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Watch A Gorgeous Night Flight Turn NYC Into A Gleaming Lego City


January 12, 2015 | Rhett Jones

Photographer Vincent Laforet has flown “aerial missions” over NYC more that 50 times, but he’s never gone this high while doing it. The results are pretty incredible. Using some powerful gear, the images turn the city into a richly detailed, glimmering circuit board that might make you feel like you actually live in the movie Tron instead of an increasingly gentrified corporate playground. Laforet had this to say on his blog:

One veteran pilot that we often fly with refused to go up to the altitude we were at … He said that “helicopters are not meant to live in that realm” – which I kind of agree with following this flight …

This flight required extensive planning and special clearances – we were actually flying ABOVE all of the airline traffic landing at JFK, LGA and Newark airports …

I have to admit that it was very odd to be looking at airplanes – big ones: jetliners – flying beneath you!

The flight took the photographer to 7,500 feet above the Big Apple. Now that he’s back on the ground, he confirms that the images are exactly what he’s “dreamed of capturing for decades.” You can see the process along with shots in David Geffin’s video above and check out Laforet’s blog for hi-res stills.

(Image: Vincent Laforet, Video: )