Albany Rooftop Shoot

July 4th, 2014.

This is a story about patience, planning, and perseverance. As well as happy unpredictable accidents.

This is a photo shoot that I had been scouting, planning, and coordinating for years. In the Spring of 2013, I finally got access to a rooftop to photograph the fireworks at the Empire State Plaza in Albany, NY. Two years prior, on the fourth of July, I was standing at the base of the building seriously considering scaling up a piece of construction scaffolding to get to the rooftop and take some epic photos. Fortunately, I resisted the urge to do so and instead went the professional route of requesting access from the building manager. After numerous attempts to even talk to the correct person, I finally got in touch with her and proposed my idea the following year. As most who hear this type of request are, she was initially very skeptical about the idea, and needed some additional convincing to even give it real consideration. Her final conclusion was to say no, because I would need liability insurance to guarantee that I am covered and her business is safe if anything were to go wrong. I reluctantly accepted her denial, went home and began looking into insurance…

Finally the shoot day came and I was super prepared. I grabbed an umbrella while running out the door “just in case” we got some rain. I lugged handfuls of heavy bags and gear into the building, up the elevator, and up the stairs to the top exposed roof. I ended up having to pay the security guard to escort me up there. We agreed on $20/hour, which ended up being $60 or so out of pocket. I was brought to the roof and left completely unsupervised. I noticed a small elevated platform at the West side of the building which faces the plaza. I knew immediately I had to be on that “control tower” or else I wouldn’t get an unobstructed view of the plaza. It was up a brick wall at least 10-15 feet higher than the rest of the roof. The only way up was climbing up piping that hung from the side of the brick. I made 3 or 4 trips up and back down the pipe until I had all my heavy bags, tripods, and stands up to the captain’s deck. The photo above was later staged and shot for behind the scenes content. 

At the top I began setting up all my gear; tripods, suction cup, a c-stand, I even brought my laptop to have a file transfer station when my cards filled up. 

What I’ve come to learn when I plan out big photo shoots of a specific event like fireworks, a rocket launch, or a natural phenomenon like an eclipse or blood moon; There are always more things happening than you think (Especially when at an epic location). so have as many cameras shooting simultaneously as possible.  As you’ll see with the images I share below, it was amazing that even when you are stuck in a single location you can still produce such a diverse selection of photos. What I thought was especially interesting, is that my “main” camera (Canon 5DIII) during this photo shoot of the fireworks, didn’t even end up producing my favorite picture of the day. It was my “Behind the Scenes” camera (Canon t5i with a 15mm Fisheye) that resulted in the real banger (seen above). So many things about this photo seem very intentional and planned, but in fact, I would really describe as happy accidents. Most notably, having myself in the photo posing perfectly with an American flag umbrella. First off, I remember deciding at the very last minute to grab an umbrella before I left the house, “just in case” there’s some rain. Which I also remember thinking would be a horrible outcome if it did. I quickly grabbed a closed blue umbrella quickly from my parent’s porch, having no idea that it was decorated as an American flag. I lugged that umbrella up to the roof along with as many bags, tripods and stands as I possibly could. Later on that evening, right before sunset the clouds got gray and very thick, and began dropping some very light raindrops on my setup. I took out the umbrella and used it to cover my camera. After noticing the flag on it I goofily stood up and held it in the air proudly. Keep in mind at this point I was hyped up and excited for the occasion, blasting music and dancing on the rooftop. When I did that I didn’t even consider the fact that I could be a compositional element in the 2nd camera’s photo. While going through the B-camera time lapse photos later I noticed the shot of me heroically holding out the American Flag umbrella perfectly centered in frame, and knew that had to be the centerpiece of a 4D composite.

What I was really excited about and impressed with about this entire photo opportunity is the diversity of photos I was able to come home with. I spent every minute I had up there exploring my surroundings. While one camera was rolling with a time lapse, I would go explore the East side of the building and shoot towards the Hudson River and towards downtown Albany or the 787 highway. I also returned to the site a few days later early in the morning for sunrise. Between these two shoots that each lasted about 3 hours, I captured over 20,000 raw files, 250gb of data, and a handful of portfolio worthy images that would end up turning into prints, getting published, generating income, and attracting new clients. Below are a few examples of some portfolio shots and some throwaway shots that came to be all because of my determination to relentlessly pursue this crazy adventurous photo shoot: