Among other things, 500px.com gives me the opportunity to find out which of my images are popular with people and which ones are not. Already I’ve been surprised several times, but I guess that’s why people do market research. Over the weekend, I put up some more pictures I took in the past, and one of them rocketed to the top of the heap.
I call the category to which this image belongs “Airplane Mode” as a play on the term for safe, non-transmitting electronic devices. The above image was taken on a Delta flight out of Sea-Tac airport in Seattle. We left the ground right at dawn, and flew over the Cascade mountain range as the sun continued to rise. I could see a break in the clouds coming (looking through the window in front of the one next to me) and got ready to capture this scene where the clouds are on one side and the mountains are clear on the other. There’s also a bit of an S-curve going on.
I thought it was kind of cool once I got it through post-processing, but I didn’t think it was 500px-popular cool. I posted this to my 500px site along with several others that I thought were much more interesting. This one, however, has been my most popular so far.
500px.com has given me some amazing inspiration in the short time I’ve been a member. Every time I look at the updated list of popular photos I am humbled by the truly excellent photographers and artists out there. I am also motivated to strive for greater goals.














