My top 10 rooftopping photos and my entry for the biggest fear photography contest

My Top 10 Rooftopping Photos

I finally got around to installing Discord last night. I jumped on a couple of the channels and came across this biggest fear photography contest hosted by @claudiaz. I am not sure if heights are truly my biggest fear, but it is definitely one that I have faced head on many times and taken photos of. All of these images are from 2012-13, heading west and spending vast amounts of time in nature has chilled me out considerably and I no longer have the desire to do this. It is fun looking back at these photos however, lots of crazy memories and no regrets.

1. 70 Story Rooftop in Chicago


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2. Tower Crane in Minneapolis


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3. Hotel Rooftop Perch in Chicago


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4. 70 Story Rooftop in Chicago


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5. Factory Smoke Stack Climb


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6. Rafters in an Abandoned Power Plant


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7. Hotel Rooftop in Chicago


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8. Church Steeple Scaffolding Climb


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9. Condo Rooftop in Chicago


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10. Hotel Rooftop in Chicago


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Bonus: Vinny on the Edge!


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All photos posted on this account are original works by Brian Guiney @fivealive55. I am gifting the images to the public domain so they are free downloads and can be used in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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I get that feeling in my stomach from heights... Hate it :D But nice post!

Rooftopping is pretty much the act of chasing that feeling, but the more you do it the more elusive the feeling becomes. Eventually you get used to the heights and you have to push it further to get the feeling back, its basically a drug, fun to dabble with but at some point you have to quit before you take things to far.

Crazy photos ;D Can imagine what you mean by stopping at a certain point.

Holy cow. That’s so cool. Thanks for sharing. I always have an urge in the back of my mind to jump off and I actively have to suppress it. Your heart must have been pumping in each of these shots. How did you access all these rooftops?

The pumping heart is always what drove me. For me this feeling was more excitement than fear. I accessed the rooftops by simply being bold enough to walk up the stairs and open the door or latch to the roof. This activity has blown up on instagram and a few people have died so roofs are now being locked and alarmed. This is one of the reasons I don't even attempt anymore, it's not nearly as casual as it was just 5 years ago. Unlocked roof access was common place back then. Also the stairwells with roof access are always marked as such in the US due to the fire code.

Makes sense. There are too many people that are just doing risky things on the roofs like pullups and handstands. I guess now you just let the drone take the risks!
Being up there must be reinvigorating. Did you take many shots of skylines while up there?

Yeah it has blown up a lot in just the past 5 years and everyone is taking it further and further. This is true about the drone, it is such an amazing tool for photography. I took skyline shots as well. I am not so sure why I havn't posted more of them, I think because the shots are older and all backed up on external drives so they are a bit out of sight out of mind when I go to make a new post. It looks like I made one such post but I will try to do more of them, I have some killer cityscapes from all the rooftops.

I hear you. Since starting in Steemit, I have a desire to go back and find old RAW files as well. Looking forward to seeing more epic photos!

thanks for the submissions

I'm shaking right now. :|

The climb up that smoke stack must have been a bitch, not for difficulty level but holding on to that little pipe would have broken my nerves every time a shake might reverb through it would suck so much I would have to wear brown pants if I wanted to climb it.

The photography and scenes are also very nice, I feel more awe for the scene itself than maybe experiencing any of the fear one might by being their yourself, I do find it classic that you always look like you are thinking: "Oh shit not again, let there just not be a gust of wind" then a slight breeze comes up and you might just need those brown pants.

Your right about that small pipe, basically a piece of conduit as it was not very strong. I did my best to never put much weight on that and used it more to maintain balance. I remember feeling very secure when I was on one of the lips but each time I moved up one was super dicey. The worst part about this photo is that this was actually after I already climbed to the top, I came back down and decided to stage this in action climbing photo. My camera was on a timer, I don't remember how long but I was rushing up to get position for the photo .