I really love New York! Every journey to this city is full of excitement and possibilities to search for new photography ideas. My arrival to New York was planned for several reasons. First and most important was the visit of the Brooklyn Museum where one of my photograph is exhibited to the public within the biggest sports photography exhibition “Who Shoot Sports”. The exhibition is promoting photographs from 1813 to present day. I had this huge honor to be selected among other 200 photographers world wide whose photographs are exhibited in this monumental place.
Second reason for visiting New York was scheduled helicopter flight in order to make photos of this city in totally different perspective. My contacts and friends made arrangements for two helicopter flights in the time I found most appropriate so I could make photographs in the way I imagined.
Certainly the most important thing to every photographer is ambient light. Magic hour or Golden hour is very known time of the day among photographers around the world. More details about this phenomenon can be read in my post “California’s Golden Hour” which I made in 2014 in Los Angeles. That visit to the city of angels triggered the idea of doing the same project in New York city. The magnificence of Manhattan is something I wanted to capture during another period of the day which is also a big challenge to all photographers and it is called “Blue Hour”.
The blue hour typically occurs for about 40 minutes twice a day — once right before the sun pops up in the morning and once right after the sun dips below the horizon following the evening sunset. The reason the hue is so overwhelmingly blue is because the Earth’s pre-sunrise and post-sunset atmosphere only receives and scatters the sun’s shorter blue wavelengths. Meanwhile, the sun’s longer red wavelengths pass on into space without reaching the planet’s surface.
Because the quality of light is everything when it comes to photography, the blue hour is often called “sweet light” by photographers.
This time of day is an especially great opportunity to shoot long-exposure night shots of cities. Furthermore, this aerial photoshooting of New York city was the biggest challenge because it is practically impossible to make long-exposures from the air. Photographic experience and knowledge are then reaching new levels because darkness and lack of light most often make some unreal effects thus changing the photographers themselves into real artists. Small things like little bit of the sun’s ambient light help illuminate detail in the subjects, so photographers can achieve a vivid yet balanced picture that highlights the iconic luminosity of artificial lights without casting everything else into shadow. I also had the luck with clouds so the energy and colors in my photographs are reaching the level of “unreality”!
Although cityscapes come out phenomenally well in blue hour photos, the possibilities are truly endless. This was very important reason for my visit to New York city. Everything I planned for this journey I succeeded and photographs that I captured will soon be published on the cover pages of many world magazines… and who knows where else! Until next return to this amazing city enjoy the photographs I made!