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Photographing people on the edge of a skyscraper in San Francisco

vonwong.com

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Re: Photographing people on the edge of a skyscraper in San Francisco

#51

Post by wmeredith »

nostromo wrote: post #34
vonwong wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry you feel that way :( We had home-made budget costumes that were hand painted so this was the best solution. On the flip side though, I think you'll enjoy these behind the scenes without photoshop : https://www.dropbox.com/s/y5ixzup47wcm1tw/BTS_katherine-2.jp... (theres more on the dropbox link: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/bqtxeldmqiacm9y/AACk0lp0tl9ncGvzl... )

Yeah, the raw photos are more intense for me. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/bqtxeldmqiacm9y/AACk0lp0tl9ncGvzl... All are awesome though, great work.

Holy crap, these are awesome.

Re: Photographing people on the edge of a skyscraper in San Francisco

#53

Post by jacalata »

redindian75 wrote: post #24

Quote: "I wanted to capture the fearlessness of superheroes – without a green screen or cheap special effects." But they were all tethered with safety harness and then evidence was removed in photoshop. How is that "magical, one mis-step would mean end"? Sorry, but I thought the premise of this was daredevil stunts from ordinary people, but this is no different than greenscreen or cheap special effect which u seem to…

According to the comments in this thread, the safety harness and other equipment was inadequate enough that they actually were one step from death - so it was more daredevil than he intended?

Re: Photographing people on the edge of a skyscraper in San Francisco

#54

Post by platz »

stevecalifornia wrote: post #6

The final pictures are so heavily over-produced that they look incredibly fake-- which is a shame and leaves me totally baffled. It looks like someone literally painted the figure on the picture. The only time anxiety kicked in was the picture of the whole team posing for a shot at the corner.

this tends to be the style for the professional/marketing photo business. Realism is not actually the goal. Glossy eye-popping photos (think HDR) are what the customers actually want. If you want natural-light and documentary-style photos, that is better suited for an "art" photographer, not a "commercial" one.

Re: Photographing people on the edge of a skyscraper in San Francisco

#55

Post by acdha »

nostromo wrote: post #34
vonwong wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry you feel that way :( We had home-made budget costumes that were hand painted so this was the best solution. On the flip side though, I think you'll enjoy these behind the scenes without photoshop : https://www.dropbox.com/s/y5ixzup47wcm1tw/BTS_katherine-2.jp... (theres more on the dropbox link: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/bqtxeldmqiacm9y/AACk0lp0tl9ncGvzl... )

Yeah, the raw photos are more intense for me. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/bqtxeldmqiacm9y/AACk0lp0tl9ncGvzl... All are awesome though, great work.

Wow, yes – I think a lighter-touch on the post processing would be even more impressive.

Re: Photographing people on the edge of a skyscraper in San Francisco

#56

Post by anigbrowl »

awor wrote: post #47
vonwong wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everything was doubly tied down, don't worry :) The person holding was there simply to maintain tension the entire way as the models walked from the side to the edge. As for the camera, the flex comes from the metal itself but it was also extra secured with straps in the event that anything fell loose.

As someone who has spent a fair bit of time working on swingstages, towers and other structures, there's a few things that immediately caught my attention. Yes, I'm going to be that guy. - As this appears to be a photoshoot for SmugMug, of SmugMug employees, does Smugmug carry the proper class of insurance on their employees to allow this sort of work? In most cases, unless additional coverage was purchased from the…

If this was insured (which I doubt) and a claim was made, the insurer would turn right around and sue Von Wong (as the organizer of the project) for gross negligence. On the preponderance of the evidence stand (ie >50% probability) that obtains in civil litigation, they would almost certainly win.

I don't like making all these negative comments. But I've seen people get seriously injured in entirely avoidable accidents, and could give you numerous examples of fatal accidents on film sets off the top of my head - whenever I read of one I study it carefully to ensure I never make a similar mistake. Film and photo shoots are fun, exciting environments, precisely because they often involve unusual locations, activities, or situations. But because everyone is participating in the pursuit of some larger goal (producing art of some sort) the people in the roles of director/producer have an outsize responsibility, because they are temporarily invested with significant authority to the point that people will put their common sense and personal judgement on hold, akin to Stanley Milgram's famous electric shock experiments, due to the blend of unfamiliarity and micromanagement that the endeavor necessarily involves.

http://deadline.com/2014/04/sarah-jones-midnight-rider-film-...

Re: Photographing people on the edge of a skyscraper in San Francisco

#57

Post by cylinder »

vonwong wrote: post #13
stevecalifornia wrote: post #6

The final pictures are so heavily over-produced that they look incredibly fake-- which is a shame and leaves me totally baffled. It looks like someone literally painted the figure on the picture. The only time anxiety kicked in was the picture of the whole team posing for a shot at the corner.

Sorry you feel that way :( We had home-made budget costumes that were hand painted so this was the best solution. On the flip side though, I think you'll enjoy these behind the scenes without photoshop : https://www.dropbox.com/s/y5ixzup47wcm1tw/BTS_katherine-2.jp... (theres more on the dropbox link: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/bqtxeldmqiacm9y/AACk0lp0tl9ncGvzl... )

They look like illustrations. I don't get it either.

Re: Photographing people on the edge of a skyscraper in San Francisco

#58

Post by shostack »

Being a part of these sorts of shoots is one of my favorite perks of working at SmugMug, hands down. Reminds me of art school when my friends would try to convince me to be a part of their crazy photo shoots, except this time the photographers are quite a bit better.

To date, Ben has...

- Lit my head on fire

- Taught me to breathe fire[1]

- Stuck me under a rain machine[2] while I lifted a giant tire infested with spiders

- Popped a balloon full of curdled green milk over my head

Never a dull moment, and there's always an amazing photo afterwards to immortalize the moment (for better or worse).

[1] - Photo of me breathing fire courtesy of Subversive Photography who grabbed this shot while I attempted to spin in a circle. http://shostack.smugmug.com/SmugMug-Office-Hijinks/n-NGr8t/i...

[2] - Me lifting a giant spider-infested tire while I have freezing "rain" pour on me. Amazing how it turned out. http://shostack.smugmug.com/SmugMug-Office-Hijinks/n-NGr8t/i...

[EDIT] The links are just to individual photos of me on my personal SmugMug site because I think they're incredibly cool--nothing promotional.

Re: Photographing people on the edge of a skyscraper in San Francisco

#59

Post by startupfounder »

Professional Rigger here (SPRAT & IRATA Certified) & logged thousands of hours as a safety supervisor around the world mostly on wind turbines, but also on bridges & buildings (Guggenheim, MetLife Stadium, etc.).

Photos of my team and friends: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2012/09/07/arts/artsspec... http://news.auroraphotos.com/wp-content/uploads/petzl.jpg

I have a bone to pick with the safety setup for this photoshoot. SmugMug staff should be concerned...

There are 2 types of fall protection rigging setups for this corner of the building scenario - Fall Arrest & Fall Restraint. Both have to do with the ability of the person to go "over the edge" in the case of a fall.

Fall Arrest is when the person has fallen over the edge of the building and they are arrested with the rigging equipment from falling and hitting the pavement 1,000 feet below.

Fall Restraint is a rigging system that restrains the person from falling over the edge in the first place.

From the video and photos it looks like Von Wong is a bit of a wahoo adrenalin nut[0] and though he and the team had good safety intentions, there are some serious safety issues I would like to point out. And next time please contact me so we can do this safely.

I am going to use this photo[1] and this photo[2] to point out safety flaws.

In these photos I see an Anchor on the I-beam (photo[1] left image red friction protection), a rock climbing harness for Body Ware, I see the connector with webbing, but I don't see a deceleration device. A fall arrest system consists of 4 items ABCD: Anchor, Body Ware, Connector & Deceleration Device. From this setup i'll assume the rigging plan was to build a fall restraint system to prevent their subjects from falling over the edge because there is no deceleration device.

There are just a few problems with this logic that lead to serious safety concerns. As we can see in photo[2] there is:

a) a hand holding the webbing "preventing" a fall, this is not a fall restraint system, it adds slack to the system that increases forces in the case of a fall (this is more apparent in the .gif: http://www.vonwong.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/1-VbF... You can see the black rope coiled up and moving, not cool. EDIT: It looks like the subject is attached via lanyard to the "safety" guy. In the case of a fall he is in the system preventing himself from performing a rescue.

b) the subject could fall off either side of the "point" of the building as the anchor is not around the I-beam in the frame, but out of frame to the right (making the length of the lanyard longer and increasing the force of the fall especially if she fell to the right)

c) that granite edge acts as a knife and webbing doesn't stand a chance being dragged across it if they fall over the edge,

d) because this is a fall arrest scenario there are serious forces on the system if the subject falls over the edge, especially if they are standing up! (the higher they are above the anchor the more potential energy they have).

These are really interesting photos, just when you do them be smart and rig it correctly.

[0]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/content_link/O32BWH3s0qkaA...

[1]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/content_link/CG8GkzYscTabC...

[2]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/content_link/8NXYjfzC6a5RV...

Re: Photographing people on the edge of a skyscraper in San Francisco

#60

Post by Stratoscope »

nostromo wrote: post #34
vonwong wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry you feel that way :( We had home-made budget costumes that were hand painted so this was the best solution. On the flip side though, I think you'll enjoy these behind the scenes without photoshop : https://www.dropbox.com/s/y5ixzup47wcm1tw/BTS_katherine-2.jp... (theres more on the dropbox link: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/bqtxeldmqiacm9y/AACk0lp0tl9ncGvzl... )

Yeah, the raw photos are more intense for me. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/bqtxeldmqiacm9y/AACk0lp0tl9ncGvzl... All are awesome though, great work.

Oh my. Yes, the raw untouched photos - with all safety equipment showing - activate a completely different part of my brain. Now I know these are real people, really leaning over the edge of a skyscraper.

It was a bit like seeing the Mission Impossible movie and admiring the great CGI that made it look like Tom Cruise was swinging from a rope off the side of the Burj Khalifa, and then seeing the "making of" video and realizing he was swinging from that rope.

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