SFO crunch

The 10pm to 11pm outbound crunch at San Francisco International Airport on Friday, July 17th, 2009. Departures on Runways 1L/1R as seen from Millbrae.

Better large.

Edit: credit to papa_sierra for letting me know there were some good vantage points in Millbrae.

Qantas Airways Limited flight 74 (Boeing 747-400) can be seen crossing midfield left to right and then departing on 27 28 for Sydney (YSSY).

Before the crunch, there's about 20 minutes where the airport almost goes silent. I also noticed that after 10pm only one departure happens at a time, whereas side by side takeoffs were occuring prior to that. I assume that's for noise control reasons.

Stack of 31 exposures. And to the Millbrae residents who saw me shooting on the sidewalk near your houses, sorry if I bothered you.

[ Edit: This image appears in the September 2009 issue of San Francisco magazine in the "click" feature. Thanks, San Francisco magazine! ]

[ Edit 9/13/09: Prints of this image available via Imagekind here. ]

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Comments

aDsiE pICs> says:

ACTIVITY! insane shot T, nice work!
Posted 5 months ago. ( permalink )

Craigs1 says:

that is one crazy photo.
Posted 5 months ago. ( permalink )

RodolphEneida says:

10/10
Posted 5 months ago. ( permalink )

duncmc says:

Superb and surreal.
Posted 5 months ago. ( permalink )

amybang says:

Those are really sharp departure angles. It never feels like that! Now I want you to go down south and do something similar at Burbank. I bet the planes look like they go vertical there!
Posted 5 months ago. ( permalink )

sfmike22 says:

this is such a cool shot. nice compression with 155mm focal length
Posted 5 months ago. ( permalink )

Sutanto says:

Well done!!!
Posted 5 months ago. ( permalink )

AGrinberg says:

Wow - fantastic - a new view of "string theory"!
Posted 5 months ago. ( permalink )

Jun Seita says:

Super!
Posted 5 months ago. ( permalink )

midendian says:

Wooow!
Posted 5 months ago. ( permalink )

maxxsmart says:

This crazy! That angle looks to be a lot more harsh than when you are in the plane...
Posted 5 months ago. ( permalink )

bats... says:

Whoa. Nicely done.
Posted 5 months ago. ( permalink )

Sar-dico [non ha pagato e non è più pro] says:

Magnifica
Posted 5 months ago. ( permalink )

Nick R2006 says:

The Qantas flight is actually taking off of the 28's.

I also noticed on the upper right corner of the airport field a Virgin America probably doing some engine testing. It's the corner where you mainly see AA and UA at after they do work on the engines. You can see the dust cloud behind the aircraft when they run the engines probably at or close to full power.
Posted 5 months ago. ( permalink )

etgeek (Eric) says:

This is so awesome!! Excellent work!!!

-
Seen in Explore / Interestingness.
Posted 5 months ago. ( permalink )

The Ultimate Tea Cup says:

Great shot - what do you use to stack the photos?
Posted 5 months ago. ( permalink )

(nz)dave says:

great idea and well executed

--
Seen in the group"San Mateo County Group" (?)
Posted 5 months ago. ( permalink )

exxonvaldez says:

Wow, thanks for all the comments and favorites, much appreciated. I wasn't sure if the big stack was the way to go.

amybang: All I need is a place to shoot Burbank from.

Nick R2006: thanks for the runway correction. And I was wondering about that jet in the corner, it kind of just showed up and disappeared.

Ultimate Tea Cup: I use Photoshop CS2 layers in "lighten" mode, plus adjustment layers to keep the background level uniform.
Posted 5 months ago. ( permalink )

jsprhrmsn.photography says:

Amazing all the plane tails in the foreground waiting to take off!

Instant

--
Seen in the interestingness archives. (?)
Posted 5 months ago. ( permalink )

morgen says:

Brilliant, as usual :-)
Posted 5 months ago. ( permalink )

MumbleyJoe says:

That's amazing! Wow... great job. I had always wanted to try this but never pulled a plan together. It's so tough to find such a clear night for it too. this was beautifully executed though - the vantage point is really perfect. A fave for me!
Posted 5 months ago. ( permalink )

oreducks15 says:

Great Photo!!
Posted 5 months ago. ( permalink )

Ken Scott ... busy : \ says:

excellent! I've always wanted to time-lapse a larger air traffic pattern, wondered what it would look like ... thanks for showing me!
Posted 5 months ago. ( permalink )

Сергей' says:

great idea
Posted 5 months ago. ( permalink )

ozgurmulazimoglu says:

Hi, I'm an admin for a group called L'amicizia fa la differenza - Friendship makes the difference, and we'd love to have this added to the group!
Posted 5 months ago. ( permalink )

toleman.hart says:

great idea for an awesome result!
Posted 5 months ago. ( permalink )

Sti@n says:

Wow, that's fantastic. I've never seen anything like this. So creative!
Posted 5 months ago. ( permalink )

Christian_? says:

Great shot!!!
Posted 5 months ago. ( permalink )

Hayri21 says:

This is totally AWESOME!!!
Posted 5 months ago. ( permalink )

pheester says:

One of the most original shots Ive seen in a long time. Bravo.

Congratulations!
Your pic becomes nominee of "Shield Of Excellence"
Please add this photo to the Shield Of Excellence Group.
Please be sure this is tagged "SOE"
Posted 5 months ago. ( permalink )

chris.cler says:

Excellent travail. Très original. C'est la première fois que je vois ce type de photo. Félicitations.
Posted 5 months ago. ( permalink )

blackhalos says:

This is just great! It looks like branches of a tree during Fall!

Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Staring at your "Abyss", and we'd love to have this added to the group!
Posted 5 months ago. ( permalink )

shanghaimike says:

Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Your VERY BEST ever / Invite Only, and we'd love to have this added to the group!

Stunning composition!! Please join us & share your amazing talent at

Red o.O
Your VERY BEST ever / Invite Only
Check out the high quality of our photographers!
I think you belong here!!!!
Posted 5 months ago. ( permalink )

Lenography says:

Awesome shot!
Posted 5 months ago. ( permalink )

BobButcher says:

Superb!
Posted 5 months ago. ( permalink )

~Adriënne~ says:

Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Quality Surroundings *Invite Only* Post 1 Award 2, and we'd love to have this added to the group!

Seen on Explore !!! Awesome shot, congrats: CHAMPAGNE!

----------------------------------------
Very artistic! please join us in:
Adriënnes Magical Moments *Invite Only*
Welcome!
invite code by Adriënne, on Flickr
Pls tag: AdriënnesMagicalMoments
Post 1 award 2 in the pool.
------------------------------------------
Posted 5 months ago. ( permalink )

ـــاريAlAmmariالعـمـــ says:

THIS IS OUTSTANDING

simply WOW
Posted 5 months ago. ( permalink )

•·.·•ë£ï§å•·.·• (away) says:

Cool!!!
Posted 5 months ago. ( permalink )

FRASIERESS says:

Great capture! Late in my career I piloted the Delta "all nighter", which departed in this pack, back to Atlanta often just because I enjoyed the SFO layover. Excellent photostream.
Posted 5 months ago. ( permalink )

heycarrieann331 says:

THAT is an amazing shot!!!!!! Congrats on Explore!
Posted 5 months ago. ( permalink )