700 Feet Above Manhattan

One morning around 9 am during my winter break I drove over to the train station in the pouring rain to begin my almost 2 hour commute into Manhattan. A few of my friends (@aidan.f0x, @flashing.lights, and @em.1t) and I had been planning to go up to the roof of a 700 foot tall building and staying for 5 hours to watch the sunset. This weather wasn't looking too promising but we decided to still give it a shot. After an incredibly long and tiring walk we finally stepped out onto the roof. The wind was absolutely ridiculous and was blowing rain and hail into us but seeing the fog engulf midtown was something we couldn't pass up.

After taking a quick lap around the lower portion of the roof we decided to move on to the highest point. Getting photos without water drops on our lenses became a serious challenge with no shelter from the rain. Two of us decided that staying until sunset was not worth it but @em.1t and I decided we'd try to bare it out. Before going to this rooftop we had planned out a photo that we were only hoping was possible. We were hoping to get this photo at night time but after around 2 hours of being soaking wet in crazy weather we've just about had enough and decided to go for it early and leave. @em.1t began to climb the antenna on one side of the building as I walked to the tip of the pyramid like structure on the other side. The antenna was swaying in the wind and my water-proof cover for my camera bag blew off and disappeared into the fog. It took us a couple of minutes but we ended up getting the shot.  

Not completely content with my photos from that day, the two of us decided to go back the following week and this time stay for sunset. Over that week New York got hit with a lot of snow and rain making it very icy. The day had finally come where we would attempt this photo again during night time. Unfortunately, we could only get inside of here early. After making it up there the second time around we had about 3-4 hours of waiting around on the snow covered roof to pass. It was absolutely freezing this day but we figured it was definitely better than the hail and rainstorm the first time. 

Thankfully no one had seen us waiting and the sun was just beginning to set so we took our cameras out and began shooting.  We both shot tons of photos this day of the bright lights below our feet. Right before we left we decided to give one more shot at the photo we had originally planned for. We were both hesitant to walk up the steep pyramid and climb the antenna with the ice but we waited over 4 hours for this so we weren't taking no as an answer. Just as last time, @em.1t began climbing one side as I climbed the other. When we reached the top the outcome was far better than I could've planned for. @em.1t was lined up perfectly with the huge lit up spire of the Bank of America tower when steam coming off of the H&M building created a neon glow all around him. Safe to say that everything we put in for this shot was worth it.