Where can I get cool photos of the numbers 1-20 around New York?

June 18, 2008 3:38 PM

NYC Wedding Filter: The future Ms. Smatatoes thinks numbered tables for our wedding would be too boring, but the current Mr. Smatatoes doesn't want cutesy names (ie, "Tribeca", "Red Hook"), either. So our compromise is getting nice photographs of numbers from around the city- ie, a shot of the front of a 1 train for table #1, and so on. Here's the question: what are some good, creative places to get a cool shot of the numbers 1-20 around NYC?
posted by paul_smatatoes to media & arts (15 answers total)

How about lower fifth avenue, under 14th street to the arch at Washington Square Park? There are some beautiful buildings and the numbers go as low as, um, 1!
posted by thinkpiece at 3:44 PM on June 18, 2008

Use the power of smart mobs for suggestions:

1:
http://www.flickr.com/search/?s=int&q=nyc++1&m=tags

2:
http://www.flickr.com/search/?s=int&q=nyc++2&m=tags

3:
http://www.flickr.com/search/?s=int&q=nyc++3&m=tags

4:
http://www.flickr.com/search/?s=int&q=nyc++4&m=tags

5:
http://www.flickr.com/search/?s=int&q=nyc++5&m=tags

6:
http://www.flickr.com/search/?s=int&q=nyc++6&m=tags

7:
http://www.flickr.com/search/?s=int&q=nyc++7&m=tags

8:
http://www.flickr.com/search/?s=int&q=nyc++8&m=tags

9:
http://www.flickr.com/search/?s=int&q=nyc++9&m=tags

10:
http://www.flickr.com/search/?s=int&q=nyc++10&m=tags
posted by Spurious at 3:53 PM on June 18, 2008

Same links, formatted better:

1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10.
posted by Spurious at 3:57 PM on June 18, 2008 [1 favorite]

We did this for the table numbers at our wedding, but we weren't in New York. We just made sure we always had our cameras with us, and kept an eye out for numbers we hadn't nabbed a cool shot of yet (we had checklists that we kept in sync). We had enough numbers in no time.
posted by zsazsa at 4:02 PM on June 18, 2008

There are some nice ideas in the book 123 NYC (which my kid loves).
posted by The Bellman at 4:28 PM on June 18, 2008

Oh, nice one, Bellman. I figured something like that had to exist. Might just cut the photos out of the book if I can't just go reshoot them. Does it give you any idea where they were taken?
posted by paul_smatatoes at 4:48 PM on June 18, 2008

How about this building?
posted by mykescipark at 4:53 PM on June 18, 2008

#19 - Willis Reed banner @ the garden

Or alternately you can in a pinch source nearly any of the single digit #'s from the outfield wall at Yankee Stadium. I figure there can't be that many choices for 19 though
posted by JPD at 5:01 PM on June 18, 2008

Yep, the locations are listed in the back.
posted by The Bellman at 5:39 PM on June 18, 2008

Wow. This is the perfect 1 from Spurious' links.

And 2!
posted by misha at 7:10 PM on June 18, 2008

Depending on how long you've lived in New York, you may want to use a 9 train instead of a 1 train, for nostalgia's sake.
posted by oaf at 7:16 PM on June 18, 2008

At Greenwich & Laight St, there is a building with numbers all around it. I always wonder about it, probably some interesting reason. Google Street View (I think - at the very least a google maps link to the location).
posted by miscbuff at 7:30 PM on June 18, 2008

You can get more subway numbers from the Eighth and Sixth Avenue stations on the L train, 14th Street in various places, 18th street on the 1 train, etc. There's also 9th and 14th Street on PATH. I can't remember whether Seventh Avenue on the B/D/E has pretty numbers or not.
posted by oaf at 7:32 PM on June 18, 2008

Okay, I'm going to go general here, to help you brainstorm, which will necessarily be redundant with what some others have already mentioned:

-Street/Avenue numbers
-Subway trains
-Building numbers on streets (as opposed to streets themselves, although related, and consider how weird Queens numbering is...that might be fun)
-Random signage in various parts of the city ("China 1" and etc., I'm not thinking of much, but I know it exists...)
-Piers on the West Side (do they go lower than 20? I don't remember...)
-Public art (the big stupid thing in Union Sq. with flashing numbers, for want of a much better example...)
-Sports jerseys (Yanks, Mets, Knicks, )
-TV/Radio (NY1, for example)
-Something or other at Coney Island (Ride signs? Food stall prices?)

Seems like you could take pictures of all of these things in their "natural" environs.

Maybe this will help, maybe not...hopefully it'll at least spark some ideas in the back of your head of things you already know exist and may be good. It was a fun exercise for me, at least.
posted by dubitable at 10:14 PM on June 18, 2008

Try some flickr groups, too. I think the concentration of usable photos might be higher. (I did notice some nice "9" results in the tag search though.) It should come as no surprise that there are three separate groups devoted to counting with pictures in New York although admittedly one is pretty small and seems abandoned. NYC Sequential Numbers, NYC in Numerical Order and NYC by the Numbers
posted by stuart_s at 12:30 PM on June 22, 2008