Blacked-Out Liberty

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While traveling through NYC on my way to a photo assignment in Vermont, I was caught in the big North East Power Black-out a few years back. The next morning I walked to the Staten Island Ferry Terminal and made several crossings between Manhattan and Staten Island, shooting images of Lady Liberty. I wanted something different from all the 1000's, maybe millions of photos that had previously been captured. I knew she was closed-off to the public so no people would appear in the image. I knew power was out, so no artificial lighting would adorn her. What I didn't know was that mother nature would provide me with the most perfect filtered natural light I had ever seen, with colors that would balance and strengthen Liberty's patina. I shot over 80 images during several passes on the ferry, battling the motion of the craft, the waves and the relatively low light conditions while attempting to capture a super-high resolution digital image. This original image is over 120 inches tall with resolution that allows the reading of the plaque at her feet. I utilized A 30+ year old Nikon Big Glass ED lens that was huge and very hard to steady and made exposures until I got what I wanted. The result was this exquisite image with a delicate beam of light to spotlight our nations symbol of Liberty in a time when true liberty seems to be fading away.