Last year I took a flight up to New York to visit Will and take some pictures around the New York City. Prior to my arrival, Will did a lot of research on the best places around the city to setup our tripods. He found some beautiful shots inside the Grand Central Terminal which put the historic location at the top of our list. There was however one challenge to capturing the iconic building – tripods are not permitted in Grand Central Terminal. Ugh!
Shooting HDR photography without a tripod is basically impossible inside of a dark old building. Luckily Will is persistent and a phenomenal Googler (yes that is a recognized 21st century talent). His research led him to a process by which we could get the “Station Master” to issue us a formal permit to take professional pictures inside of the station with a tripod. Will got in touch with the right people, filled out some funny paperwork and the permit was approved!
The permit was very restrictive in terms of when we could shoot and where we could shoot. We shot every angle of the Main Concourse room over the two hours that our permit allowed. The best part of the experience was having the New York City Police come up to us every five minutes telling us we were not allowed to have a tripod in the building and that we needed to put it away and leave immediately. Queue our permit…and silence…BAM! We truly felt like professionals that day and best of all we had great luck capturing this magnificent building.
Does anyone have any unique experiences shooting in restricted locations?
