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: For inquiries about prints please see my Flickr profile. ]
Comments and faves
naemickpics.com, Craig Hall Photography, Andreas Reinhold, sfmike22, and 3033 other people added this photo to their favorites.
Adam Hardy (47 months ago | reply)
ACTIVITY! insane shot T, nice work!
Craig Hall Photography (47 months ago | reply)
that is one crazy photo.
` Antony (47 months ago | reply)
10/10
duncmc (47 months ago | reply)
Superb and surreal.
amybang (47 months ago | reply)
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!
sfmike22 (47 months ago | reply)
this is such a cool shot. nice compression with 155mm focal length
A Sutanto (47 months ago | reply)
Well done!!!
AGrinberg (47 months ago | reply)
Wow - fantastic - a new view of "string theory"!
Jun Seita (47 months ago | reply)
Super!
midendian (47 months ago | reply)
Wooow!
maxxsmart (47 months ago | reply)
This crazy! That angle looks to be a lot more harsh than when you are in the plane...
bats... (47 months ago | reply)
Whoa. Nicely done.
Salvatore Furia [pellicolosa-mente] (47 months ago | reply)
Magnifica
Nick R2006 (47 months ago | reply)
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.
etgeek (Eric) (47 months ago | reply)
This is so awesome!! Excellent work!!!
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Seen in Explore / Interestingness.
The Ultimate Tea Cup (47 months ago | reply)
Great shot - what do you use to stack the photos?
(nz)dave (47 months ago | reply)
great idea and well executed
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Seen in the group"San Mateo County Group" (?)
exxonvaldez (47 months ago | reply)
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.
jsprhrmsn.photography (47 months ago | reply)
Amazing all the plane tails in the foreground waiting to take off!
Instant
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Seen in the interestingness archives. (?)
morgen (47 months ago | reply)
Brilliant, as usual :-)
Tyler Westcott (47 months ago | reply)
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!
oreducks15 (47 months ago | reply)
Great Photo!!
Ken Scott (47 months ago | reply)
excellent! I've always wanted to time-lapse a larger air traffic pattern, wondered what it would look like ... thanks for showing me!
Сергей' (47 months ago | reply)
great idea
Ozgurmulazimoglu (47 months ago | reply)
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!
toleman.hart (47 months ago | reply)
great idea for an awesome result!
Sti@n (47 months ago | reply)
Wow, that's fantastic. I've never seen anything like this. So creative!
Christian_3 (47 months ago | reply)
Great shot!!!
Hayri21 (47 months ago | reply)
This is totally AWESOME!!!
pheester (47 months ago | reply)
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"
chris.cler (47 months ago | reply)
Excellent travail. Très original. C'est la première fois que je vois ce type de photo. Félicitations.
blackhalos (47 months ago | reply)
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!
shanghaimike (47 months ago | reply)
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
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I think you belong here!!!!
Leonard Tsang (47 months ago | reply)
Awesome shot!
BobButcher (47 months ago | reply)
Superb!
♥Adriënne - for a better and peaceful world - (47 months ago | reply)
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!
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Very artistic! please join us in:
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ـــاريAlAmmariالعـمـــ (47 months ago | reply)
THIS IS OUTSTANDING
simply WOW
•·.·•ë£ï§å•·.·• (AWAY) (47 months ago | reply)
Cool!!!
FRASIERESS (47 months ago | reply)
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.
heycarrieann331 (47 months ago | reply)
THAT is an amazing shot!!!!!! Congrats on Explore!
bats... (47 months ago | reply)
I had an airline pilot over here today (FedEx and national guard) and he was very excited when he saw this photo. His eyes popped out. And he immediately zeroed in on the one or two planes that got closest to the edge of the runway, shaking his head (not in a good way).
Dave Heuts (47 months ago | reply)
Beautiful processing. Also very nice shots.
Emerson Utracik (EP) (47 months ago | reply)
I would say that this is an exceptional image, but I think you know that already by the number of people that have already said similar, so I won't bother!
Sherry Preston - Almost Back to Normal (47 months ago | reply)
This is so cool!
Tj6106 (47 months ago | reply)
This is simply incredible. There is so much to look at but it is also simple as well. Very nice
camellia35 (47 months ago | reply)
Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Color of Night, and we'd love to have this added to the group!
Echostation (47 months ago | reply)
This. Is. Awesome.
craigbirmingham.com [deleted] (46 months ago | reply)
Fantastic.
Matt Granz Photography (46 months ago | reply)
A great stack! My aunt lives on Benito way up in those same hills, and from my early childhood memories to the present day, I always made and still make time to watch the jets taking off and landing when I visit. You caught the bustle really well.
.Kayne. (46 months ago | reply)
I've never seen a photo like this before, love it!!!