Nearly 1,776 feet above Manhattan, Joe Buonocore did something very few others would: he looked down.

Instead of vertigo, Buonocore, a journeyman wireman and specialist climber for New York Local 3, captured his mind-bending view of fellow member Chris Bugeaunu hanging from the spire of One World Trade Center.

Don't worry, the iPhone was attached to a lanyard. When you are more than a quarter-mile off the ground, everything is.

"It's like working Pinocchio up there," Buonocore said.

His picture was one of hundreds submitted for the 19th Annual IBEW Photo Contest, and it rose high above the other 14 finalists during the month-long online vote. It won nearly one in five of more than 7,000 votes cast.

The finalists this year included new takes on classic subjects that show up year after year, including "power lines against a glorious sunset," and "members at work in beautiful places."

But this year's finalists went far beyond the expected. How many of us have seen a nuclear reactor refueled or dawn's light reflecting off water erupting from cliff-side spillways?

More than any recent contest, portraits featured prominently among the finalists and two were voter favorites. The second-place winner's subject is unmistakably an individual, Honolulu Local 1260's Cyana Stevens, captured doing what binds the members of the IBEW together: hard work, skillfully done.

We'd love to see more. So, turn your phones to landscape, max out the resolution, and start capturing your brothers and sisters close-up. Let the world see who we are, and in our faces, our strength.

From the street, the spire atop One World Trade Center looks impossibly delicate and far away, a slender needle hung with what look like small silver spheres.

Not for Buonocore and the other eight members of the Local 3 climbing crew. For them, the 408-foot spire — which on its own would be taller than the tallest building in at least 14 states — is a vertical job site and second home. For two years they have been transforming it from a decorative flourish into the indispensable heart of New York's media, radio, television, and communications system.

In this picture, taken in July, Buonocore and Bugeaunu were replacing HDTV antennas. On another day, they installed dishes to receive broadcasts from TV trucks or relays for the NYPD's communications system. And most days, when they take their breaks, out come the cameras.

"We all take pictures. When we are above the clouds; when fog rolls in from Brooklyn; the sunsets and sunrises," Buonocore said. "Our phones are full of them."

It's one of the advantages when your work starts where the office building ends.

Buonocore said several of the crew submitted pictures for the contest and agreed that any money they won would go to the Local 3 strike fund to support the thousands of members who have been striking against Charter Communications for nearly a year.