Hudson River Corridor @ Night - Photos

skier

skier

Line Up and Wait
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Skier
Monday night I had the opportunity to go for a night flight down the Hudson River Corridor. We took the Mooney I took air to air photos of earlier this year: https://www.pilotsofamerica.com/community/threads/air-to-air-mooney-m20j.105188/

We had clear skies and no clouds for the entire trip. Unfortunately, it was a bit bumpy which made getting photos a little more challenging. Like everyone in this area of the country, I've flown the Corridor before. However, it has been a number of years and I had never done it at night. I have to say, I enjoyed it at night much more than during the day.

Since you can't open the door on a Mooney, I had to shoot through the glass. To prevent reflections in the windows, I bought a lens skirt which seemed to work well. https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1051335-REG/lenskirt_lskirt1_lenskirt.html

I tried a couple different lenses, but found the 50 f/1.4 seemed to work the best. However, a couple of the photos below were taken with a 16-35 f/4. To maintain reasonable shutter speeds, I had the lenses wide open with ISO 12,800. And even with that I struggled to get sharp photos.

1-Approach.jpg

2-Window.jpg

3-Lady Liberty.jpg
4-Skyline.jpg
5- One World Trade Center.jpg
6-Overall.jpg
 
Very nice pictures!!

Truly one appreciates these more once they've seen it for themselves (similar to looking at pics of the Grand Canyon.)
 
Beautiful! They look like postcards!
 
WOW that looks great!!!
 
skier said:
Monday night I had the opportunity to go for a night flight down the Hudson River Corridor. We took the Mooney I took air to air photos of earlier this year: https://www.pilotsofamerica.com/community/threads/air-to-air-mooney-m20j.105188/

We had clear skies and no clouds for the entire trip. Unfortunately, it was a bit bumpy which made getting photos a little more challenging. Like everyone in this area of the country, I've flown the Corridor before. However, it has been a number of years and I had never done it at night. I have to say, I enjoyed it at night much more than during the day.

Since you can't open the door on a Mooney, I had to shoot through the glass. To prevent reflections in the windows, I bought a lens skirt which seemed to work well. https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1051335-REG/lenskirt_lskirt1_lenskirt.html

I tried a couple different lenses, but found the 50 f/1.4 seemed to work the best. However, a couple of the photos below were taken with a 16-35 f/4. To maintain reasonable shutter speeds, I had the lenses wide open with ISO 12,800. And even with that I struggled to get sharp photos.

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Incredible photos, especially liked the last two.
 
Very nice.

I love my 50 f/1.4. I’ve found it’s great for everything from portraits to astronomy shots.
 
Artistry. Scenery along that route is spectacular, but these pictures look even better than reality.
 
Spectacular. I've done the corridor doing the day, but these night shots make it look like a totally different experience. Well done.
 
Very well done. The 50 1.4 is a good piece of glass. You could be proud to hang any of those in the man cave.
 
been there, done that, but with my iphone and gopro :)))

looks like those profi lenses are worth the hassle after all
 
Awesome pictures. Flying the HRC is one of my bucket list items. Now you are making me want to do it both day and at night.
 
Thanks everyone. Its nice to see people still enjoying the photos almost 4 months after I first posted them. Hopefully I'll be able to entertain you guys with other photos once the weather warms up a bit.
 
Amazing!! Is it difficult to coordinate a flight through the VFR corridor?
That being said, any suitable places to land in case of engine trouble?
 
Great work, and thanks for sharing.
What shutter speeds did you find you needed?
 
G-Man said:
What shutter speeds did you find you needed?
Click to expand...

In #1, the cockpit was shot at 1/60, f/4, iso-12800. But while this resulted in the GPS and cockpit instruments looking good, it makes the city too dark. To fix this, I set the camera to take two images back to back. The second photo, to expose the city nicely was at 1/6, f/4, iso-12800.

#2 was done at f/4, 1/30, iso 12800. This was also a composite, but both images were at the same exposure. Here, the wing was nicely lit by the red light in one photo, but the city was blurry. Another photo had the city looking good, but the wing was completely black. So I replaced the black wing with the red wing.

When we tuned around and started heading back north I then changed lenses from the 16-35 which was limited to f/4 to a 50mm lens which could open up to f/1.4. The shot of the world trade center was at f/2.2, 1/200, iso-12800.
 
Thanks! Very helpful info! I hope I get the opportunity to fly this and photograph it.
And finally noticed the link at the bottom of your signature - Cool stuff!
 
labbadabba said:
Is it bad that my favorite pic is the one of the panel?
Click to expand...
I love this shot too. It has a very professional look. And with that bit of outside motion blur, the plane looks like its moving too!
 
Your pictures turned out awesome!!!!

If you are really into these shots, especially if its for a rare/special occasion - you could try renting a Sony A7sII or A7sIII from places like Lensrental.com. Maybe rent it for a week. It will shoot crazy high noise free iso way above 12,800 and be incredibly sharp - stills or 4K video :) Then couple it with a 35mm f1.4 (cockpit, wide angle city), or your 50mm f1.4 or a 85mm f1.8 (close ups). Remember, the later Sony A7's will have in-body stabilization so even if you put an old all mechanical Zeiss or adapted autofocus lens (eg Canon EF85 f1.8) it will also be stabilized! A perfect fireworks setup I suppose.
 
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