Rockefeller Nights... - Rodney Campbell's Blog Rodney Campbell's Blog

Rockefeller Nights…

by Rodney Campbell on May.08, 2014, under Life, Photography

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