The Grand Valley State University parking permits for 2011-2012 feature a photo taken by alumnus Brandon Stickel, on what he said was a random winter night that ended up yielding a good picture.

Stickel, a 2010 management information systems graduate, had his photo selected off of GVSU’s website in the student Flickr section.

Lisa Garringer, parking systems coordinator for GVSU’s Public Safety Department, saw the photo while thinking of how to design the new permits.

“Part of my duties here at GVSU includes designing the parking permits,” Garringer said. “I personally love photography so I was clicking through the student Flickr photos and found Brandon’s.”

Garringer has been in the GVSU public safety department since 2003 and has designed multiple parking permits. She had not specifically planned to use a photo for the background of the permits, but decided after seeing Brandon’s photo that it would be a nice change.

This is the first GVSU permit that includes a photo, while last year’s 50th anniversary permit was the first to include any creative image at all.

Stickel said that the evening he took the photo was quite ordinary.

“I had nothing to do so I grabbed my camera and headed out,” he said. Stickel recognized the spot, the arched entrance to the Allendale Campus, as a good place to take a photo earlier in the week.

Finally, on this Friday evening he had the time to go out and frame his image.

“It was late January or early February,” Stickel said. “I remember it wasn’t too cold out and there wasn’t any snow so I thought the picture would turn out nice.”

To get the trail of traffic lights in the shot Stickel had to be patient.

“I would wait and watch the stop lights,” Stickel said. “Once a few cars were lined up I knew I could get ready to shoot. I was out there for about an hour.”

Stickel uses photography as a hobby, but has never taken photographs professionally.

“I worked in a camera store for five years to get through college,” Stickel said. “I guess that’s where my interest in photography came from.”

He now works for Steelcase as an applications engineer, but said he still tries to get behind the camera when he can.

“It’s a passion,” Stickel said. “When I can find time I still take pictures. I absolutely love to do it.”

Garringer contacted Stickel over the summer to get his permission to use the photo on the permit.

“I was surprised just to find out the photo was on GVSU’s webpage,” Stickel said. “I couldn’t believe they wanted to use it for something else.”

After the permits were designed, Garringer and GVSU wanted to present Stickel with something to commemorate his work.

“The only thing I asked for was one of the passes,” Stickel said. “Just to have and keep for the future.”

Stickel was presented with a commemorative frame featuring four passes by the GVSU Police Department.

“It was very nice,” he said. “Far more than I was asking for.”

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