(upbeat music)
- My name's Kyle, I'm new here at Buzzfeed,
and I just moved to Manhattan.
Before working at Buzzfeed,
I'd spend a lot of time outdoors taking photographs,
but now since I live in New York City,
I hardly photograph anything anymore.
So for the next few days, I'm going to explore Manhattan
and take the best Instagram photo of New York City ever.
Let's go.
So an important thing I focus on
with all my photos is location,
so I'm gonna head downtown first
and check out the Manhattan and the Brooklyn Bridge
and hopefully get some good shots there.
(upbeat music)
So I just got back to the office.
I'm scrolling through the photos now.
And they did not come out so good.
I think I need to take a new approach.
But I have an idea.
So there's this photographer named Jason,
who I've been following on Instagram for kind of a while.
He takes pictures only of Manhattan
and they are freaking crazy looking.
They are so, so cool.
I'm just gonna DM him and see if he wants to meet up
and take some pictures.
So it's the next day, I just got off the phone with Jason.
He said he can meet up tomorrow in Brooklyn, so
that's the plan.
What's up? - Hey, great to meet you.
- I'm Kyle, nice to meet you.
So I'm excited to learn about photography.
Tell me a little about yourself.
- I'm Jason Risorto, I'm a Brooklyn based landscape
and cityscape photographer.
My images are known for being
bright sunrises and sunsets
with Manhattan as the backdrop,
and I also like to really incorporate
foreground and midground elements
to make it more of a landscape type of photo
as opposed to just a typical New York City shot.
So let's go down to the waterfront.
We're gonna take a few photos
and I'm gonna give you some tips
and hopefully we'll get something great.
(upbeat music)
- [Kyle] So we spent all afternoon
wandering around Brooklyn and taking photos.
Jason gave me lots of tips on how to improve my photography
and talked to me about his approach to Instagram.
We finished the day off taking a sunset photo
of downtown Manhattan before heading home.
(upbeat music)
Before me and Jason split up the other day,
he gave me three challenges to complete.
One of them is to recreate three famous Instagram photos
so I'm gonna do one at the Brooklyn Bridge,
one at the Manhattan Bridge,
and one at the top of The Rock.
Number two, incorporate a friend into one of my photos,
and finally three, wake up for sunrise.
If I can get anything close to what Jason does,
I would be so psyched.
Today, it's not looking great.
It's really cloudy out, but I'm here,
so gonna take the photos anyways.
Right next to the Brooklyn Bridge is another
very popular Instagram spot.
It's the Manhattan Bridge, this blue one right down here.
So recreation number two also
kind of a failure, unfortunately.
I mean, there was a 100 people over there
taking Instagrams, engagement photos,
pregnancy photos, it's just way too busy
to get a shot right now.
For the third recreation, I'm gonna head back
to Manhattan and go to the top
of Rockefeller Center.
Okay, so update on Rockefeller Center.
I went there and it was a two hour wait to get in
and it cost $35.
I don't have $35 to take a picture.
Yeah, I didn't get any good photos today.
Day one's off to not a great start on my own.
Hoping that tomorrow, when I put someone in my photo,
that'll be good, and then hopefully
when I do my early morning photo,
I'll get some really interesting light, so we'll see.
- I'm prepared for the picture, let's do it.
I'm scared, I have to do a handstand.
I should do it shirtless, probably, shouldn't I?
- So Eric decided to take it up a notch
and take his shirt off for the Instagram.
We're going for the one handed handstand right now.
- This is for Kyle, I just care
about Kyle getting views.
I'll do whatever for Kyle.
- All right, let's make it happen.
So I think we got the photo, it looks pretty cool.
Eric did a handstand, but he accidentally
did it in glass.
- Yeah, I'm not flipping you guys off.
I, I'm bleeding, I got glass in my finger.
So I'm gonna go, I have to go get it out.
- We got the picture though,
so I mean, that's what matters right?
- [Eric] Wow, Kyle.
(alarm rings)
- Oh God.
I'm up.
I'm just gonna pack up and head to New Jersey.
Okay, good morning.
So I am up and out of the house before 5:00 AM.
And so far, I'm not liking it.
It's dark and it's kind of cold,
and there's no one around.
Gonna go take my picture now.
All right, so one hour later,
I made it out here to Morris Canal State Park
in New Jersey, I have an awesome view of the city.
I'm just waiting for the sun to come up.
I'm excited, it's freezing out,
but I'm definitely awake now, so that's good.
Just waiting patiently, so.
The sun is slowly starting to rise.
It is getting way colder by the second
right on the water, so
the wind is whipping at my face right now.
Hands are freezing, I forgot gloves today.
♪ See your outline in the dark ♪
♪ And hear the blood run in your heart ♪
♪ When we're in each other's ♪
So update, the pictures are looking better by the second.
This is actually, this is really cool.
And it's actually really peaceful out here.
I never do this, just come out in the morning,
no music or anything, just kind of hanging out by myself.
And there's some geese over there.
I'm still waiting for the sky to kind of
light up the way I'm hoping it will.
To make the photos more interesting for now,
I'm gonna put myself in it.
Coming out onto the rocks and pose.
The sky is starting to look really nice, so that's exciting.
It's getting more and more red back there.
All right, it literally keeps getting better by the second.
Look at that.
All right, that's pretty much it for sunrise.
I mean, I was really hesitant about waking up
and coming out here, but
I've had a great morning,
I think this is really nice, actually.
All right, so is it the best Instagram of New York City?
I mean, probably not, but I think it's pretty good.
And Jason even commented Nice, man.
With that emoji, so.
If you're still watching, I assume you like photography,
so I will tell you a few things that Jason told me.
One is really plan your shot out.
He told me to get to whatever destination I'm headed to
20 to 30 minutes before it's actually time to shoot.
So number two is definitely check the weather,
so to get those really beautiful colors in the sky,
you actually need to have some cloud coverage.
Not a whole lot, you wanna make sure there's a gap
in the horizon, so the sunlight can come through
and bounce off those clouds,
and number three is you don't need a really crazy camera
to get photos, it's all about timing, light and composition.
And I think that's it.
Hopefully, the next photo that I try to take,
I don't need to wake up at 4:00 AM to get it.