This is the frst full book cover I have found for one of my images. I’ve seen a partial book cover and cover of corporate brochures, but this is the first book offered for sale with my one of my photos. I think it’s a travel book about New York for the German market.
The book can be found on Amazon in Germany here.
Here is my original image.
Sunset and Staten Island Ferry
4K panning time lapse of East River shot from Empire Stores (January 1, 2019)
4K panning time lapse of South Street shot from Pier 15 (January 15, 2019)
4K time lapse view from the East Village (January 1, 2019)
Alternate 4K time lapse view from the East Village (January 1, 2019)
4K panning time lapse from Pier 15 (January 4, 2019)
4K panning time lapse of Piers 17 and 16 (January 4, 2019)
HD time lapse in City Hall Park (January 5, 2019)
HD time lapse in rainy Astor Place (January 5, 2019)
4K fog time lapse of 3 WTC (January 5, 2019)
4K twilight time lapse view from the East Village (January 6, 2019)
4K pan and tilt time lapse in City Hall (January 6, 2019)
4K night to day time lapse view from the East Village (January 9, 2019)
4K pan and tilt time lapse on Park Avenue (January 12, 2019)
4K panning time lapse in Herald Square (January 13, 2019)
4K pan and tilt time lapse of Manhattan Bridge (January 18, 2019)
4K time lapse of clouds over Bank of America Tower (January 26, 2019)
4K time lapse of ice skating in Bryant Park (January 26, 2019)
4K tilt time lapse of Bryant Park (January 26, 2019)
4K pan and tilt time lapse of Bryant Park and NY Public Library (January 26, 2019)
4K time lapse of Bryant Park (January 27, 2019)
4K cloud time lapse of One WTC (February 2, 2019)
4K tilt time lapse of Park Row in Lower Manhattan (February 2, 2019)
4K panning time lapse of World Trade Center (February 2, 2019)
4K tilt time lapse of World Trade Center (February 2, 2019)
4K sunset time lapse of World Trade Center (February 2, 2019)
4K sunrise time lapse of World Trade Center (February 3, 2019)
4K tilt video above Broadway and Times Square (February 9, 2019)
4K tilt and pan time lapse above Broadway and Times Square (February 9, 2019)
HD time lapse above Broadway and Times Square (February 9, 2019)
4K panning time lapse of Midtown Manhattan skyline view from Weehawken, NJ (February 11, 2019)
4K tilt video of Domino Sugar refinery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn (February 16, 2019)
4K panning video of Domino Park and East River from Williamsburg, Brooklyn (February 16, 2019)
4K panning time lapse view from Williamsburg of Lower Manhattan and Midtown (February 17, 2019)
HD cloud time lapse of Manhattan Bridge (February 18, 2019)
4K time lapse of Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan (February 18, 2019)
4K pan and tilt time lapse at Hudson Yards (February 22, 2019)
Here are some video samples.
4K pan and tilt time lapse on Park Row (December 31, 2018)
4K pan and tilt time lapse at Vanderbilt Ave and 42nd Street (December 29, 2018)
4K panning time lapse from John Street Park in DUMBO (December 29, 2018)
4K time lapse of Manhattan Bridge (December 29, 2018)
4K pan and tilt time lapse on Sixth Avenue in midtown (December 28, 2018)
4K 360 degree panning video from 42nd Street (December 27, 2018)
4K panning time lapse of Manhattan Bridge (December 27, 2018)
4K pan and tilt time lapse in Madison Square Park (December 23, 2018)
4K pan and tilt time lapse video of Manhattan Bridge (December 22, 2018)
HD vertical panning video of Chrysler Building (December 22, 2018)
4K panning time lapse in Lower Manhattan (December 18, 2018)
HD vertical tilt video looking up at the west facade of One WTC (December 15, 2018)
HD video of holiday lights on the podium of One WTC (December 15, 2018)
4K 360 degree panning video at World Trade Center (December 9, 2018)
4K 360 degree panning video at World Trade Center (December 9, 2018)
4K panning time lapse in Union Square (December 8, 2018)
4K panning time lapse video at Empire Fulton Ferry (December 7, 2018)
HD 360 degree panning video outside the Oculus at World Trade Center (December 2, 2018)
HD NYSE Christmas Tree Lighting Festivities (November 29, 2018)
HD pan and zoom time lapse at World Trade Center (November 25, 2018)
HD pan and zoom time lapse at World Trade Center (November 25, 2018)
HD time lapse video at World Trade Center (November 25, 2018)
HD time lapse video at World Trade Center (November 25, 2018)
HD 360 degree panning video in Times Square (November 21, 2018)
4K panning time lapse in Times Square (November 21, 2018)
The artifacts are again from Flickr compression.
4K 360 degree panning video in Times Square (November 18, 2018)
4K panning time lapse in Times Square (November 18, 2018)
The compression artifacts are from Flickr as my original file is clean.
HD 360 degree panning video in Times Square (November 18, 2018)
4K 360 degree panning video in Times Square (November 18, 2018)
4K time lapse looking north on Fifth Avenue (November 16, 2018)
4K panning time lapse in the Flatiron District (November 16, 2018)
4K time lapse video of clouds passing over Hudson Yards (October 31, 2018)
HD slow motion video of a juvenile male ruby throated hummingbird at New York Botanical Garden (September 29, 2018)
HD slow motion video of a juvenile male ruby throated hummingbird at New York Botanical Garden (September 29, 2018)
HD slow motion video of a juvenile male ruby throated hummingbird at New York Botanical Garden (September 29, 2018)
HD slow motion video of a juvenile male ruby throated hummingbird at New York Botanical Garden (September 29, 2018)
HD slow motion video of a ruby throated hummingbird at New York Botanical Garden (September 22, 2018)
HD slow motion video of a ruby throated hummingbird at New York Botanical Garden (September 22, 2018)
HD slow motion video of a ruby throated hummingbird at New York Botanical Garden (September 22, 2018)
HD slow motion video of a ruby throated hummingbird at New York Botanical Garden (September 14, 2018)
HD slow motion video of a ruby throated hummingbird at New York Botanical Garden (September 14, 2018)
HD slow motion video of a ruby throated hummingbird at New York Botanical Garden (September 14, 2018)
4K day to night time lapse view from Brooklyn Heights Promenade featuring the Tribute in Light display (September 11, 2018)
4K day to night time lapse view of Lower Manhattan from Governors Island (September 7, 2018)
4K night to day time lapse of Pier A Park in Hoboken and Lower Manhattan across the Hudson River (September 3, 2018)
4K day to night time lapse view from Hoboken, NJ (September 2, 2018)
4K time lapse view of Norwegian Escape leaving port on the Hudson River (September 2, 2018)
4K panning video from Hoboken, NJ (September 2, 2018)
4K day to night time lapse view from Brooklyn Promenade (August 30, 2018)
4K bird bath in Central Park Conservatory Garden (August 25, 2018)
HD slow motion bird bath in Central Park Conservatory Garden (August 25, 2018)
4K panning video of Buckingham Fountain in Chicago (August 11, 2018)
4K twilight to night time lapse from Wolf Point in Chicago (August 10, 2018)
4k time lapse video at Cloud Gate in Chicago (August 9, 2018)
4K night to day time lapse view of Manhattan West and Hudson Yards (July 16, 2018)
4K day to night time lapse view of Manhattan West and Hudson Yards (July 15, 2018)
4K foggy time lapse of Salesforce Tower in San Francisco (June 30, 2018)
4K night to day time lapse of East River (February 10, 2018)
The tribute lights displayed each year on 9/11 in Lower Manhattan are beautiful, yet they are a remembrance of terrible tragedy. No one should ever forget that terrible day 15 years ago.
I have photographed the tribute display for several years and try to get different perspectives each year. I had taken a couple of helicopter flights the last year and decided to try photographing the lights from a helicopter this year. FLYNYON offered flights at night for this purpose and I’m glad my friend Bob Tullis joined me for this experience.
I had never tried helicopter photography in such low light before, so we were unsure of the shutter speed and other variables that would work given the movement, vibrations and wind during the flight. Bob asked for suggestions on a photo forum and the idea of a stabilizer came up a few days before the flight. We looked at a few options from Kenyon and hurriedly rented two KS-4×4 gyro stabilizers. We experimented with the stabilizers before the flight on flat ground just to see how they felt and handled movement. I found the weight was too heavy and didn’t like the corrective movements when the stabilizer dealt with motion. I decided not to use the gyro stabilizer and just used the in body stabilization of my Sony A7Rm2.
I shot in manual with aperture at f2.8 (wide open on the Sony FE 24-70mm GM lens) and auto ISO (capped at 6400). I shot at 1/125 to start, but I dropped down to 1/80 and 1/60 when the helicopter felt relatively still. ISO never went below 6400 during the flight. A few shots came out sharp at 1/80, but the 1/125 shots had a higher rate of success. The shots in closer proximity to buildings had higher rates of success than shots farther away. Times Square was the easiest area to get sharp images as there was so much light in a concentrated area. At some point early in the flight, I adjusted the aperture to f3.2 by mistake, but it didn’t seem to be a detriment to the images.
On my last helicopter flight at sunset/twilight, I shot two cameras with a prime lens on each body (Zeiss Batis 25mm f2 and Sony 55mm f1.8). It was awkward switching between the cameras during the flight and I ended up using the 55mm more than the 25mm. Despite the primes having a speed advantage, I found the Sony 24-70mm f2.8 GM lens to work better for me as I was able to change the focal length as we moved closer and farther away from subjects.
It definitely was an exciting experience. I have to say the most memorable part of the flight was getting close to the Empire State Building. The red, white and blue colors were so vibrant. My photos can’t do justice to how brilliant it looked.
I hope you enjoy the images.
I took a photo flight on FLYNYON with Claire and David last October during the day. See the photos here. We wanted to try a blue hour shoot and waited for the weather to get warmer so the doors could be off for the flight.
We finally got to take that ride on March 15. We took off right at sunset from Kearny, New Jersey and the light changed dramatically during the half hour flight. I took my Sony A7Rm2 with Zeiss Batis 25mm f2.0 and also rented a second A7Rm2 and FE 55mm f1.8. I ended up using the 55mm lens most of the time. We weren’t sure about the best camera settings to optimize our shots. I decided to shoot manual with auto ISO capped at 6400. I set the 55mm to f2.5 and the 25mm to f2.8 to get a bit more depth of field and sharpness. Both cameras had shutter speed of 1/200 and AFS with wide AF mode.
The ride had quite a bit of vibration, motion and wind. If I did this more often, I probably would be able to slow down the process and recognize where I could increase or decrease shutter speed or aperture. Early in the flight, when there was more residual light in the sky, we could easily have shot with higher shutter speeds without going to very high ISOs. When it got darker, I reduced EV on both cameras, which compensated for some of the brightly lit buildings in Manhattan. This also kept ISO lower. Overall, 1/200 only gave me a success rate of about 15% with shots in sharp focus. That sounds low and I’m sure can be improved with more experience, but I took a lot of shots and still got a lot of keepers.
With the negative EV compensation, ISO never exceeded 3200 and that only happened near the end of the flight when it was darkest. Most of my shots had ISO under 2000.
I’d definitely like to do this again.
A gallery of shots from the flight is here.
10 new photos have been added to my Calatrava WTC Transportation Hub portfolio.
After many years of delays and billions of dollars spent, the World Trade Center Transportation Hub finally opened on March 3, 2016. While partially open to the public, the facility is not nearly complete. Much of the hub’s space has been dedicated to retail operations, but there is no indication of work taking place in any retail space. The street level is also inaccessible because it is an active construction site for WTC 2 and WTC 3. As it stands, it is a giant walkway connecting Path riders from the train platform to Liberty Street.
I have added 9 images to my Calatrava WTC Transportation Hub portfolio.
I look forward to a bit of snow for photography. There are opportunities to use a flash to freeze the falling flakes in the air and sometimes getting relatively empty streets at night when a traffic ban is in place. I have uploaded a gallery of 40 images shot from just after midnight on January 23, 2016 (Times Square), early afternoon the same day (Astor Place and Washington Square Park), late evening that night (Astor Place to Flatiron District) and then afternoon the following day (Central Park).
5 new images have been added to my Calatrava WTC Transportation Hub gallery found here.
I’ve been very interested in photographing the World Trade Center site for several years and I have many images spread through my Flickrstream and also in a Flickr album.
A subset of the WTC photos is the Santiago Calatrava designed Transportation Hub. I first shot the transportation hub in October 2013, when the West Concourse opened to the public, and I’ve gone back from time to time during the past 2+ years.
I’m curious to see how it will look when completed, although I don’t think “completed” will be for several more years until 3 WTC and then 2 WTC are completed as they are located on either side of the oculus.
This part of the WTC redevelopment has been many years in the making at the cost of at least 4 billion dollars. There will be a shopping mall and connection between New Jersey Path and many New York subway lines at Cortlandt Street and Fulton Center.
Here are some of my transportation hub images from the last 27 months, in chronological order.
Michael Lee 