The journey to and view from Manhattan’s Nelson Tower

I had a pretty exciting adventure yesterday afternoon. While taking pictures for an upcoming project I found myself at one of New York’s most visible yet rarely visited landmarks. I say rarely visited because in order to get there you need to take two elevators, enter a private penthouse office, climb up a 20 foot vertical ladder, have the building’s super struggle to push aside a wooden hatch cover for 5 minutes, and prop a workman’s ladder against a 12 foot parapet.

The most amazing thing about being on the roof of 450 7th Avenue, (also known as Nelson Tower, the tallest building in NYC’s Garment District), is that when you look up, pretty much the only thing you can see is sky. This is a strange feeling knowing you’re in the heart of midtown Manhattan. The roof itself isn’t flush with the top of the building, instead it sits about 12 feet below a retaining wall, cobwebbed with decades of unused or ailing electrical wiring and other rusting things I couldn’t identify.

It’s not until you prop up a ladder against the wall and start to climb before the expanse of the city takes shape beneath you. Being at the top of the ladder is a strangely exhilarating feeling that the photos don’t do justice to. Basically you’re balanced between two falls. Fall backward and you’ll break some bones. Fall forward and you’ll die. Bitchin.

In a related note, the super told stories of the roof’s popularity during the depression as a great place for forelorn businessmen to commit suicide. He even showed me the ladder they’d use, laying on the ground covered in rust and mold. I’d never seen a “suicide ladder” before, but I’ll be damned if I see ever another ladder that looks more suicide-y.

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Came home from work today and the sky scared the crap out of me.

"It" photos and DCF Advertising’s Homeless Campaign

As far as advertising photography is concerned, there are two main types that stand out for me. The first type is imagery that looks pretty much like it did straight-out-of-the-camera (SOC). These are the shots that get the job done and make everyone happy. The second type are the “it” photographs. It’s hard to explain exactly what “it” is, but like the Supreme Court’s definition of pornography – you know it when you see it. These images usually have a slightly hyper-real quality that makes them look “advertising-y”, and are the result of a mixture of complicated lighting setups and skilled time-consuming retouching.

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It looks like the homeless awareness campaign we did at DCF advertising is finally being posted around the city. And if I may say, it’s looking pretty good. One of the benefits of being a creative director is you get to use yourself as the photographer whenever you damn well please. And that was the case here. I’m going to post a step-by-step Lightroom tutorial of how I got the image to look all “advertising-y” from the original photo, which looked pretty ordinary straight from the camera. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: Just posted the tutorial here.

My Flickr Photos + Google Maps = Scrumptulescent Mashup

Thanks to this tutorial, I was able to combine some of my Flickr photos with a custom Google map, officially creating my very first mashup. Isn’t it just adorable? Pass the gravy.

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Comparing Photoshop’s Lens Blur Filter to a Real Tilt-Shift Lens

By now, many of us are aware that you can replicate the characteristics of a tilt-shift lens with Photoshop. But I’ve always been curious about just how closely Photoshop can recreate the complex bokeh (image blur) that results from a real tilt-shift lens. So with this burning question in my head, I rented a tilt-shift lens and went to work…

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While leaving work today I was slightly miffed to discover that the 6 train was out of commission due to a water main break. But thanks to my trusty G9 (which I’d forgotten I was carrying), I was able to venture back above ground and photograph some of the commotion.

After growing tired of watching the fat, overpaid city employees staring slack-jawed at water pumping equipment as if they were professional mouth breathers, I realized that I was only a block away from where they found Heath Ledger’s corpse. So I went over to 421 Broome St and took some snapshots there as well. The photos aren’t the best in the world, but they’re photos I wouldn’t have if not for my Canon G9. Canon should use me for one of their commercials.

Keep reading for the photos.

UPDATE: More info about my thoughts on the Canon G9 can be found here.

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Camera Comparison – Canon Powershot G9 vs Canon 5D

Being somewhat of a photography nut, I recently set out to buy a second camera to carry around for those times when my Canon 5D and slew of lenses would be overkill. After doing a bit of research I settled on the Canon Powershot G9, and last week I finally picked one up. So far I’ve been very impressed with the camera, but I wanted to see how it would hold up against the 5D in an unscientific yet unbiased comparison. And the results were pretty surprising. Sample photos and descriptions for the über photo geeks are below…

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Hopefully the knowledge that I almost died on multiple occasions taking the following photographs will make them that much more enjoyable.

Enjoy!

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I took tons of photos at the marathon today. Click on the thumbnail to view the images large and help me name these people in the comments section!

Who says I don’t live in a white neighborhood? Photos from before and after a big snowstorm.
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