This was captured with a DSLR and a 19mm shifting lens, from a balcony of another building.
It's mostly an exercise in angles and symmetry. The wedge-shaped dark cloud that appeared overhead, following the lines of the buildings, created a fortuitous moment.
The Waldorf was closed for an extensive renovation shortly after this was made and has not yet re-opened as a hotel. Many of the hotel rooms are being converted into condo apartments.
The Waldorf-Astoria is perhaps New York's most prominent monument to jazz age luxury and glamor. It's the traditional residence for US presidents and foreign heads of state when in town (the "presidential suite" is meant rather literally there).
Built over the underground railyard of Grand Central Terminal, the hotel boasts a private siding and platform where guests can park their personal railcars(!), with a direct elevator to the lobby. (Andy Warhol once threw a party on the platform.)
#photography nerditry:
I make mostly (but not exclusively) B&W images (at least for my fine art work). Is it worth using a dedicated monochrome sensor?
Most digital cameras are designed to record color, using a special mask in front of the sensor called a "Bayer filter". This allows color information to be derived from the raw sensor output, which otherwise would just record brightness. But the Bayer filter can also reduce effective resolution of the image a bit.
In my experiments, I found that for some of my lenses (at the widest end of the spectrum), there's no noticeable difference on any image. These lenses are right at the edge of the resolution capability of the sensor, and just don't project any more detail on the sensor than what the color version can resolve.
But for other lenses (the more moderate focal lengths), the difference is visible, though it depends on the color mix of the subject. The achromatic images are generally a wee bit sharper.
Many achromatic sensors (which omit the Bayer filter) also omit the IR-cut filter. If you shoot in daylight or in settings where IR is present, you have to add an IR cut filter to the lens to maintain sharpness.
But this also opens a range of new flexibility. Instead of an IR-cut filter, you can instead use a filter that cuts out visible light and passes only IR. This allows you to make (monochrome) images of the infrared spectrum, which can have a dramatically different look.
Breaking News: Camera company releases new camera. Influencers worldwide are calling it a must-have "everyday carry" relegating the previously recommended one (just six months ago - which was doing just fine) to the bin. Meanwhile in the real world the used market remains a great place to find bargains that meet 99% of photographers' needs at a fraction of the price. It also helps ever-so-slightly in the reduction of environmental waste, too.