Shooting the New York City Skyline

The Iconic New York City Skyline

I was sitting in my office the other afternoon counting the minutes until quitting time (I started at about 250!) and trying to decide if, and where, to shoot on my way home. I wasn't expecting a spectacular sunset but indications were that it would be at least worth checking out. I decided on driving to Atlantic Highlands, specifically Mount Mitchill Scenic Overlook, and shooting the New York City Skyline, with Sandy Hook in the foreground.

Mount Mitchill Scenic Overlook

Mount Mitchill Scenic Overlook is a small park in the Monmouth County Park System; also part of the park is the Monmouth County 9/11 Memorial - more on that in another post. The website for the park states -

At 266 feet, this overlook in Atlantic Highlands sits on the highest natural elevation on the Atlantic seaboard (excluding islands) from Maine to the Yucatan providing beautiful views of Sandy Hook, Sandy Hook Bay, Raritan Bay and the New York skyline.

This makes it a great spot to check out Sandy Hook, the Atlantic Ocean and New York City. On a clear day you can see for miles! The horizon would be about 20 miles out to sea! There are two (2) covered seating areas, each with a couple benches and the large, pay-per-view, binoculars that get you up close to the Hook and City for 25¢. It's a great place to sit and unwind after a day at the office.

Setting up

I arrived at the park about 5:45 PM, about an hour before sunset. This gave me plenty of time to decide on a composition and take a few shots of the scenery before it started getting dark; with that much time there was no pressure. The downside of being there that early was that it was quite cold and a bit windy. The saving grace being that the wind wasn't constant but it did seem to gust pretty good just as I was clicking the shutter.... The sky was clear and I had a good view, the problem was that the sky was clear - a sign that sunset wasn't going to be all that great. There were a couple clouds out over Queens that were slowly making their way west but they pretty much dissipated by the time the sun set.

Sunset

It was fun watching the sky gradually turn orange and the city lights start to come alive. I wanted to smooth out the water as much as I could so I stopped down to f/11 to get as slow a shutter as I could. I decided not to get out the ND filters because I was having trouble with the wind and didn't want to add to the problem. While I didn't get the dramatic sunset sky that I like, I did get a nice warm sky and a slight glow on the buildings.

Darkness Descends

The color image at the top of the page and the black & white image shown here are the same image - taken about 30 minutes after the sun set and the sky got dark. The wind had begun gusting harder by this time and, of course, it was considerable colder but I didn't want to waste an opportunity. I waited until the wind stopped, then tripped the shutter with the cable release but invariably the wind would blow at some time during the long exposure; I even tried blocking the wind with my body but it only helped a little.

The park closed at 8:00 PM and by now it was 7:50 so I packed up and headed for home - excited to see what I had captured.

The Results

The images shown here are the only ones I did any editing for as I felt they were the strongest compositions. I deleted the others. I am happy with the compositions presented here but, upon close inspection, find that they aren't as sharp as they should be and there is a lot of noise in the dark areas of the images. The lack of sharpness is due to camera shake during the exposure; the noise a function of the camera. I am disappointed but also armed now with some knowledge I didn't have prior to that shoot. I will be going back again - more than once - and shooting during sunset and twilight.

You can download a park brochure for Mount Mitchill Scenic Overlook here.

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All photos are copyright Joseph S. Valencia All Rights Reserved They may not be used in any way without express written permission of the photographer. If you wish to use any of the photos you may contact the photographer at valencia32photo@gmail.com

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