Sunday, August 17, 2014

A Quick Trip to DC...

I hit DC for a day this past week for family purposes, but carved out a day to wander around downtown for some photo opportunities to add to my Washington DC gallery.  Here are a few pics for the effort.

I stayed at the George Washington University Hotel just a few blocks north of the Lincoln Memorial... a hotel with which I was pleasantly surprised given the rate.  I leaped out of bed at 4:30AM to shoot some dark and sunrise pics... OK... maybe "leaped" is kind of a stretch, but I did roll out at 0'dark-thirty and walk down to the mall well before sunrise. 

Those of you that have been to DC in the summer know that the following shot is an impossibility at any time other than the pre-dawn hours. Not another soul in sight...


After a few night shots of the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument, I headed over to the Tidal Basin intending to shoot some good reflection shots of the Jefferson Memorial.  But there was a breeze on the basin that thwarted that plan, so I took some pre-dawn shots of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in the still dark, but brightening skies.



 I headed back to the west end of the reflecting pool to catch some sunrise shots of the Washington Monument.  It wasn't a fabulous sunrise, but not too bad.  A cool front (in August!) left the skies clear and the breeze that was on the Tidal Basin wasn't as pronounced on the reflecting pool, so the reflection of the monument was nice.


 After the sunrise and short nap before check-out, the rest of the day was spent walking all over the mall taking shots of this that and the other.  Here's a shot of the north lawn of the White House.  Check out the spotter on the east wing roof.  I zoomed him up on the camera... he was scoping out the protesters on Pennsylvania Avenue.  Or maybe it was me?



And my home town's namesake... Andrew Jackson against a brilliant blue sky in the Lafayette Square north of the White House.


How about the spectacular architecture of the Library Congress.  It was one of the earliest of the federal buildings and, in your photographer's humble opinion, the most beautiful building in the entire city.  This is the Reading Room.


Next door to the Library is the Supreme Court.  The blue sky provided a nice contrast to Blind Justice.



After a long day of shooting, my feet were hurting and I was tired, so I capped the day off with some sunset shots around the Washington Monument, followed by a long train ride out to the new station at Reston.



See more photos of Washington DC here.

See much more at wlpearce.com.


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