Let there be light! A sunrise helicopter shoot over New York

This morning I participated in a special half-hour, doors-off photography flight over the city sponsored by FlyNYON helicopters. FlyNYON specializes in providing exciting photography experiences in the New York area. A half hour is all the time you need for a shoot like this. We took off about 15 minutes prior to sunrise. That gave us time to capture the colorful morning glow behind the city before the sun came up. Once the sun rose, we positioned ourselves to shoot right into the light to flare out the sun for some exciting effects. After covering the mid-town area with the Empire State and Chrysler buildings, we booked it down the East River to capture our last shot of the sun, now fully up, hitting the Statue of Liberty head on. If you're ever in New York, and want the thrill of a lifetime, check out FlyNYON for an experience you'll never forget.

As sunrises go, this one was not the most exciting. There were no clouds in the sky to catch the light and make it interesting. That was one of the reasons for swinging around to capture the flare shots by shooting right into the sun. In addition to the interesting flare shapes, this created a veil of light over the scene,

I used two cameras on this trip, a Nikon D810 fit with a Nikon 24-120mm zoom, and a Fuji X-T2 with the 50-140mm f/2.8 (75-210mm equivalent) for my long shots. It was only dark for a few minutes before the sun came up. So I started with an ISO of 1600, but quickly worked my way down to a comfortable 200. Of course, shooting directly into the sun resulted in a very high, motion-stopping shutter speed. All in all, a really fun way to spend the morning!