Photographing Manhattanhenge.

[Homebrew]

Hi. This weekend is Manhattanhenge. Basically, it's when because of New York City's non-east-west grid alignment the sun can be seen setting exactly down the street.

I'd like to try to get good photographs of this. Here are some poor ones I took a few years back. They were taken at 34th and Park, two blocks west of the Empire State Building, which you see in the picutres.

Basically, I want to get the sunset, obviously. But I also want some detail on the buildings if possible and get a real feel that this is occuring in New York City. Any advice? Wide angle and close to the buildings, or telephoto and further away to take advantage of foreshortening? Long exposure and risk blowing out the sun or short and get too little light from the buildings? Any input would certainly be appreciated.

A few difficulties: 1) There are a lot of people taking pictures at the prime intersections, so if I use any appreciable exposure time I'll probably have to live with a disturbing bottom of the picture or crop it. 2) The sun is also at the bottom, so cropping is a problem. 3) Using a tripod in the middle of the street is frowned upon. I can do it, but only for ~20 seconds at a time and of course I risk people walking in front of the camera. The pictures in that flickr group were taken handheld, sometimes with the camera held high (and not steadily) above my head. 4) Manhattan is pretty flat for walking purposes, but it's hilly for photography purposes -- there's a hump which runs north-south and crosses the important cross streets at approximately 3rd Ave and 42nd St., Park and 34th, 5th and 23rd, Park and 14th. 57th is pretty clear, I think. 5) Finally, even though the sun is at the bottom of the frame, there's a lot more light the higher you go. I expect there to be at least four stops of light in any picture which captures a skyscraper.