Shark in the Sky

It All Begins with a Phone Call

Sometimes it’s an architect or developer looking to capture a signature building in Manhattan from the air. Other times, it’s a steel company that wants a dramatic team photo on their new rooftop patio—1,200 feet above Hudson Yards. Maybe it’s a magazine planning a bold center spread featuring sneaker selfies dangling out the side of a helicopter over Manhattan. Or, just maybe, it’s the Discovery Channel asking you to photograph a shark flying through the skies of New York City.

Yes, that happened.

Shark Week had never really been on my radar, but let’s be honest—everyone in the world knows about it. And when Discovery Channel calls, you answer.

That morning, I was knee-deep in editing, bracing for another spam call about an extended car warranty. Instead, I got a producer asking if I could follow a giant Shark Blimp—yes, a Shark Blimp—around New York City, capturing it against the skyline for an upcoming Shark Week promo. Their original plan involved drone footage over beaches in North Carolina, but weather had grounded the shoot. That’s when, in a stroke of genius, they decided to bring the shark to the greatest city in the world and shoot it properly—from a helicopter.

Of course, we can do that.

A couple of calls later—one to my pilot Jimmy, another to the Shark Blimp pilot—we had a flight window locked in. I initially assumed the blimp had a set route. But when I asked, the pilot told me there was no planned course. “We’ll go wherever you need to get the shot,” he said.

Perfect.

We took off and guided the blimp across some of the most iconic airspace on the planet: circling the southern tip of Manhattan, swooping past the Statue of Liberty, and carving lines over the Hudson and East Rivers. It was, to put it bluntly, a hell of a lot of fun—for both pilots and for me.

Of course, with aerial photography, fun and pressure go hand in hand. Helicopter time is expensive, and opportunities like this don’t come with do-overs. The skies were hazy, which had me on edge—especially with no guarantee that the sun would break through in time. And to add a little extra spice? That same day, a ticker-tape parade was taking place in Midtown to honor our tireless COVID first responders. That meant every news chopper in the city was up in the air, making for a very congested and carefully choreographed sky.

But hey—Sure, we can do that.

At Big City Aerials, every project begins with a call that could take us anywhere. Whether it’s a flying shark, a rooftop playground, or a world-class real estate development, we’re here for the ride. Stay tuned—we’ll keep sharing the wild, beautiful, and downright unexpected stories we capture from above.