I've Got a Featured Photo on Flickr!

Repeat that three times fast: "Featured photo on Flickr! Featured photo on Flickr! Featured photo on Flickr!"

Woo hoo!

OK, sorry about that folks -- thanks for indulging me. Now, enough with alliteration! Here's the scoop:

Earlier this evening I was receiving a ton of notifications from Flickr with members of the community "favoriting" and leaving nice comments about the above referenced panorama.

(To embiggen, click on the image above to interact with the panorama, or click below to view it on Flickr.)

I was flummoxed! I couldn't understand what was going on until I discovered that this image was featured today on Flickr's blog.

As it turns out, the folks at Flickr curated this image along with several other images from other  photographers that captured images at either dusk or dawn as part of their "Twilight Colors" gallery.

This is apropos as the photo is of the morning twilight at Bear's Landing in Donner Lake, California.  I literally took the panorama at the crack of dawn many moons ago as part of an equipment test for my Hejnar Photo panoramic head.

Since I sequenced the shots 8+1Z+2N on the Hejnar head, the process took a bit longer than what I'm accustomed to (usually I shoot 4+1N on a 360° Precision Atome). Within moments after capturing the shot the wind began to rise causing ripples on the lake's smooth, glassy surface. Simultaneously, the morning's colors and light quality began to shift considerably and suddenly the magic hour magically disappeared.

For me, this nod from Flickr is pretty epic to be recognized in such a fashion and I'm feeling pretty darn lucky so I may as well go out and get my Powerball ticket now, too! =)

Many thanks to Flickr and a warm "hello" to the fantastic photographers included in this gallery.

Morning Twilight @ Bears' Landing - Donner Lake, California