot! i waited a few moments for cab to show up so i could award myself bonus points, but no such luck.

hi. ho. i took the shot and headed up 7th ave through times square.