From the Archives: I Thought I was Crazy - Guest post by Vincent Laforet

Intro by Skip Cohen

It might be an old post, but there is no "use by" date stamp on inspiration. This is one of my favorite posts from Vincent Laforet and it's a classic.  At this point, you might be asking, "Of all the great posts he's done, why pull this one?"

Well, first, it sets a stage for a great example of the fact that Vincent never does anything half way. Second, this is about doing whatever it takes to get the shot, the story, something that nobody has done before. Last on the list, it's about making yourself unique.

You've heard me talk about the fact that personally, I'm a photographer groupie...well, Vincent is on that list of artists who I simply admire.  These days he's more into film-making than still imaging, but nothing changes from the standards he's repeatedly set with his work.

If Vincent isn't on your radar, he should be. Check out his blog and then make it a point to hit his "Directing Motion Tour" coming to 32 cities in the US. It just started this month and here's the promotional video to tell you all about it!

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In 2000, I climbed to the top of the Empire State Building. It was an AWESOME experience.

The kicker is:  I didn’t have any harness… they simply didn’t bother to give me one and I didn’t need one for the most part, as I was climbing up INSIDE the antenna to get to the top.

BUT, when I got to the top – I should of had one as I was out in the open, on a 3-foot wide crow’s nest… again with no harness… leaning on my stomach, with my shoes hooked in on the gap near the needle – looking straight down to see this image.  

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The next shot is me on the crow’s nest in January of 2000!

When people hear this story… they call me crazy. The real scary part about the walk up – was that there were 14,000,000 watts of radio/tv waves coming from the top of the Empire State Building – you’re not supposed to stand up too long: or you may never have kids… 

My pager was going off non-stop (this was the year 2000 remember pagers?)  And then it was windy – and I’m not exaggerating when I tell you that the tower sways when it’s windy… just to add to the fun.

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Directing Motion Tour and Registration