Blue Hour at Dumbo Pier with the Sammons

by Larry Tiefenbrunn

There are some offers in life you simply can’t refuse. So when Rick Sammon calls and says, “Hey Larry, how would you like a personal workshop shooting lower Manhattan at blue hour from DUMBO Piers?” — well, the only acceptable answer is, “I’d be happy to.”

To make things interesting, we turned it into a friendly challenge: Rick would shoot with his iPhone, and I’d go classic with my Nikon D850.

Getting Set Up

Dodging Sunday traffic from New Jersey to Brooklyn (thank you, Waze) I  arrived a little before Rick and Susan, who were coming in from Westchester. I scouted ahead and found a perfect perch on the rocks where a few foreground boulders created depth, and a graceful curve of old, severed pilings led the eye right into lower Manhattan and the Freedom Tower (One World Trade Center). A natural set of leading lines waiting to be photographed.

When the Sammons arrived, Susan immediately took charge of video, documenting the challenge, while Rick set up about 50 feet to my right, giving him a completely different foreground and angle.

As the sun dropped, Rick captured a gorgeous gradient of sky. The view was golden on the left, deep blue on the right, with those iconic pilings anchoring the foreground. The man really can make magic with an iPhone.

Chasing the Shot

From my spot, the sky continued to darken as low clouds skimmed across the tops of the buildings. I started bracketing exposures of four to ten seconds. I was shooting at ISO 64 and f/8. The long exposures softened the river into a silky surface, pulled wispy motion from the clouds, and gave me beautiful streaks of car lights tracing the FDR across the East River.

But something wasn’t clicking. The clouds were rolling a little too low, completely covering the tops of the skyline. Reviewing the images on the back of my camera, I felt that familiar twinge of disappointment.

And then… it happened.

Near the very end of the sequence, I got one frame. Just one where the clouds lifted ever so slightly and kissed the transmission needle at the top of the Freedom Tower. In that instant it looked like a white, flaming torch piercing the sky. A gift from above. That was my wall hanger for the year. Here's Rick's shot: -

So… Who Won?

Truthfully, we both did.

Rick walked away with a stunning blue hour shot made with nothing more than his iPhone, a Platypod MagGrip, and a Traveler ballhead. I went home with an image I’m proud to print large, captured with my D850, a 35mm lens with a 6X ND filter, mounted on a Platyball Ergo and an eXtreme nestled into the rocks.

And the Sammons? They didn’t leave empty-handed either. Rick collected his traditional “daily fee”: a three-quart barrel of fresh half-sour pickles. 🥒

Go figure.