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I went back to New York City last week to do an aerial photo shoot for a private client. Here’s a little clip from that flight of us flying over the city.
There’s really nothing like it in the world.
Night Flight over Chrysler from Vincent Laforet (shot by Mike Isler) on Vimeo. p.s. I am wearing a full body safety harness UNDER my jacket…
On a related note, I had a great lunch with my friend Scott Bourne a few weeks ago - and he mentioned something to me that at the time surprised me quite a bit. He told me that most of the people out there didn’t know that my background was in photography - according to him, most know me for my film/video work with HDDSLRS - Reverie, Nocturne, First Look and others …
I found that quite interesting given that I have 20 years of experience in the world of photography. To be honest, when he mentioned this to me it totally threw me for a loop - but it also made a bit of sense given what’s happened in the past two years with this blog and the photo/video world in general. It led to a very interesting conversation on how one’s perceptions of who one is - can sometimes be quite different than how people perceive you from the outside world…
I’ve caught people saying that I’m no longer a still photographer now - and that I have “moved on” into the world of filmmaking. While I have definitely spent a greater percentage of my time in the motion world over the past 2 years - I definitely haven’t “left” photography. In fact these past two years have made me miss shooting stills in a way that I haven’t felt in a long time - and I have some big still projects coming up that I’m extremely excited about. If I had to break it down - I’d simply say that the world of print is going through a very tough time right now - and the editorial (magazine/newspaper) budgets through an even tougher time… as they improve and hopefully come back to being close to what they once were - I can see myself doing a LOT more still photography. In fact I’m not waiting! I’m already in the process of working on 3 different short and long-term still projects.
Then today I saw that someone had re-published an old video interview of me (see below) from nearly 4 years ago and I thought I would share it with you because I think this interview was extremely well done and captured who I was then - having just left the staff of The New York Times and having entered the freelance commercial photography market for a little over a year at that point. This brings me to to another interesting thing that I’ve noticed over the past two years: even though I’m always focused on what’s happening now, what I’m talking about now in this very immediate world - people still somehow always seem to be reading 1, 2 or even in this case 4-year-old articles - of what I consider to be “old news.”
Towards the end of the interview - I mention that leaving photojournalism would allow me to broaden my horizons and try “new things.” Little did I know what would happen to those horizons a little under two years later when I borrowed a prototype Canon 5D MKII over a fateful weekend…
BTW If you’d like to see some more of my photography and/or aerials of the city - feel free to check out my website. I’ll also have something very interesting to share with you related to photography in a few weeks…
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WOw ! next time i come to NYC promise, i’ll spend also 1700$ for an aerial trip on NYC ! Wonderful…
What was your exif for those shots ?
A really nice view of NYC !
I found interesting that question of perception.
By the way, this is a nice interview.
Comment by David 07.05.10 @ 5:40 pm[...] Link: Aerials of New York City & Thoughts on both the Present and the … [...]
Pingback by Aerials of New York City & Thoughts on both the Present and the … | Just-Tours 07.05.10 @ 6:18 pm@David, Thanks David - I was going to expound on that a bit - but I figured it would bore most people… it was one of the more interesting things Scott and I discussed that day…
I personally think that your photography is still a lot more interesting than your videos, by leaps and bounds 
Until now, you are still one of my idols in photography.
[...] Six circles are cut into steel-coloured foam. Lenses. Zeiss Compact Prime CP.2 lenses, to be precise. “Brand new, still hard to get. Some people would kill for these. We’re going to use them when we go up again tonight.” He has two more shoots planned for the day – one in the afternoon, and another that night. [...]
Pingback by A Helicopter Ride With The King Of DSLR Video | Gizmodo Australia 07.06.10 @ 3:12 pmwow…what a waste of money…video was anti-climatic.
The photos are only thing worth while.
I’d say stick to your photography…. 
Try reading Reply:
July 6th, 2010 at 11:49 pm
@cheetos, perhaps you didn’t see that the video clip is simply a behind the scenes view of a photo shoot, and that this flight was NOT for a video shoot? I’d say try reading the captions next time….
I’ve been reading your blog ever since Reverie now, I love how you do both video and photo on such a high level. I also try to learn both, and its very interesting how you can or can not apply certain things on both.
There’s a picture of an airplane above the Statue of Liberty in the Youtube video. When i was visiting liberty Island mid may this year, there were two planes flying over the statue repeatedly, was that you again? Or was that someone shooting for the Red Bull Air Race?
Comment by Georg 07.06.10 @ 7:45 pmHi Vincent,
Love your photos but also am crazy about your video’s. I think it’s funny people know you from video even though your shooting photos for the past 20 years haha. Shows again what an influence social media has. Keep it up, you inpire me. Loved the old interview too.
That’s greta to here Vincent. I’ve always loved looking and studying your still images and like you said in a class once, it’s nice to be able to go out with just a camera and shoot sometimes.
[...] post was originally found on Vincent Laforet’s Blog who provides a great video of his experience as a photographer and aerial [...]
Pingback by Using Photography in Design from an Aerial View | Crown Point Design Blog 07.08.10 @ 3:11 pmI love aerial pictures and i have a love afair with NYC, and i can tell you that these pictures and the behind the scenes video makes me want to go there and do everything you did, just to feel the emotion of this amazing city. You capture it beautifuly, both photos and the video. Would you mind sharing some basic info for the Aerial photos?
Thanks Vincent, i am a huge fan!
Comment by Fernando Weberich 07.09.10 @ 3:07 amI’ve been a follower of yours since the Beijing Olympics. I’m glad to see that you are not giving up on still images just yet! Looking forward to seeing more.
R.
This is gorgeous, very cool to see some behind the scenes footage. As an admirer I have to ask a piece of advice. One of the clients I shoot video for says they may be sending us up in a helicopter to get some aerial views of their facility. Is there any specific advice you can offer? We shoot with an HVX200A and a Canon T2i. We’d certainly bring both up with us but since time in the sky is limited (and expensive) I was wondering what your experience has been shooting with these cameras (or the more professional models in the case of the canon) from aerial perspectives.
Thanks for any help/advice you can provide. Love your work.
Comment by Andrew 07.19.10 @ 4:37 pmLeave a comment
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Vincent Laforet Reply:
July 6th, 2010 at 1:52 pm
@Edward, Appreciate it and am flattered! Working on a few film projects that I hope to take to the level you appreciate… and also on a few still photo projects as well!
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