Rodney Campbell's Blog

My eldest daughter and I had purchased the Sun & Stars tickets which allowed two visits in the one day because I’d really wanted to come back here at sunset and photograph the cityscape at sunset through twilight into night

So we were back up at the top of the rock around 7PM and setup with plenty of time for sunset. I’d initially setup on the Central Park side of the building to take some shots of the city and the park but as the area was filling fast we moved across to the downtown side of the 70th floor open deck and setup some space for ourselves in a prime spot right on the edge and right in line with the Empire State building. It’s lucky we did because by sunset the top area was packed and we had people five rows deep behind us trying to take photos. Theres a section of the 70th floor viewing area (the eastern side) where you are at the very edge of the building with no viewing areas extending out on the level directly below you and no glass or anything impeding the view (or more importantly generating reflections). All you have is the stone rampart edge of the building which is about 75cm wide and at about chest height and flat on top – perfect to place the gorilla pod. I did however hold on to my camera strap in one hand lest my camera accidentally drop over the side 🙂

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

25 minutes till sunset

Park View

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 19 mm, 1/3 sec at f/11, ISO 100

I’d brought my 24-70, 16-35 and my filters along with my Gorilla Pod (tripods are not allowed up here) and was hoping it would be stable enough with the heavy load I was going to put on it along with the very strong gusty winds you get up this high – it worked out remarkably well even with longer exposures going from just under a second out to 30 seconds. I mostly stuck with the wider 16-35 until much later when most people had left and I could switch to the 24-70 and try some close ups of things like the Empire State

Just under ten minutes after sunset and the city lights have already come on for a spectacular view – I’m using a CPL to enhance the colours and control the reflections along with a 3 stop grad ND to hold down the bright sky

Manhattan Sunset

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 19 mm, 4 sec at f/11, ISO 100

I’ve wanted to shoot something like this in Sydney for some time – a view high above the city looking down over the city at night in open space (not inside glass windows) – alas I had to come to the other side of the world to do it…

Red Empire

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 16 mm, 10.00 sec at f/11, ISO 100

it’s actually almost twenty minutes after sunset (we were up very high after all :))

NYC Sunset

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 16 mm, 10.00 sec at f/11, ISO 100

Starting to get dark now and we’re getting rich twilight colour in the sky along with fantastic lit buildings of the city below – still using the CPL and grad

Twilight in New York

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 18 mm, 15 sec at f/11, ISO 100

City of Light

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 18 mm, 10.00 sec at f/8, ISO 100

Zoomed right in on The Empire State with the 16-35

Manhattan Empire

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 35 mm, 25.00 sec at f/8, ISO 100

Getting quite late and dark so no filters needed now. Looking out south west over Times Square and across the Hudson from the trailing edge of twilight to the remnants of sunset colour (thirty minutes after sunset – 8:10PM). We’re left with the bejewelled beauty that is New York City, looks so serene from up here…

Last Light

NIKON D600 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 16 mm, 6 sec at f/8, ISO 100

Switched up to the 24-70 to try and get some tighter shots on the Empire State building before we lost all twilight colour – the Gorilla pod was noticeably less stable with this longer focal length

Empire State

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 62 mm, 13 sec at f/8, ISO 100

Finally to end the evening I swapped over to the other side for a shot of Central Park almost an hour after sunset (8:25PM)

The Park at Night

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 31 mm, 30 sec at f/11, ISO 100

It’s a tough choice to select what equipment to take in your bag when you’re travelling overseas. You have to balance a number of factors including size and weight along with availability of the appropriate gear for the images you want to take and not exactly knowing what images you might have the opportunity to take

There was of course the camera itself

Nikon D600 D-SLR + Kirk BL-D600 Arca-Swiss L-Bracket

and I learn’t my lesson from our last trip to Bali (where I accidentally dropped and smashed the camera) and this time I took a backup body (in the checked luggage) – my old D7000

Then I had the camera backpack I was going to use to both hold most of my main gear as carry on luggage on the planes and whenever I went out to do some “serious” shoots:

Kata Bumblebee 222-UL Camera Backpack

This bag also let me carry my laptop on the plane – which made the bag extremely heavy but it was just to and from the planes basically

I knew I was planning to do some unspecified sunrise and sunset shoots at a number of locations so a few other items were a given:

Sirui N-2204 Tripod + Sirui K20x Ballhead – I packed this in my checked luggage
Phottix Aion Wireless Timer and Shutter Release
Nikon AF-S 16-35mm f/4G ED VR Lens
Nikon AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8G ED Lens

and my filter kit:

Lee Filter Holder Foundation Kit with Lee Filters 105mm Front Ring
Lee 77mm Wide Angle Adapter Ring
Lee 0.9 (3 Stop) Neutral Density Hard Grad
Lee 0.6 (2 Stop) Neutral Density Hard Grad
Formatt Hitech 0.9 (3 Stop) Reverse Grad
Heliopan 105mm SH-PMC Multi Coated SLIM Circular Polarising Filter
Lee BigStopper (10 Stop ND Filter)

I also figured I was going to get the chance to do some indoor architectural work so I also brought my Sigma AF 15mm f2.8 EX DG Fisheye Lens

When I was just with my family going out for the day and visiting unknown destinations I basically used the 24-70 as my walkaround lens and sometimes it was just the camera and the lens and at other times I also took an additional lens (either the 16-35 or the 15mm fisheye). I also usually took a simple B+W 77mm Circular Polariser Filter (which I could attach to either the 24-70 or 16-35 as needed)

Before heading overseas I seriously considered getting the full frame Nikon superzoom (28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR) or maybe even the 24-120/4 as an all in one lens which would mean I could leave the heavy 24-70 and the 70-300 at home (I’d still bring the wide 16-35 for landscape work and the fisheye). In the end however the compromises of this lens for me didn’t outweigh it’s potential benefits

Some other things I also took included:

Giottos Rocket Air Blower
Rain Cover
Small single AA powered CREE LED zoomable torch
Nikon AF-S VR 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G IF-ED Lens – just in case I needed some long reach but I ended up only using this once. This may have also been because I generally left this in the safe in the hotel with the other equipment I wasn’t using that day – so not having it with me meant I didn’t use it. That said I rarely felt I didn’t have enough reach with the 24-70 – perhaps it’s the style of photography I’m into…

Day 5 in New York city saw us head to the Rockefeller Center for an epic view of the city

Note: These images (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

On the way there however I stopped in some fantastic church buildings along the way for some more indoor architectural fun with the 15mm fisheye. With so many fantastic architectural buildings in Manhattan alone I could easily have spent weeks just going around photographing buildings… First stop Saint Bartholomews Church in midtown Manhattan

The Lords Light

NIKON D600 + 15.0 mm f/2.8 @ 15 mm, 1/15 sec at f/3.2, ISO 720

St Barts

NIKON D600 + 15.0 mm f/2.8 @ 15 mm, 1/15 sec at f/3.2, ISO 720

We also paid a visit to St. Patrick’s Cathedral which is over the road from the Rockefeller Center. Unfortunately the building is under extensive internal renovations but it looked epic both in it’s internal proportions and what might have been if I was able to take some photographs in there 🙁

Then we queued to purchase our tickets to visit The Top of the Rock – the observation deck at the top three levels (67, 69 and 70th floors) of The Rockefeller Center

Waiting in the Rock

NIKON D600 + 15.0 mm f/2.8 @ 15 mm, 1/30 sec at f/3.5, ISO 100

You have to purchase tickets for access at a specific window of time – the earliest we could get in was about two hours away (1:30PM) so we killed some time checking out the buildings and shops that form Rockefeller Plaza and having lunch

Rock Lobby

NIKON D600 + 15.0 mm f/2.8 @ 15 mm, 1/15 sec at f/3.5, ISO 400

Rocky Pillars

NIKON D600 + 15.0 mm f/2.8 @ 15 mm, 1/15 sec at f/3.5, ISO 250

Then we headed up to the top for the magnificent view of the city

Empire City

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm, 1/160 sec at f/5, ISO 100

The Park

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm, 1/125 sec at f/8, ISO 100

Looking Down on NY City

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 32 mm, 1/250 sec at f/8, ISO 320

Finally a handheld panorama I took on the Central Park side of the topmost viewing deck (70th floor) composed of 11 frames taken at 38mm

Central View

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 38 mm, 1/200 sec at f/8, ISO 100

After that we headed back towards our apartment but not before visiting Dylans Candy Bar where the kids were quite literally like children in a candy store – only MASSIVE! 🙂

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 45 mm, 1/100 sec at f/4, ISO 400

My eldest daughter wanted to visit Times Square so we headed there just before sunset so we could see it all lit up with some twilight colour still in the sky

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

I was expecting it to be packed so I didn’t bother taking a tripod or anything – just the camera with the 24-70 – I probably should have come with the 16-35 for a wider view (didn’t realise it was going to be so insanely packed and that it’s not so much a square as a long thin wedge with lights all up and down the street)

The streets were absolutely packed so we made our way slowly down 7th avenue till we found this raised viewing platform – we squeezed in and made our way to the top back row so we could take some photos

A handheld 3 bracket HDR

Times Square

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm, 1/50 sec at f/5.6, ISO 100

Whilst up here I also took some frames handheld for a panorama which I was hoping might stitch. Not withstanding the handheld nature, with the advertising lights changing so quickly and with tens of thousands of people and many vehicles moving about I was anticipating some issues 🙂

Surprisingly it stitched pretty well – this is nearly a 360º field of view composed from 14 frames taken handheld at 24mm. The main part of Times Square is in the left half of the image and the famous crystal ball which drops on New Years Eve is on that tall thin building in the middle of the wedge on the left third

All of Time

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm, 1/50 sec at f/5.6, ISO 250

The level of detail in the original high res version is pretty remarkable – you can quite clearly see all the faces of the individual people down in the streets – I love my 24-70 🙂

The Flag

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm, 1/60 sec at f/5.6, ISO 180

Having just finished my session at the wonderful poles on the Brooklyn side of the east river looking at the lower Manhattan skyline it was time to head home but on the way back through the Brooklyn Bridge Park Promenade I figured I’d take just one more set of pano frames taking in the Manhattan skyline cityscape around to the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges

So I quickly setup right against the fence and with a slight telephoto focal length on the 24-70 (52mm) I fired off one set of 14 long exposure (30 sec @ f/9) frames with the last dregs of twilight colour in the sky. I used 12 of those frames to stitch this pano

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

New York Cityscape

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 52 mm, 30 sec at f/9, ISO 100