Commons Picture of the Year 2006: Results

The Wikimedia Commons Picture of the Year 2006 competition is now over, and the winner has been selected. Thank you all for voting. Of the 658 Wikimedians who voted, 83 selected Aurora Borealis as the Wikimedia Commons Picture of 2006. Sans domicile fixe in Paris takes second place with 78 votes. Both Blue Jay and Hoverflies mating in midair had 70 votes and have been awarded joint third place.



Commons Picture of the Year 2006 #1 – 83 votes The Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights, shines above Bear Lake, Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska. Edited version of a photo taken by Senior Airman Joshua Strang. Promoted to Featured pictures on 16 October 2006. Picture of the day of 1 February 2007. Voters' comments: It is striking at both low and high resolution, and the image detail is awesome. It makes me want to go north even though I've had enough of the damned snow already.

A picture like this is not easy to take!

I've seen this from the cockpit window of a 747 over Hudson's Bay--spectacular!

Fantastic! Love the earth.

a beautiful picture.

Beautiful composition and unusually good photo of aurora

A fantastic image of the aurora

Far above the rest. Beyond compare.

has to get my vote, since Wikinews used it

This is a really nice picture. I've always been fond of the Northern Lights.

Beautiful shot

wOw (Capital "O")

simply stunning...

I really like the colours reflecting back in the snow

Very rare. Gives people a distant and mysterious feeling. Excellent.

Earth, our only home, an inconvenient truth.

absolutely beautiful pic, I hope to see it myself some day.

If I had to pic one thing I'd like to see, I'd go with that. Stunning.

Truly amazing, awesome colours, makes me want to move to the Arctic!

beautiful and valuable

Love it, very deserving.

Definitely caught my attention. Loved it.

Very beautiful picture of the Northern Lights (I wish it was this visible in MN)

I've been on that very road, and for some reason it always produces the best lights.

Pure nature.

This is such a great shot!

Real, but unreal.

Natural beauty at its greatist





#2 – 78 votes Sans domicile fixe in Paris. Taken by Wikimedian Eric Pouhier. Promoted to Featured pictures on 5 January 2006. Picture of the day of 9 March 2006. Voters' comments: I wish I knew more about him.

Probably the most informative, and certainly one of the best-composed pictures on the Commons.

This picture is creepy...

that's not a picture, that's a whole story

amazing composition.

I've always liked this pic

The shot is composed beautifully and the lighting is superb.

Great pic, perfect colours and lots of personality!

Beautiful.

Brilliant and intelligent

Easy to overlook in the thumbnails, but it is a portrait not just a "snapshot."

Unbelievably realistic.

Not only a fantastic photograph, but it conveys something more than the rest.

they're all brilliant and beautiful, but this one is very powerful.

compelling shot, composition, lighting, everything.

Absolutely beautiful.

carries information, not only effects

real life

Beautiful picture. The light, tone and grainy quality compliment the subject matter perfectly.

Great photos tell a story, which this one does

A moving picture telling a human story.

The biggest richness; joy of living, even in the poverty

It says so much. I just hope someone renames the picture.

These are all well done informational images, but this is the only photo here that has something to say beyond that.

A stark and dramatic presentation of the bland. Very striking.

This one truly hits a nerve for me.

I wonder how he would feel about this photograph…

wonder if he's seen it..

Pour l'amour de l'humanité...

Amazing detail.

I like great colors, but the subject matter of this one has my vote.

because it's probably the best scene.

It took guts to compose this so carefully. Brutally beautiful.

Birds and different views all are verry nice, but pic 2 tells not only about the depicted person, but also about the condition of a western society. It needs courage and knowledge al well making such a portrait.

This isn't the most beautiful picture, but it is the most important.

It's stark beauty, and inherent poetical nature make it stand out among the other works. The muted colors add to the overall effect producing an image of instant emotional and critical response.

Incredible.

Captivating.





#3 – 70 votes A Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata) in Algonquin Provincial Park, Canada. Taken by Wikimedian Mdf. Promoted to Featured pictures on 29 October 2006. Picture of the day of 27 November 2006. Voters' comments: yep, the lovely birdie! go on.

the little bit of ice on the beak is just the icing on the cake!

Extraordinarily beautiful.

it's so hard to catch them. fantastic.

My favorite in commons.

The clarity even at the highest zoom level is just astonishing.

Beautiful, inspiring, perfect

it's just too cute!

So much precise detail in the plumage, the bit of frost on the beak, and the feet.

exceptionnel !!! : très esthétique (magnifique oiseau dans ce décors de neige, le givre sur le bout du bec...), pédagogique : on voit avec précision l'organisation extérieur du plumage, des couleurs, la texture du bec, la concitution des pattes, on voit la rétine de l'oeil... ; elle témoigne de la spécificité de la force contributive de l'art photographique à la connaissance : impossible pour la plupart d'entre nous d'approcher d'aussi près et de façon statique un oiseau et pouvoir observer ainsi dans les détails son aspect extérieur ! Cette photo est une richesse exptionnelle pour le projet wikipédia !

excellent, exceptional, brilliant.

My favorite, using it as wallpaper.

no visible artifacts and crystal clear!

informative and simple.

Unbelievable clarity...love the snow on the tip of the beak!

Wonderful colours outstanding the snow font.

如詩如畫

for the bluejay

great pic

Love the colors.

Perfect composition, wonderful subject and amazing photographic quality, well beyond most pictures in this final. And a work of a Wikipedian, of course.

Great picture.

The snow on the Jay's beak seals the deal for me.

awesome.

Simple, sweet, and oh so clear.

love the clarity and color of this shot and what really clinched it for me was the bit of snow on the beak!

Beauty and superb technique too.

it's amazing.

Combines all that the POTY should represent.

I like the natural theme of this one.

My favorite since i've seen it first time.

I've never seen a wildlife picture so clear...

It's subtle.

un'immagine bellissima.





#3 – 70 votes Hoverflies mating in midair. Taken by Wikimedian Fir0002. Promoted to Featured pictures on 11 December 2006. Voters' comments: Fir0002, you're a great photographer. I like what you do. Beautiful picture.

Has to be this one.

Encyclopedic.

Just a beautiful picture.

Looks like a very difficult shot.

Quite a unique picture!

amazing.

high quality, and outstanding in its capture of something encyclopedic that would otherwise be basically impossible to see, so it is my pick.

Unique, encyclopedic, and of wonderful quality.

Astonishing technical picture, and by a Wikimedian too.

Its encyclopedic value is great, and it's a well-taken picture.

amazing capture, and encyclopaedic

Excellent, difficult shot.

Incredible shot of fleeting subjects, excellent focus and detail

Amazing clarity for such a fast-moving subject.

Astonishing picture, encyclopaedic value.

The most skillful IMHO

Absolutely wonderful. Fir0002 has done it again. An extremely difficult subject, great encyclopedic value and all in all a tremendous picture.

Some good competition, but this was my instinctive choice, and I don't want to change it.

has highest use value, plus technical difficulty

Sex sells, especially if it's captured in a photograph like this.

Excellent detail, and fascinating subject!

This is absolutely amazing. Two thumbs up for the photographer's skills!

It is a very amazing picture

it's my desktop picture now.

very amazing capture

Cap-in-hand artist

I envy Fir for taking such incredible pictures - this is art!

Visually stunning.

lightning in a bottle.

very original

I can well believe that it took Fir0002 three days to capture that image.

Beautiful...

probably the most difficult to shoot and it has excellent quality.

Unbelievable shot!

An amazing, beautiful, and encyclopedic shot.

It's incredible that someone managed such a shot!





#5 – 66 votes Moon occluded by clouds over San Diego, California. Taken by Wikimedian Rufustelestrat. Promoted to Featured pictures on 18 November 2006. Picture of the day of 25 January 2007. Voters' comments: A great pic ;-)

original

this is the best one!

just about the most wonderful night photography picture I have seen on the Commons, and I have seen a lot .

. Just too damn pretty to be real.

perfect in every way, quality, resolution, composition are amazing, encyclopedic value is not that great but that's why it's on commons after all

Outstanding.

A nice blend of the natural (moon, clouds and lake) and the constructed (cityscape)

Surreal

documents the city beautifully.

Colors and mood

Parce que j'aime les photos de nuit, les panoramas, et que les qualités techniques et esthétiques de cette photo sont irréprochables.

A great image with great colors.

Nice landscape and sky.

Amazing colours - a unique scene.

Doesn't even lok like a picture it is so good

Excellent photo of my childhood city, wonderful.

A wonderful skyline with beautiful colors.

Amazing!

I've always liked cityscapes and the moon shining through the clouds makes so much cooler.

That's a great pic... you get a great sense of "foreboding" in that shot... that could be an opening scene for 24! [TV series]

Wonderful Image

Great pic of San Diego, my hometown!

Very ominous...I love the character of the picture.

Difficult to capture!

i love the contrast between the man civilization and such a beautiful nature

très belles couleurs

Beautiful

great picture.

Extremely atmospheric photograph.

Love it

I love San Diego!

Now there's a jim-dandy picture.





#6 – 62 votes The wreck of the American Star (SS America) seen from land side, Fuerteventura. Taken by Wikimedian Wollex. Promoted to Featured pictures on 24 February 2006. Picture of the day of 24 April 2006. Voters' comments: I really like it a lot, this is an amazing picture.

High enough resolution, suberb composition, fascinating

It is technically maybe not the most perfect. But it has a great atmosphere...

Very beautiful image.

A stunning comment on the relationship of our technological society with the rest of the planet.

You don't see something like that every day.

A haunting photo, looks like a raised Titanic!

this is my favorite considering encyclopedic use and "loveliness"

Simply a great shot enriching commons.

Wow.

Half a ship due to simply the force of nature.

Amazing pic of the ship, I must say.

Very nice picture. Plus bonus points for geotagging!

Apocalypse now... Great shot, strongly evocative!

Really nice detail and color.

Wonderful narrative image.

This looks so unreal; pale colors (I use the same camera, so I know almost all pics are pale as this one :)) add to this feel, and it's as if the ship has come to its grave. The big, old, heavy, unnatural, rusty ship and the unforgiving sea. Beautifully symbolic. :)

it's an unrepeatable shot documenting an encyclopedic event.





#7 – 53 votes Barred Owl (Strix varia) – Whitby, Ontario (Canada). Taken by Wikimedian Mdf. Promoted to Featured pictures on 7 November 2006. Picture of the day of 15 January 2007. Voters' comments: Owls are such lovely birds. I find this photo very soothing.

Ganz, ganz knapp vor 7. Beide unspektakulär, aber präzise fotografiert mit wunderbar zurückhaltenden, natürlichen Farben, hoher enzyklopädischer Relevanz, Schärfeverlauf perfekt.

The owl for knowledge.

Beautiful Wikimedian's picture with good composition, quality and wikipedian interest

great Bird, perfectly sharp

I really love the quietness of this photograph.

the still frosty atmosphere...and I've always loved owls!

That Barred Owl is basically amazing.

I Love the Barred owl its a fantastic animal and a fantastic picture.

I had to go this way - it's just a perfect photograph of a wondrous subject. Who doesn't love owls?! Ok, mice don't, I'll give U that..

It's the one I would most likely use as wallpaper..

Beautiful picture toke by a wikimedian and showing a camouflage example

So beautiful.

Like this bird.

Awesome shot of a magnificent animal.

A magnificient animal in a natural kinglike position. You can even see the (invisible) foreground mirrored in its eyes. My compliments to the photographer!

Excellent

An amazing high resolution picture of an rarely seen owl.

Beautiful picture.

Incredible shot. My wallpaper for a while.

A great business card for all Wikimedia projects.





#8 – 50 votes San Francisco Airport (SFO) at night. Taken by Flickr user Andrew Choy. Promoted to Featured pictures on 4 January 2006. Picture of the day of 22 January 2006. Voters' comments: Weil ich schon mal dort war und ihn selbst erlebt habe...

At first sight looks like something from space opera

Very pretty. I'm using it as my wallpaper.

This is not a flower?

definately best picture of the year! bestes foto des jahres!

I have a duty to pick whichever one has airplanes in it.

Beautiful.

PoTY as the most striking and powerful picture

Love how the lights highlight the building and planes, and I love the layout of the airport.

The most beautiful picture between all.

Spectacular

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.

Very impressive.

The Bay should always win.

Awesome picture!

very cool, makes me proud of the evolution of life on this planet.

Looks like some strange space ship landed there

Amazing picture of SFO at night. Brilliant detail.

This one has great technical application and educational use, and I'd be proud to have it in my portfolio.

airport 4 teh WIN!

Excelent picture!

fascinating to see how beautiful even something as mundane as an airport can be from the right perspective.

It's great

The SFO by night has been my wallpaper for months. Excellent picture.

I think this one has the highest quality in terms of its improvement to an encyclopedia.

The choice was hard. But this is surely a sight you don't have every day.

A truly stunning image.





#9 – 47 votes A paper match igniting. Taken by Wikimedian Sebastian Ritter. Promoted to Featured pictures on 28 October 2006. Picture of the day of 1 January 2007.

Voters' comments: This is a great example of an everyday object turned extraordinary.

There are several excellent choices, to be sure, but this one is the only one that is nearly flawless. An extraordinary photo.

can't even begin to think how this was done

I voted for this one in its original Featured pictures nomination and I still think it is one of the best pictures I have ever seen.

Entten tentten teelikamentten... Lähes kaikki kuvat ovat niin loistavia että mahdoton valita. Tämä näyttää pikkukuvana parhaalta

Beautiful capture, extraordinarily clear

Nice, clean, sharp.

would vote for the flies for information but the match is just a bit more aesthetically pleasing. :)

Incredible!

captured energy.

amazing shot, very difficult to obtain, timeless.

Stunning detail on the beautifully fluid smoke.

That's an amazing shot!

Beautiful colors, difficult to obtain, encyclopedic value is great

This looks awesome and a hard pic to take.

Close to home.

A striking image(hehe). Difficult to take, technically excellent, informative and interesting.

Detailed and very difficult to take. Also something we can't usually see as its too fast and bright.

I've loved fires ever since I became a Boy Scout.

Clear, beautiful pic.





#10 – 45 votes Lunar libration by Wikimedian Tomruen Promoted to Featured pictures on 12 June 2006. Picture of the day of 9 August 2006. Voters' comments: the most interesting.

taking a bunch of PD images and making an informative PD animation out of it is truly inspiring.

Talented creator, smooth animation, incredibly beautiful and fascinating

great work

Who could not like the moo-oon?

educational and a large amount of preparation work.

Motion picture! I've always wanted to see the moon in this aspect.

Beautiful, informative, illuminating. It represents the values of wikipedia perfectly

the animation sold me.

this is also the most useful, imho, for leading to knowledge of a concept.

I heart moon

I chose this one because I think that it is the most educational of the bunch, as fitting for an encyclopedia.

A marvelous illustration of an otherwise difficult to visualize phenomenon.

wonderful picture!

Very informative.

All of the pictures are outstanding, but in the Wiki spirit I have to vote for number 4 because I've actually shown it to a family member to explain the concept.

Impressive animation

For its encyclopedic value and clarity

because of its beauty, uniqueness and importance as an illustration.

It is rare for a single picture to convey so much in so simple a fashion

Makes a difficult concept clear.

All images are extremely good, however this one shows a lot of imagination.

that must have been a real challenge not just skill (and i bet it took a lot) but luck on on the weather also.

Great astronomy animation, congratulations!

I like that it teaches you and is pretty too!

Just great.

