Aerial Photography Contest Results
Mike Madden (from left), Manager of Evanston's Business Performance and Technology Division (BPAT), shows contest winner Joel Freeman the aerial map Freeman won by guessing the date and time Fountain Square was photographed.
Congratulations to Evanston resident Joel Freeman, winner of the city’s Geographic Information System (GIS) aerial photography contest.
Freeman took the city’s community challenge and guessed that the photo of Fountain Square in the city’s new aerial photography was taken at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday, April 15, 2007. Freeman missed the mark by only six minutes; the photo of Fountain Square was actually taken at 1:06 p.m.
Freeman said he used a combination of shadows, the train schedule and weather reports as clues to determine his best guess. There were 103 entries in the contest.
Freeman won a large format glossy aerial photography map of Evanston.
The city launched the contest to feature the new aerial photography, which provides detail and clarity with an extremely high three-inch ground pixel resolution, allowing fire hydrants and other small features to be identified.
Current and accurate photography is an essential part of Evanston’s GIS, which is increasingly being used to provide highly visible and critical services.
There was a tie, so the earliest submission won, which was received on March 10.
WINNING GUESS: April 15th at 1:00 PM
ACTUAL TIME OF PHOTO: April 15th at 1:06 PM
Thank you to all 103 participants!
Curious how people arrived at their guesses? here are a sampling of the theories used:
" Looked at an aerial shot of my home and focused on the shadow cast of my building."
"...Rotary parking deck deserted so probably a Sunday, northbound Metra train at Davis would be near scheduled 1pm stop, no spring plants growing in Merrick Rose Garden..."
"NU had some sailing stuff out along with their boat moored on the platform in the lake ready for lessons that start the 2nd weekend of May, but Boat Launch was still being dredged (usually done in mid April)& no kayaks stored..."
"nobody walking around with cubs hats on, must be before opening day"
"Shadows and the forsythis blooming in the park at Oak and Greenleaf"
"Lucky guess"
"...guessing not Easter morning; church lots with cars, but not full; other traffic light; guessing shadows not yet noon"
Benefits of New Aerial Photography
Current and accurate photography is an essential part of Evanston’s GIS, which is increasingly being used to provide highly visible and critical services. This new set of photography provides detail and clarity with an extremely high three-inch ground pixel resolution, which allows fire hydrants and other small features to be identified.
Evanston’s Fire Chief, Alan Berkowsky states, “We have been using the capabilities of GIS and the aerial photos on the 
laptops (in the fire apparatus) for the last six months. The aerial photography provides us with a unique overview of the property and exposure issues.”
Dave Stoneback, Superintendent of the Water & Sewer Division explains, “We use this information to accurately locate the City's water and sewer infrastructure. This assists us in accurately depicting the locations of these facilities and improves our ability to perform our work.”
Jeff Murphy, Property Standards Supervising Inspector, says “A typical use in Property Standards is to track the historical changes to a structure or other related property information by viewing layers with photos that represent the condition of a parcel in different calendar years. For example, if we receive a complaint about a landscaping business parking commercial vehicles in a residential area, it could be necessary to examine the historical use of the property through aerial photos in conjunction with other historical city records.”