7 ms·

Photographing people on the edge of a skyscraper in San Francisco

187 points by karenxcheng 12y ago

gtCameron 12y ago
I get the chills just looking at those photos, no way you could get me within 20ft of that ledge. Really cool pictures though, congrats on pulling it off.
- busterarm 12y ago
  My vertigo kicked in hard and I almost rolfed.
mootothemax 12y ago
What it is about our minds that make it so easy to imagine being up there, on the ledge, looking down, maybe with one foot over... and my palms are sweating heavily already. It's a bit like having a child; I now spend nights worrying about the most ridiculous events that could happen to my daughter. Why do our brains like to torture us like this?
- vonwong 12y ago
  Ah but standing there on that ledge and looking down knowing that the slightest mis-step could mean the end, where none of your worries past or future matter except the present... That feeling is so magical <3 !
  - ChuckMcM 12y ago
    Stress highs are not the same for everyone. Glad you didn't find one of those people during your project.
  - kordless 12y ago
    Those are similar to feelings associated with awakening as well. I'm not saying they are the same thing, but I'd put my money on them being related.
  - jwise0 12y ago
    I'm not sure why you got downvoted for this, but I wanted to say that the point you're trying to make is not in vain. Different people have different risk tolerances, and even enjoy different levels of risk: and, of course, we combat fear of risk by having knowledge of what the real consequences are and what our limits are. Some of the pieces that highlight Alex Honnold's work [1] as a free solo climber bring to fore a very similar experience: the emptiness and clarity inside you of knowing that you must focus 100% on what you're doing is said to be quite liberating. [1] e.g., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itIRdx1pJ2I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itIRdx1pJ2I
- anigbrowl 12y ago
  Because 99.9% of the time those inbuilt reflexes are what keep you and others alive; people who don't have them get Darwin awards. I was glad to see they used safety equipment, especially since they were working with non-professionals, but I was annoyed that they didn't mention it in the article and played it down in preference of the breathless self-affirming schtick. Safety protocols matter, because they're what makes the difference between everyone going home after having done something difficult and had a life affirming experience, and going home with PTSD or not going home at all. The photographer standing on the corner of the building with no safety so he can take a selfie? Fuck him. Doing that on your own or with similarly risk-tolerant friends? OK, enjoy your dangerous hobby, I can appreciate your enjoyment of it as a spectator and relate indirectly to high-risk situations I am comfortable with. Involving an audience of people (on the rooftop) while demonstrating such a disregard for safety? Horrible passive-aggressive behavior that burdens everyone else with significant mental and legal risk, not to mention his employer. If this took place in a professional context (eg of a commercial film/photo shoot) that would be an instant firing offense of the never-hire-this-person-again variety. If you're going to do dangerous stuff in a group of mixed ability, you have an ethical and professional obligation to adhere to and demonstrate the highest safety standards. If you want an entourage to witness how badass you are (as opposed to leveraging that through your creative work) then you're a walking liability. Edit: I see Von Wong arrived here at the discussion. I'm going to leave the above up unedited, not to be personally insulting but because it expresses my sincere annoyance about this issue.
  - smacktoward 12y ago
    > If you want an entourage to witness how badass you are (as opposed to leveraging that through your creative work) then you're a walking liability. Yeah. It's like the old joke: what are every true redneck's last words? "Hey y'all, watch this!"
    - linuxlizard 12y ago
      "Hold my beer!"
  - jonahx 12y ago
- deleted 12y ago
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- Zelphyr 12y ago
  > Why do our brains like to torture us like this? It sucks but its the same aspect of our mind that thinks up the amazing things like skyscrapers and cameras that we're then able to build. Imagination. :) For contrast look up stories of the woman with a damaged amygdala who literally has no fear whatsoever. She has to have people around her to keep her from doing dumb things like pick up poisonous snakes.
Springtime 12y ago
Reminds me of Li Wei's famous skyscraper photo sessions [1] in which the artist is seen being kicked off the top and suspended outside a window, amongst other similarly daring photographs. Only a minimal use of post-processing to simply remove the fine wires attached. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stMg-DxhHCA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stMg-DxhHCA
state 12y ago
Can't help but think of this guy: http://humzadeas.tumblr.com/image/105666488345 http://humzadeas.tumblr.com/image/105666488345 https://vimeo.com/104818943 https://vimeo.com/104818943
stevecalifornia 12y ago
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.
- Shivetya 12y ago
  there are enough videos out of Asia and Russia if you want to feel real anxiety. The daring do of so many young people never ceases to amaze me. While I appreciate the attempt to artfully present this type of thrill seeking little beats a go pro on a stick or one handed hanging from building framework. Dressing up makes it too hollywood and who needs that when real life is all more impressive
  - danellis 12y ago
    It's 'derring-do', just so you know.
- kordless 12y ago
  > The only time anxiety kicked in was the picture of the whole team posing for a shot at the corner. Especially the one guy giving a thumbs up toward the middle left. There's no way he's tied in and he's standing on the ledge. One misstep by anyone there and he goes over. At least that's the way it looks. Edit: Here's the sidewalk immediately below the location shoot: https://www.google.com/maps/@37.789224,-122.40034,3a,75y,8.78h,83.23t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sr8EIdMu5UwKdu7stAI8SSw!2e0 https://www.google.com/maps/@37.789224,-122.40034,3a,75y,8.7...
- vonwong 12y ago
  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.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/y5ixzup47wcm1tw/BTS_katherine-2.jp... (theres more on the dropbox link:https://www.dropbox.com/sh/bqtxeldmqiacm9y/AACk0lp0tl9ncGvzlOILxaDIa?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/sh/bqtxeldmqiacm9y/AACk0lp0tl9ncGvzl...)
ChuckFrank 12y ago
That rigging looked outrageous. All I saw was one guy holding onto the models. If a model slipped and fell, that guy won't have stood a chance in holding them back. Hopefully the person was themselves hooked into the roof, and the rigging was hooked into the roof, with him acting on belay. But I certainly didn't see that. I'm so glad nothing bad happened, but this seemed irresponsible from a safety and technical standpoint. (I mean even the camera rig looked flimsy.)
- vonwong 12y ago
  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.
  - anigbrowl 12y ago
    Obviously you were using a small lightweight camera, but a single c-stand and a few sandbags is not really adequate for this sort of work. Yeah, it'll work fine 99 times out of 100. It's the 100th time that you overengineer for. Those rotary clamps sometimes fail, eg because sufficient strain and a history of overtightening causes one of the screw threads to shear, and then your arm slides right out despite the sandbag on the end. In windy environments the momentary strains are much higher than the steady one of the weight. Had that happened in this case, the arm and the camera would have been traveling at >100mph when it hit the ground, on the busiest streets in the city. When you rig something that could put someone else at risk, rather than just what's attached to the rig, you build with the assumption that each individual component may catastrophically fail. At the very least, you should have had a second stand farther back with an arm clamped to the near end of your working arm, plus you should have one person on each stand whose only job is to watch the stand. What you have here is OK for the height of a garden shed or the deck of a low-rise apartment building. It's absolutely not OK for the roof of a skyscraper, man. And that's with the thing just bearing the camera load. You had the models using your load-bearing stand, which you are holding with only one hand, to steady themselves as they step up on the edge wall. They're gripping it well above your point of contact. If one of them lost it, s/he would have pulled the whole rig down, exponentially increasing the chances of the arm coming free. Or the camera coming off its mount. Or the ballast bag on the arm vaulting over the side. Fort that matter, at the start of the video you're leaning out videotaping yourself with a camcorder that isn't visibly secured to anything and that doesn't have any gaffer's tape securing the battery to the camera. At this height anything that falls presents a deadly danger to the people in the street below. A camcorder battery is certainly heavy enough to kill someone. Sure, you're a careful guy, you've probably never dropped your camera. But even though nobody means to drop a heavy light or an expensive lens or a c-stand or a camera or a sandbag, I've seen it happen many many times in the middle of film production. Shooting without permits is one thing, disregarding well-established safety practices is quite another.
vonwong 12y ago
If anyone has access to cranes in san francisco, I'd love to do a round #2 and take things even further haha :) This rooftop took quite a bit of scouting around to get but man was it worth it. Love SFO, wish I could visit again!
- deleted 12y ago
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- markdown 12y ago
  OT: Your announcements section mentions a workshop in Fiji, but the links are broken.
bstar77 12y ago
I'm sure I could handle challenging heights if I had to in an emergency, but looking at those pics is giving me vertigo in my chair.
goshx 12y ago
If those are real pictures, why did you make them look like if they were created in 3D? Doesn't that defeat the purpose?
redindian75 12y ago
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 deride.
- smacktoward 12y ago
  It's like riding a roller coaster or doing a bungee jump -- you know intellectually that you're strapped in tight and therefore safe; but your lizard brain, the part that operates at a deep subconscious level, doesn't get that message, so it's still scary and/or thrilling.
  - Retra 12y ago
    That's great, but watching someone else ride a roller coaster doesn't communicate that feeling at all.
- TheOtherHobbes 12y ago
  Why did this need to be Hollywoodised? It's plenty scary - and more emotional, IMO - showing ordinary people doing terrifying things, even if they're tethered.
- jacalata 12y ago
  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?
BorisMelnik 12y ago
something about this makes me incredibly nervous and provokes a lot of anxiety, I can't even look at these photos. that said, I'm sure that is the sort of emotion they are looking to elicit, well done!
- azinman2 12y ago
  They're also giving me vertigo
deleted 12y ago
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edw519 12y ago
2 things made me sick today, the code I have to maintain and looking at these pictures. I never thought I'd say it, but I think I'll stick with the code. (Great job, OP!)
davidw 12y ago
Yikes. I don't like going beyond about the 6th story of a building, let alone something like that. I have a wicked strong fear of heights.
jedisct1 12y ago
This is awesome. I'm a huge huge huge fan of Von Wong's work. He takes things to the extreme and produces unique and mindblowing images. And I had the opportunity to meet him in person, the guy is fascinating and very humble.
shostack 12y ago
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-HdCJH8G/A 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-5vKv7k9/A 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.
startupfounder 12y ago
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/artsspecial/07FLOATER/07FLOATER-superJumbo.jpg http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2012/09/07/arts/artsspec... http://news.auroraphotos.com/wp-content/uploads/petzl.jpg 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-VbFFSy7FKJHCNTgayZTQeQ.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/O32BWH3s0qkaAheqLeEQXSqxZkrVUsQrZ6GnuPKXM9fW9uzryjJM9MCXFS0qoaBW https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/content_link/O32BWH3s0qkaA... [1]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/content_link/CG8GkzYscTabCnMS6nGxjgiE71vqOp6d0w03OkAnSJ69NY02vbVTFiuPjU7JkPpV https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/content_link/CG8GkzYscTabC... [2]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/content_link/8NXYjfzC6a5RVcQTXuS2gP88SfIQA2372T66ZtMmJVhPndWTPLQCOp0O7WSTgksw https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/content_link/8NXYjfzC6a5RV...
CyberDildonics 12y ago
Pretentious Photoshopped bullshit with no reason anyone couldn't do the same thing. A harness and a camera on a pole. Truly the Davinci of our time.
seccess 12y ago
Seeing these pictures reminds me of this video of workers climbing a 1700ft TV tower [0]. Its pretty intense even to just watch, that is some real-world superhero courage right there! [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7k4Xk1mEwmI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7k4Xk1mEwmI

187 points by karenxcheng 12y ago

I get the chills just looking at those photos, no way you could get me within 20ft of that ledge. Really cool pictures though, congrats on pulling it off.

busterarm 12y ago
My vertigo kicked in hard and I almost rolfed.

mootothemax 12y ago

What it is about our minds that make it so easy to imagine being up there, on the ledge, looking down, maybe with one foot over... and my palms are sweating heavily already. It's a bit like having a child; I now spend nights worrying about the most ridiculous events that could happen to my daughter. Why do our brains like to torture us like this?

vonwong 12y ago
Ah but standing there on that ledge and looking down knowing that the slightest mis-step could mean the end, where none of your worries past or future matter except the present... That feeling is so magical <3 !
- ChuckMcM 12y ago
  Stress highs are not the same for everyone. Glad you didn't find one of those people during your project.
- kordless 12y ago
  Those are similar to feelings associated with awakening as well. I'm not saying they are the same thing, but I'd put my money on them being related.
- jwise0 12y ago
  I'm not sure why you got downvoted for this, but I wanted to say that the point you're trying to make is not in vain. Different people have different risk tolerances, and even enjoy different levels of risk: and, of course, we combat fear of risk by having knowledge of what the real consequences are and what our limits are. Some of the pieces that highlight Alex Honnold's work [1] as a free solo climber bring to fore a very similar experience: the emptiness and clarity inside you of knowing that you must focus 100% on what you're doing is said to be quite liberating. [1] e.g., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itIRdx1pJ2I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itIRdx1pJ2I
anigbrowl 12y ago
Because 99.9% of the time those inbuilt reflexes are what keep you and others alive; people who don't have them get Darwin awards. I was glad to see they used safety equipment, especially since they were working with non-professionals, but I was annoyed that they didn't mention it in the article and played it down in preference of the breathless self-affirming schtick. Safety protocols matter, because they're what makes the difference between everyone going home after having done something difficult and had a life affirming experience, and going home with PTSD or not going home at all. The photographer standing on the corner of the building with no safety so he can take a selfie? Fuck him. Doing that on your own or with similarly risk-tolerant friends? OK, enjoy your dangerous hobby, I can appreciate your enjoyment of it as a spectator and relate indirectly to high-risk situations I am comfortable with. Involving an audience of people (on the rooftop) while demonstrating such a disregard for safety? Horrible passive-aggressive behavior that burdens everyone else with significant mental and legal risk, not to mention his employer. If this took place in a professional context (eg of a commercial film/photo shoot) that would be an instant firing offense of the never-hire-this-person-again variety. If you're going to do dangerous stuff in a group of mixed ability, you have an ethical and professional obligation to adhere to and demonstrate the highest safety standards. If you want an entourage to witness how badass you are (as opposed to leveraging that through your creative work) then you're a walking liability. Edit: I see Von Wong arrived here at the discussion. I'm going to leave the above up unedited, not to be personally insulting but because it expresses my sincere annoyance about this issue.
- smacktoward 12y ago
  > If you want an entourage to witness how badass you are (as opposed to leveraging that through your creative work) then you're a walking liability. Yeah. It's like the old joke: what are every true redneck's last words? "Hey y'all, watch this!"
  - linuxlizard 12y ago
    "Hold my beer!"
- jonahx 12y ago
deleted 12y ago
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Zelphyr 12y ago
> Why do our brains like to torture us like this? It sucks but its the same aspect of our mind that thinks up the amazing things like skyscrapers and cameras that we're then able to build. Imagination. :) For contrast look up stories of the woman with a damaged amygdala who literally has no fear whatsoever. She has to have people around her to keep her from doing dumb things like pick up poisonous snakes.

Springtime 12y ago

Reminds me of Li Wei's famous skyscraper photo sessions [1] in which the artist is seen being kicked off the top and suspended outside a window, amongst other similarly daring photographs. Only a minimal use of post-processing to simply remove the fine wires attached. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stMg-DxhHCA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stMg-DxhHCA

state 12y ago

Can't help but think of this guy: http://humzadeas.tumblr.com/image/105666488345 http://humzadeas.tumblr.com/image/105666488345 https://vimeo.com/104818943 https://vimeo.com/104818943

stevecalifornia 12y ago

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.

Shivetya 12y ago
there are enough videos out of Asia and Russia if you want to feel real anxiety. The daring do of so many young people never ceases to amaze me. While I appreciate the attempt to artfully present this type of thrill seeking little beats a go pro on a stick or one handed hanging from building framework. Dressing up makes it too hollywood and who needs that when real life is all more impressive
- danellis 12y ago
  It's 'derring-do', just so you know.
kordless 12y ago
> The only time anxiety kicked in was the picture of the whole team posing for a shot at the corner. Especially the one guy giving a thumbs up toward the middle left. There's no way he's tied in and he's standing on the ledge. One misstep by anyone there and he goes over. At least that's the way it looks. Edit: Here's the sidewalk immediately below the location shoot: https://www.google.com/maps/@37.789224,-122.40034,3a,75y,8.78h,83.23t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sr8EIdMu5UwKdu7stAI8SSw!2e0 https://www.google.com/maps/@37.789224,-122.40034,3a,75y,8.7...
vonwong 12y ago
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.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/y5ixzup47wcm1tw/BTS_katherine-2.jp... (theres more on the dropbox link:https://www.dropbox.com/sh/bqtxeldmqiacm9y/AACk0lp0tl9ncGvzlOILxaDIa?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/sh/bqtxeldmqiacm9y/AACk0lp0tl9ncGvzl...)

ChuckFrank 12y ago

That rigging looked outrageous. All I saw was one guy holding onto the models. If a model slipped and fell, that guy won't have stood a chance in holding them back. Hopefully the person was themselves hooked into the roof, and the rigging was hooked into the roof, with him acting on belay. But I certainly didn't see that. I'm so glad nothing bad happened, but this seemed irresponsible from a safety and technical standpoint. (I mean even the camera rig looked flimsy.)

vonwong 12y ago
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.
- anigbrowl 12y ago
  Obviously you were using a small lightweight camera, but a single c-stand and a few sandbags is not really adequate for this sort of work. Yeah, it'll work fine 99 times out of 100. It's the 100th time that you overengineer for. Those rotary clamps sometimes fail, eg because sufficient strain and a history of overtightening causes one of the screw threads to shear, and then your arm slides right out despite the sandbag on the end. In windy environments the momentary strains are much higher than the steady one of the weight. Had that happened in this case, the arm and the camera would have been traveling at >100mph when it hit the ground, on the busiest streets in the city. When you rig something that could put someone else at risk, rather than just what's attached to the rig, you build with the assumption that each individual component may catastrophically fail. At the very least, you should have had a second stand farther back with an arm clamped to the near end of your working arm, plus you should have one person on each stand whose only job is to watch the stand. What you have here is OK for the height of a garden shed or the deck of a low-rise apartment building. It's absolutely not OK for the roof of a skyscraper, man. And that's with the thing just bearing the camera load. You had the models using your load-bearing stand, which you are holding with only one hand, to steady themselves as they step up on the edge wall. They're gripping it well above your point of contact. If one of them lost it, s/he would have pulled the whole rig down, exponentially increasing the chances of the arm coming free. Or the camera coming off its mount. Or the ballast bag on the arm vaulting over the side. Fort that matter, at the start of the video you're leaning out videotaping yourself with a camcorder that isn't visibly secured to anything and that doesn't have any gaffer's tape securing the battery to the camera. At this height anything that falls presents a deadly danger to the people in the street below. A camcorder battery is certainly heavy enough to kill someone. Sure, you're a careful guy, you've probably never dropped your camera. But even though nobody means to drop a heavy light or an expensive lens or a c-stand or a camera or a sandbag, I've seen it happen many many times in the middle of film production. Shooting without permits is one thing, disregarding well-established safety practices is quite another.

vonwong 12y ago

If anyone has access to cranes in san francisco, I'd love to do a round #2 and take things even further haha :) This rooftop took quite a bit of scouting around to get but man was it worth it. Love SFO, wish I could visit again!

deleted 12y ago
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markdown 12y ago
OT: Your announcements section mentions a workshop in Fiji, but the links are broken.

bstar77 12y ago

I'm sure I could handle challenging heights if I had to in an emergency, but looking at those pics is giving me vertigo in my chair.

goshx 12y ago

If those are real pictures, why did you make them look like if they were created in 3D? Doesn't that defeat the purpose?

redindian75 12y ago

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 deride.

smacktoward 12y ago
It's like riding a roller coaster or doing a bungee jump -- you know intellectually that you're strapped in tight and therefore safe; but your lizard brain, the part that operates at a deep subconscious level, doesn't get that message, so it's still scary and/or thrilling.
- Retra 12y ago
  That's great, but watching someone else ride a roller coaster doesn't communicate that feeling at all.
TheOtherHobbes 12y ago
Why did this need to be Hollywoodised? It's plenty scary - and more emotional, IMO - showing ordinary people doing terrifying things, even if they're tethered.
jacalata 12y ago
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?

BorisMelnik 12y ago

something about this makes me incredibly nervous and provokes a lot of anxiety, I can't even look at these photos. that said, I'm sure that is the sort of emotion they are looking to elicit, well done!

azinman2 12y ago
They're also giving me vertigo

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

edw519 12y ago

2 things made me sick today, the code I have to maintain and looking at these pictures. I never thought I'd say it, but I think I'll stick with the code. (Great job, OP!)

davidw 12y ago

Yikes. I don't like going beyond about the 6th story of a building, let alone something like that. I have a wicked strong fear of heights.

jedisct1 12y ago

This is awesome. I'm a huge huge huge fan of Von Wong's work. He takes things to the extreme and produces unique and mindblowing images. And I had the opportunity to meet him in person, the guy is fascinating and very humble.

shostack 12y ago

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-HdCJH8G/A 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-5vKv7k9/A 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.

startupfounder 12y ago

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/artsspecial/07FLOATER/07FLOATER-superJumbo.jpg http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2012/09/07/arts/artsspec... http://news.auroraphotos.com/wp-content/uploads/petzl.jpg 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-VbFFSy7FKJHCNTgayZTQeQ.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/O32BWH3s0qkaAheqLeEQXSqxZkrVUsQrZ6GnuPKXM9fW9uzryjJM9MCXFS0qoaBW https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/content_link/O32BWH3s0qkaA... [1]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/content_link/CG8GkzYscTabCnMS6nGxjgiE71vqOp6d0w03OkAnSJ69NY02vbVTFiuPjU7JkPpV https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/content_link/CG8GkzYscTabC... [2]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/content_link/8NXYjfzC6a5RVcQTXuS2gP88SfIQA2372T66ZtMmJVhPndWTPLQCOp0O7WSTgksw https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/content_link/8NXYjfzC6a5RV...

CyberDildonics 12y ago

Pretentious Photoshopped bullshit with no reason anyone couldn't do the same thing. A harness and a camera on a pole. Truly the Davinci of our time.

seccess 12y ago

Seeing these pictures reminds me of this video of workers climbing a 1700ft TV tower [0]. Its pretty intense even to just watch, that is some real-world superhero courage right there! [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7k4Xk1mEwmI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7k4Xk1mEwmI