New York
New York rewards early starts more than any other city in this catalogue. The Brooklyn Bridge is a private walkway at six in the morning and an unusable crowd by nine; Washington Street in DUMBO — the one frame everybody comes for — has a queue of tripods from eight onward and a clear street before seven. Nothing about the city changes to accommodate a photograph, so the session is planned around the hour instead. The permit picture is simpler than its reputation. The Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment does not require a permit for handheld shooting on a sidewalk that does not assert exclusive use of the space. Set down a tripod, bring lighting, or hold a spot, and you need one — free of charge, but conditional on a million dollars of general liability insurance, which is the part that separates working photographers from everyone else. City parks are a separate authority again with a separate application. What that means in practice: most portrait, engagement and family work here happens handheld and needs nothing. It is worth knowing which side of the line you are on before you are standing on Washington Street at seven in the morning explaining yourself.
October is the best month and the most contested — clear air, low sun, foliage in the parks, and every wedding in the northeast. Late April and May run a close second with magnolia and cherry in the park and softer crowds. July and August are humid and hazy; the light is poor between ten and five and excellent at 6am. January and February give you cold, empty streets and the cleanest architectural light of the year, which is why editorial shoots happen then and nobody else does.
The Manhattan Bridge framed between two warehouse walls. The frame is genuinely as good as its reputation and genuinely as crowded; the difference between a photograph and a queue is about ninety minutes of morning.
The most-requested proposal frame in the United States. Photograph from the shoreline looking back at the bridge rather than standing on it — the bridge is narrow, it is a thoroughfare, and the picture is better from the bank anyway.
Lower Manhattan across the water with the bridge on your right. The one place in the city where the skyline, a bridge and open sky are in the same frame without a wide lens distorting everybody in it.
The light shafts through the east windows are largely a thing of photographs from the 1930s, but the concourse at mid-morning on a weekday is genuinely usable, and the balconies give you height nobody else has.
Midtown from directly across the East River, with the Pepsi-Cola sign in the foreground. Twenty minutes from Midtown and it has a tenth of the people that any Manhattan waterfront does.
These come under the New York rate: a photographer travels out from the city at no extra charge, and the session is priced exactly as it would be in New York itself.
For handheld photography on a public sidewalk that does not block the space, no — the New York City Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment does not require a permit for that. You do need one, free of charge, the moment you use a tripod, lighting or props, or assert exclusive use of any part of a street. That free permit requires proof of $1 million in general liability insurance, which is the practical barrier. City parks are administered separately by NYC Parks and need their own permit.
The hour after sunrise, in almost every location in this city. Landmarks like Washington Street in DUMBO and Bow Bridge in Central Park are effectively empty until about 7:30am and unusable by 9am, so the difference between a clean frame and a crowd is the difference between a 6am and an 8am start. Evening golden hour works well on the Brooklyn and Queens waterfronts, which face west across the river.
October, for clear air, low sun and foliage in the parks — which is also why it is the busiest wedding month in the northeast and the hardest to book. Late April and May are the next best, with blossom in Central Park and thinner crowds. January and February are underrated: bitterly cold, but the light is the cleanest of the year and the streets are empty.
Yes, and no permit is needed for a handheld proposal shoot in areas of the park open to the public. Bow Bridge and the Gapstow Bridge are the two most-requested locations and both work best between sunrise and 8am. A tripod, props or a staged setup would move you into permit territory with NYC Parks, so proposal coverage here is shot handheld with a long lens from a distance.