Washington DC: my first photo tourism experience (lots of pics!)

After many years of waiting, I finally got a chance to go to Washington DC. And now that I've been drawn into photography, this was a perfect opportunity to put into practice what I've learned (in which I have many members of this forum to thank for these lessons).

Before I went, I was pretty nervous about being able to capture something approaching the essence of the memorials, museums and other sites. There were so many places to see over a relatively short period of time, it was hard to go to all the places I wanted when lighting would be more ideal. On one occasion though, I woke up at 5am (which felt like 2am since I'm from the west coast) to get some pictures from the Netherlands Carillon. It was hard work, and I had the blisters to show for it, but I found my desire to take a lot of pictures enhanced my experience of what there is to see in DC.

Anyways, thanks for looking, and c&c is desired and welcome. And all pics were with a k10d



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Fallen Reporters Memorial @ Newseum
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Pullitzer Prize winning Photographs @ Newseum - very moving photography!!
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You pay for what you get but you don't necessarily get what you pay for

Hello Mike:

Thank you for the photo tour of Washington, DC. It has been many years since I last visited the Capitol region, it looks much more impressive today than it did in the 1960s... the new memorials are a wonderful tribute to the fallen servicemen and women who gave their lives for the principles of freedom and democracy.

You have an excellent sense of composition and lighting... every shot is a work of art.

You certainly covered a great deal of territory - any images of the trip from Portland? That must have been a memorable voyage...

Norm.

Those are very good. Thanks for posting.

Thank you
Russell

Thanks for looking Russel. I'm glad you liked them!
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Mike,

I would be proud to have taken those shots.
Nice work and thanks for sharing.

Eric
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http://www.pbase.com/altadena_eric

Norm1234 said:

Hello Mike:

Thank you for the photo tour of Washington, DC. It has been many
years since I last visited the Capitol region, it looks much more
impressive today than it did in the 1960s... the new memorials are a
wonderful tribute to the fallen servicemen and women who gave their
lives for the principles of freedom and democracy.

Click to expand...

Absolutely... it was quite inspiring to experience what these memorials represent; the sacrifice and commitment to service of the men and women that these individuals gave is humbling.

Norm1234 said:

You have an excellent sense of composition and lighting... every shot
is a work of art.

Click to expand...

Thanks for these very kind words! Of course, taking pics of great art makes the photographer look better )

Norm1234 said:

You certainly covered a great deal of territory - any images of the
trip from Portland? That must have been a memorable voyage...

Norm.

Click to expand...

Memorable... uncomfortable... long lol. 3 stops over 9 hours = not fun. But thankfully, I had a lot to do on the way there like finalizing my plans on the trip. As far as pics on the way, I am a bit uncomfortable with taking pics in an airport or plane as I felt security might not be too happy with me. Plus I was in the middle seat on 3 of the 4 legs so I didn't think I'd have a lot of shooting opportunities... Fortunately, I knew there would be many many chances for good pics once I was in DC.

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Thanks so much!

rondeann said:

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You pay for what you get but you don't necessarily get what you pay for

Click to expand...

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marigold said:

Mike,

I would be proud to have taken those shots.
Nice work and thanks for sharing.

Eric

Click to expand...

Thanks a lot Eric, those are very nice words; I really appreciate it!
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This picture represents the speed I had to move to get from place to place I wish I had another week to really soak in all the things I was seeing since getting bombarded by so much tended to leave me a bit numb by the end of the day.



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Amazing series, Mike!! The light and noise control were superb.

BTW, what lens did you use?

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--Togu--

Your shots are all very nice. The Vietnam memorial with the Washington Monument in the reflection is especially nice.
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Russ
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rfortson/
http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/russfortson
Even bad photography can be fun

CGJung said:

Amazing series, Mike!! The light and noise control were superb.

BTW, what lens did you use?

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--Togu--

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Thanks Togu! Some of the shots I posted, on closer full res inspection, will reveal a fair amount of noise on the 400 and 800 iso shots, but nothing that a little noise reduction in PSP couldn't help reduce. I found though that NR in PSP often left a lot of artifacts in the dark areas, so it's far from ideal software.

As far as lenses that I brought, the most commonly used was the Sigma 17-35. The Zenitar 14mm fisheye, Pentax 50 f1.4, Pentax m 100 2.8 macro, and Tamron 70-300 were also used. I was able to use a monopod in the National Cathedral and the Zoo, while a tripod was used on the night shots at the WW2 memorial and the outside of the Jefferson memorial (tripods were not allowed to be used inside, so the statue pic was handheld - yay to shake reduction!).

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Russ Houston said:

Your shots are all very nice. The Vietnam memorial with the
Washington Monument in the reflection is especially nice.
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Russ
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rfortson/
http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/russfortson
Even bad photography can be fun

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Thanks Russ! I am very happy with that shot so thanks for commenting.
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Incredible shots! Really wonderful composition and everything. Really makes me see what I am missing out on. For me to get to the zoo is about a 20 minute metro ride. I have lived within 30 minutes of DC my whole life and never go there. It might sound absurd but with those awesome shots this local boy might have to ask you for some pointers and places to go ;-)

Again love the pictures!!

Chris

All fabulous shots. I would be overjoyed if I had taken them. The night time fountain shot is my favourite.
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enthusiastic novice