Photographer Vincent Laforet captured these absolutely stunning high-altitude photos of New York City at night by hanging himself out of a helicopter hovering at a staggering 7,500 feet. Nobody has ever done this before from this altitude.

“It is both exhilarating and terrifying all at once,” Laforet told Gizmodo. “Let's just start off by saying this was the scariest helicopter "photo mission" of my career. And the most beautiful.”

Indeed, one veteran pilot that Laforet often flew with refused to go up to the altitude they were at, saying that “helicopters are not meant to live in that realm”.

Laforet was on assignment for the Men’s Health Magazine and the photographer proposed shooting the city from an unusually high altitude so that they could capture the lines that are formed by the streets of New York at night. “It was an article about psychology and I’ve always thought that from a high altitude the streets looked like brain “synapses” – at least to me,” he said.

For the shoot, Laforet was armed with multiple Canon 1DX’s, a Mamiya Leaf Credo 50MP digital medium format system, and a huge array of glass for both Canon and Mamiya medium format system. Because helicopters vibrate pretty significantly, Mike had also brought a Kenyon 4x4 gyroscopic stabilizer, which provided stability for lower ISO, slower shutter night shots.

“I was finally able to capture some of the images that I’ve dreamed of capturing for decades,” said Laforet.

via Fstoppers