I was in New York this week for some meetings at PhotoPlus Expo. I found myself stranded in Manhattan after all the transportation shut down so I sat tight at my hotel for a while and watched things unfold on the TV and from my window. It became evident pretty quickly that Manhattan was going to be hit a lot harder then anyone had expected due to incredible tide surges. The previous all time record from the 1800s was 11ft and Hurricane Sandy brought 14ft heights in no time at all. Coastal cities in New Jersey were expected to suffer but nobody though that huge sections of the FDR in Manhattan would go under water and some parts of the subway system filled right to the to top with water. It was a sobering sight to see on TV and watch the number of emergency vehicles rushing around otherwise deserted streets from the window. After some time I got photographers itch….. with rain falling hard and no proper wet weather gear with me (hey I hadn’t planned on this!) I knew if I was to make some photos it would have to be close to my hotel, especially since the roads had been cleared of all transport so it was foot traffic only. Walking the streets was eerie, there were people but not many. Far more cops than anyone else. I set off for Time Square and decided that a photo of such an iconic place, so famous for being bustling with people and life, would make an interesting image on a night like tonight where there was sure to be very few people.
I used the new Canon 24-70 f2.8 MkII on my Canon 5D MK3and put the whole thing onto a Really Right Stuff TVC-24l tripod which I kept low, only 12 inches off the ground to accentuate the reflections on the pavement. I used HDR, which I hardly ever do, but this sort of scene just screams for it. It was processed in HDR-Effex 2.0 from Nik Software. The only cars you see in the background are police cars and there isn’t another sole on the street here. It’s a very strange site to see and it might be unique, a once in a lifetime shot. I took off my jacket and wrapped it around my camera to protect it from the torrential rain which meant I was soaked to the skin in just a few minutes and back in my hotel not long after that to dry out and warm up.
Equipment Used
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Dean Pearson