Haha. Sweet. Every once in a while, i’ll get a remark or two about some of my pictures on my flickr portfolio, but there’s one picture in particular that seems to grab a lot of attention. I received a message from a wikipedian user sam916 telling me that my picture “SFO at Night” (titled quite literally) was nominated for 2006 Picture of the Year, and had become a finalist! (I didn’t win, but being top 10 was pretty cool!
Reading some of the comments from the contest was also rewarding in itself. Here are some of my favorites:
- The SFO by night has been my wallpaper for months. Excellent picture.
- The usual experience with airports such as SFO is full of stress. It’s great to take a step back (or above in this case) and look at a beautiful shot showing the elegant functional design.
- This one has great technical application and educational use, and I’d be proud to have it in my portfolio.
- Weil ich schon mal dort war und ihn selbst erlebt habe… (.. umm. yeah!)
Giving just a little bit of background, I took this photo while I was on a private cessna piloted by a gentleman who kindly asked me if I’d like to fly on his plane just for fun, on the condition that I send him my photos. He took me twice around the bay area… once during the day, and another during the night. The night shots were quite difficult and unfortunately 75% of my shots turned out not being presentable because of the lack of light and as well as the wind ripping through the cockpit cabin causing an unsteady shot (due to window opening and closing for each shot — that was kinda fun). I got lucky though, and this one came out quite nice. 
If you’re interested, I’ve uploaded the complete set of shots on my flickr portfolio. [Bay Area Aerials]
