Talk about getting the chance to shoot one of the most photographed cities in the world from a completely unique perspective. This year my lovely wife, Dipali planned the most awesome of all surprises for me on my birthday – a helicopter ride over New York City. The ride started at the South Street helipad, near South Street Seaport, looped over the Statue of Liberty and then headed upstream over the Hudson River up to Central Park before turning around and heading back the base. The pilot took his time pointing out the different points of interest and the history behind them over the communications system. I for one was really only interested in making the most of the fifteen minute ride by capturing the best photographs possible.
It was a perfect day for a photo-shoot, clear and bright, with the setting sun bathing the city in a heartwarming orange glow. I set my camera to an aperture of 8, an ISO of 200 and varied the shutter speed to achieve optimum exposure. That’s as easy it gets on a nice clear day. The rest is focusing on compelling compositions. I zoomed out as far as the window frames of the helicopter would allow me to capture wide sweeping vistas of the city. I’ve included some of my favorite shots from the ride in this post. They include a lot of New York’s signature sights – the Statue of Liberty, the Financial District with the Staten Island Ferry and the new One World Trade Center, the Empire State Building, the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges, Chelsea Piers and City Hall
As always, I hope you enjoy this post and I look forward to hearing from you.
-S
The first (key light) was mounted on a light-stand placed on camera left, elevated well above Onyx and pointed down at him at a (roughly) 45 degree angle. The second flash was placed on camera right and diffused through an Orbis Ring Flash diffuser (see link below) and used for fill light. I also darkened the room by closing the windows and using Onyx’s black blanket to block out any external light, so all the light in these pictures is from the two flashguns.
