crystal city

All photos available for print and licensing >

As many times as I’ve mentioned my friend, Larry on the blog, I’ve finally taken a picture of him! LOL, sort of. This was taken from the Altaire rooftop in Arlington, VA. We were actually leaving the rooftop when he was a few steps ahead of me. I saw him walk past this divider, I told him to stop, and act like he was taking a picture. I think this turned out cooler than I had imagined! I loved how the silhouette turned out.

Also really looking forward to going to New York this weekend. Besides PhotoPlus, I plan on just shooting a lot around the city. So this is basically what I’ll be looking like if I were a guy with a backward hat on. LOL.

Let me know if you’ll be in New York this weekend too!

My camera settings for this image are F6.3 at 1/800th sec and ISO 200 with my Sony A7II and 70-200mm zoom lens.

All photos available for print and licensing >

Another one from Crystal City’s Altaire apartment building. I love this view at sunrise. It’s so interesting to watch the city wake up and this is the perfect place to do it. I think what I like most about this image is all the layers. The curvature on the road goes so nicely with the formation of the water in front of the Washington Monument.

In other news, later this week I’ll be heading up to New York with Andrew. I’ll be in and out of PhotoPlus, so if you’re there, let me know! Its my first time at any kind of photography convention like this so I have no idea what to expect. All I know is that I’m in for a good time! Plus if you have any other NY photo/food recommendations let me know. Andrew and I do try to go at least once a year, but I’m always looking for new places to go 🙂

My camera settings for this image are F5 at 0.8 sec and ISO 400 with my Sony A7II and 70-200mm zoom lens.

All photos available for print and licensing >

One week ago today, I was with my friend Larry on the Altaire rooftop again. It probably the best view I’ve ever seen of the nation’s capital. I feel so lucky every time I get to go up there.

So the first time we were up there, we were visiting during sunset. The sunset was amazing and the night pictures were even better. But I wondered what it looked like during sunrise. So when the opportunity came up, I had to jump on it. I know this isn’t the usual kind of sunrise images I post, but I really like it. It’s the Friday morning commute in and out of DC with a little haziness in the sky. I love that you can see the Washington Monument, Jefferson Memorial, and the US Capitol all in one frame. But if you look even closer, you’ll see the Basilica of the National Shrine, Smithsonian Natural History Museum, and the Old Post Office!

It’s so interesting to see all the individual cars and where they’re headed on 395. I don’t know, I really like it. What do you think?

Big thanks again to Altaire for the opportunity to shoot on your rooftop.

My camera settings for this image are F6.3 at 1/160th sec and ISO 200 with my Sony A7II and 70-200mm zoom lens.

All photos available for print and licensing >

From the top of the Altaire luxury apartments in Crystal City, Virginia. I still can’t get over this view.

Although the Lincoln Memorial isn’t as predominately seen from this viewpoint, it was still so cool to capture.  I think it’s because you see the memorial from the side, which isn’t seen as often but it is surrounded by so many trees. I really had to zoom in with my lens to capture this.

But it also raises the question, should landscape images be photographed in landscape mode? Meaning vertical or horizontal? I feel like the majority of images I capture are in the vertical orientation. Not for any reason other than I think the composition usually looks better that way. I sort of see it as a way of “naturally” cropping and zooming in to a subject. Yes, it is more phone-friendly as well because it takes up the screen but I know traditional photographers will always photograph in the horizontal.

A couple of years ago, my friend, Mike who at the time worked at Modern Luxury DC magazine, said that magazine editors prefer the vertical orientation as well since that’s how magazines are read. Ever since then I was trying to get into the habit and it kinda stuck.

Obviously, this image is horizontal, but I think it worked because my main focus was to show all the layers behind the Lincoln Memorial. I tried cropping it in vertical, but it just didn’t work.

So I guess I’m saying that the orientation depends on the image but in general, you will usually see my images vertical. What about you?

My camera settings for this image is F9 at 1/100th sec and ISO 800 with my Sony A7II and my kind friend, Larry let me use his 100-400mm lens for this shot.

All photos available for print and licensing >

From the top of Altaire’s rooftop in Crystal City, Virginia is one of the best views of the Washington DC memorials I had ever seen. It’s rare to get such an elevated, unobstructed view. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, it took my breath away.

This image was taken as the sunset was starting to burn. I totally wasn’t expecting it because I didn’t think the clouds looked like the right “sunset clouds” but it was definitely a welcomed surprise! So I quickly tried to set up my shot while looking at the United States Air Force Memorial. It wasn’t quite working out since I had focused mainly on the memorial and the beautiful red sky wasn’t showing in the image. So I took a few steps back so I could at least get a little bit of the color. I loved the way this turned out. I love how the red in the sky matches the red in the back brake lights of the cars. I think if I had to do it all over again, I would make the exposure just a  little bit longer so the cars in the foreground were a little bit more blurred but I think that’s just me being nitpicky. Other than that, I think this turned out to be very cool.

Gotta love those summer sunsets 🙂

My camera settings for this image is F13 at 0.3 sec and ISO 125 with my Sony A7II and 100-400mm

 

All photos available for print and licensing >

Last week I got invited to go to Altaire’s rooftop. If you don’t know Altaire, it is a luxury apartment complex right off 395 in Crystal City.

It’s been a while since I’ve been to Crystal City in Arlington, Virginia but I’ve always known it for the Pentagon and a few good restaurants. It has actually come up in conversation recently because Amazon has decided to build an office there. But other than that, I’ve never really spent that much time there.

So I was excited to get the invite. I was wondering what kind of views I could get from Crystal City since I’ve never actually photographed anything there. HOLY COW! My jaw dropped. The views are stunning. I’m pretty sure I’ll be sharing images from here for a while because I was literally like a kid in a candy store just snapping away. I can’t even imagine what it would be like to live in one of these apartments and waking up with a view like this. I don’t think I would ever leave my house. Either that or set up a tripod on my balcony and just time lapse it all day. LOL.

This image was taken just after sunset. I was waiting for the sun to go down so that I could get these car trails along the highway. I think it’s so interesting to look at all the different layers of this image and try to figure out where everything is located. For example, I think those purple lights in front of the US Capitol building is the Wharf, right?

Thanks again to the good people at Altaire for having Larry and I there. I had a B-L-A-S-T!

My camera settings for this image is F4 at 0.8 seconds and ISO 800 with my Sony A7II and 70-200mm zoom lens.