This unusual cityscape of New York's Time Square was taken by photographer Stephen Wilkes, who spent up to 15 hours and shot close to 1,500 photos to create just one composite image. (Stephen Wilkes/Caters News Agency)

“Weather is critical, especially wind,” photographer Stephen Wilkes explained to Weather.com about capturing photos for his “Day to Night” series, which feature dramatic cityscapes shot from high-vantage points. “When I photograph from a lift truck 50 to 100 feet in the air, any wind higher than 5 to 10 mph will make shooting long night exposures almost impossible.”

“I can have the most perfect sunrise and day and yet if I get high winds in the evening, the shoot is a total wash out,” Wilkes said. “We do a lot of check of weather-and-wind wise before we decide on our optimum shoot day.”

Wilkes, whose first “Day to Night” image was for an assignment from “New York” magazine, shoots each city for 12-15 hours from a locked camera position in a cherry picker or lift truck. After snapping roughly 1,500 images he edits it down to 50 photos and then blends them together into one seamless image.

“Each image can take as long as four months to complete. One month in editing, and three months of working with my re-toucher, to get the image look exactly as I have envisioned it,” said Wilkes.

The New Yorker says his city will always have “a special place” in his heart, but he’s loved shooting in other iconic cities as well.

“As I’ve begun to shoot ‘Day to Night’ around the world, I’m very excited about capturing the magic of all the great cities of the world.”

The collection of images above features day-to-night transitions in Times Square, Shanghai’s skyline, the Western Wall in Jerusalem and among others. To see more of Wilkes’ photography visit his website.

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