Joe McNally, a world renowned photographer, posted an jaw-dropping photo to Instagram last week that had some people begging to question just how exactly he managed to pull it off.
McNally posted the photo to Instagram with this message:
“My old battered shoes climbed the [world’s] tallest building today. What an amazing structure! Tweeting from 820 meters straight up!”
Actually he was a little higher than 829.8 meters (or 2,722 feet), standing on the very top of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.
The Burj Khalifa became the tallest man-made structure in the world on April 7, 2008 after having surpassed the KVLY-TV Mast in North Dakota.
McNally’s Instagram photo was shot while he supported himself atop the highest point, which is nothing more than a mechanical structure. The highest floors designed for actual living and working space stop at the tower’s 154th floor. Floors 155 through 163 are used for communication equipment and structural elements only.
Tom Cruise scaled the building in 2011 while shooting Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol . The actor trained for months in order to pull off a stunt, jumping off the building from about two-thirds the way up.
McNally didn’t jump to a nearby aircraft, but apparently he felt he was ready to stand atop the largest structure in the world without any advanced training.
710 meters high on the #BurjKhalifa , looking up at @joemcnallyphoto standing on the top of the world.… http://t.co/zbDKriB9wg
— Drew Gurian (@drewgurian) March 18, 2013
McNally has covered stories for TIME , Fortune , Newsweek , and The New York Times . He’s taken photographs for Sports Illustrated , LIFE , and National Geographic . With a career spanning over 30 years one thing is for certain, this Instagram photo sets a new record for the photographer.
Do you have any Instagram photos that compare? What’s the most insane photo you’ve ever taken?
