The 5am (search for a photo I don’t have) Club

Summit One Vanderbilt, somewhere I’ve been easily in double figures.

Aug 25, 2026

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Last Wednesday was World Photography Day. My first one back in New York. I make it sound like it’s Christmas or something but for photographers, it can open doors that usually aren’t accessible throughout the rest of the year. In this case, one of my favourite places to shoot in New York, Summit One Vanderbilt, for sunrise.

The Chrysler Building lit gold at night seen from above, the dark East River and the lights of Queens behind it.

Two years ago, I did the same thing, except that morning it was overcast. Which might sound like a wasted opportunity but it really wasn’t. The good part came after the disappointment of no sunrise: the crowd (and it was a crowd) cleared out, and there were very few of us left up there. That’s a rare thing in that building.

So when an email arrived saying it was happening again, I didn’t hesitate.

I met a friend outside at 4.30am for a 5am entrance. Clear sky this time, so a different morning from two years ago.

A wide pre-sunrise view over Manhattan from high above, the city still lit below, a long orange band along the horizon and dark cloud streaks above it.

I’ve been up Summit a lot. Easily in double figures now, and I keep going back, first of all because I enjoy it. It’s one of the better observation decks in New York. It can be a bit of an Instagrammer’s dream up there, but for me its proximity to the Chrysler Building and the view of the Empire State can’t be beaten.

But going back to the same place over and over provides a challenge. It stops being about getting the picture and starts being about getting a different one. Something I don’t already have.

That’s the test. If I walk out with something new then the decision to go was right, and more than that, it tells me I’ll go again, because I’m still finding things.

So that’s what I set out to do.

I was there from 5am until 9am. The first part was the obvious part: wait for the sun, tripod up, do the thing everybody’s there to do. I did also end up taking pictures from the bathroom, which sounds worse than it is. The window in there has a good angle on the sun coming up and a view over Central Park, and it’s an angle I’d never had. This could have been my something-I-don’t-already-have picture. Here’s the thing, though.

Central Park in dawn light seen from above, the thin towers of Billionaires' Row rising in front of it, pastel cloud across the sky and the Hudson at the left.

A woman sitting on a mirrored floor reflected in a mirrored wall watching the sun rise over the water, her reflections beneath her and a phone propped up on the floor.

Yesterday I was walking down a street with my wife. We are currently looking for a new apartment. Experience tells us not to live close to a hospital or fire station, otherwise you’ll be listening to sirens all the time. We passed a group of people taking photos of a fire engine pulling out of a station. For some, fire engines are something to avoid. For others it’s a photo opp. All that is to say, the sun rising over New York with a view over Central Park floats a lot of people’s boats. For me, the sun was probably five minutes up when I put the tripod away and started walking around, looking for something unique.

The Empire State Building lit gold, small and centred on the horizon, with the entire pale morning sky and the building's own reflection repeated in the mirrored floor beneath.

And then there’s the other good thing about going on that particular day. As far as I’m aware, it’s the only time they let you move up and down the levels. Normally it’s a one-way system: the escalators only go up, and then the lifts take you all the way back down to the street. On that morning most of the escalators are switched off so that people use the stairs in both directions.

It sounds like a small thing. It isn’t. The light keeps changing, and different people are standing in different places at different times, so something catches your eye on a floor you’ve already done and you go back to it. You keep moving. That’s how four hours goes by in a flash. That and the coffee.

A man in a pale shirt photographing the sunrise through an arched opening in a dark perforated screen, the sky pink behind him.

A person leaning on a glass wall doubled by the mirrored panels beside them and doubled again by the mirrored floor, a tall spire standing between the two figures, in black and white.

A grey view of downtown Manhattan from inside a mirrored glass box, everything repeated in the floor, a woman in a red dress standing on the ledge as the only colour in the picture.

The photographs I’m sharing this week are all from that morning, and I should say plainly that they don’t hang together. There’s no cohesive style running through them. Some are the postcard, some are people, one is a pop of red, and the last two are me playing around with the camera.

The downtown skyline pulled into fine vertical streaks by a moving camera, one tall tower still readable as a pale shaft against blue.

A tall spire dissolved into fine vertical streaks by a moving camera, the buildings beneath it pulled into pale ribbons, in black and white.

Photos like this from the Summit and 77 other locations in NYC are all on a map I created to help you find new places to shoot and what you might discover there. It’s free here.

That variety is what I was after. Go somewhere I know too well, come back with something I didn’t already have.

I feel that I did that. Different for me at least. So I’ll be going again.

Is there a place you keep returning to? I’m curious whether you’re still finding new things in your favourite spots.

Until next week, happy shooting.

Paul

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