ducks

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Hi,

Long time no speak. Sorry about that and I hope it’s never this long again. My world got rocked at the end of August and just now finding the time to sit down and be thoughtful of my life in the past few months.

To sum things up, I had my baby almost 2 months premature. What started out as a regular visit to my doctors, ended up being a 10-day stay in the hospital and delivering at 33 weeks and 1 day. Little baby Tony spent 3 weeks in the NICU but we’re all doing great now. Bringing him home was the happiest but also one of the scariest days of my life. How am I responsible for this little baby?

In general, motherhood has been one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life. Everything in my life changed immediately and my priorities shifted massively. For the first two months, every week seemed like it brought a new challenge or something I was not aware of. Whether it’s questioning if he’s getting enough to eat, if he’s sleeping enough, or even if he’s sleeping too much? I was not prepared for how much I’d love this little boy but how much I’d worry about him all at the same time. My life turned into doomsday scrolling on google at 3 am all while looking at pictures of him on my phone missing him and crying about how much I loved him. The emotions after labor are nuts!

After a while, I started to feel like I was losing myself. I hadn’t picked up the camera in weeks and I missed being able to wander without having to worry about anything else.

Then one day I got a message that my friend, Andy was leaving DC. A group of people was getting together for one last sunrise with him. As soon as I read it, I knew I had to go. It was a clear sky but it still brought all kinds of drama with the sky column and fog. I’m grateful for this outing because it made me realize that it is still possible to go out to shoot, even with a baby. So from that point on, I told myself that I would try my best to go out at least once a week to shoot.

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It’s as if they’re coming right at you! LOL

But the cherry blossoms are coming! It’s so crazy to say because it’s only the beginning of March, but we had such a warm winter season in the Washington DC area that the flowers are expected to bloom in a couple of weeks. I’m pretty sure the National Park Service will be announcing their estimated peak dates soon, and when they do, I’ll be sure to update my guide to the Washington DC Cherry Blossoms.

As for now, I’m just enjoying images I’ve captured in previous years of the blooms.

My camera setting for this image are F5.6 at 1/1600th sec and ISO 500 with my Sony A7II and 70-200mm.

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I’m still smiling ear to ear from yesterday’s sunrise.

IGDC held a cherry blossom sunrise walk at the Tidal Basin and it was so fun seeing so many friends at the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial to start the brand new day. They partnered with the Trust for the National Mall and The National Trust to help spread the word about the Tidal Basin. Turns out the Tidal Basin is now a national treasure of the National Trust of Historical Preservation. YAY! But now that means that we all need to rally together to help preserve it. The National Mall Tidal Basin draws millions of visitors to the 107-acre site each year, but it is estimated that as much as $500 million in repairs and upgrades is needed.

As you may have seen in some of my previous images, the flooding can get real bad. Like here and here and it’s just getting worse as the days go on. This effects the cherry blossom trees as well as our ability to even walk around the Tidal Basin.

So if you love the National Mall as much as I do, please consider donating to help save the Tidal Basin so we can enjoy these beautiful blossoms for many more years to come. Click here for more information.

This image was taken during yesterday’s photowalk. It wasn’t a particularly colorful sunrise but it was calm. It made the water so still and reflective that it was almost like a mirror. I loved the way the ducks would cutting through the water but only had a quick second to be able to capture this image before they completely swam away.

Did you also notice the other two ducks in the background?

My camera settings for this image is F7.1 at 1/640th sec at ISO 500 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.

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On a cold, cloudless morning I found myself walking around the US Capitol. I didn’t really have any ideas of what I wanted to capture, I was sort of letting the light guide me. Well, it took me right to the front of the Capitol Reflecting Pool. It’s not a surprise to see a lot of birds or ducks wading in the pool. It’s also not a surprise to see the water a little choppy. But what really drew me to capturing the scene was the amazing orange glow that was coming from the Washington Monument from the early morning sun and reflecting in the water.

I love it. I love how the early morning colors sort of look like a pastel painting towards the top of the pool. I love how the birds are breaking up the abstractness but also all lined up in a row. But I also love the mystery of that orange line, directly in the middle of the image. Something about it really draws me in.

In other news, tomorrow morning I’ll be hopping on a flight to Las Vegas for the weekend. I’m really looking forward to it since I have so many memories of the city. When I was young, my mom and I would go every year to visit my aunt and her family. I used to love going to Circus Circus and play all the games but the best was escaping the Vegas heat and sliding down water slides with my cousins at Wet n Wild. This weekend will be fun because it’s for a family wedding and it will be such a mini family reunion. Looking forward to seeing my family and hopefully being able to sneak away for a little bit and take some pics 🙂

My camera settings for this image is f4 at 1/1600 sec and ISO 1000 with my Sony A7II and 70-200mm lens.

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HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2019! WOW. Not to total ignore 2019 but everytime I think 2019, I can’t help but think 2020 is just around the corner and that is just bananas to me. Like can you imagine people saying that they were born in 2020? The number is just crazy to me. P.S. Where are the flying cars at?

Anyways…

Much like my top travel images of 2018, I like to reminisce and look back on my favorite images from Washington DC from the past year. It makes me feel so fortunate to live in the Nation’s Capital. I love being able to hop in my car and within minutes be among some of the most recognizable and loved landmarks in the world. I feel extremely blessed and look forward to another year of capturing more images.

Click on each image to read the original blog post but I’ll try to add some additional light on these images now that I’ve sat on them for a while. In no particular order except chronological, here are my favorite images of 2018.

fog, tidal basin, winter, weather, umbrella, stranger, candid, washington dc, national mall, moody, cherry blossom trees, trunk, photowalk,

This day was definietly a highlight of the winter season. I remember we had some crazy foggy mornings but on this particular day, the fog happened in the middle of the day. Oh yea, it was raining too. Luckily, it was on a Sunday and I didn’t have much else going on. So what better way than to walk around the National Mall than with my friend, Birch. I still love how everything lines up in this image, even the little reflection you see in the puddle behind the lady is so interesting to see.

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A little break from Norway images for this one beautiful morning in Washington DC. Even while we were in Norway, I heard it was raining in Washington at the same time. It rained when we got back and even a week after we landed. But at that point I had so many Norway images to keep me busy that I didn’t even care.

After a week or so, I started to get that itch again. I needed to just go out with my camera and get creative. Luckily I saw that there was going to be fog one morning instead of rain. So I woke up extra early and headed to the National Mall. I didn’t see any fog, but I did see some beautiful color in the sky. I walked around the Lincoln Memorial and captured a few images but then decided to head down to the Reflecting Pool to see if I could get any cool shots there. Walking down the steps, there was this huge puddle. To be honest, the puddle is always there, but this time it was especially big. Probably from all the rain we had been getting. It was great. I kneeled down to get some shots when I noticed a duck enjoying the puddle as well. I moved over to try to line the duck up with the monument while at the same time not trying to scare him away. I love the perspective and how the duck in the foreground looks just as big as the Washington Monument in the background. Luckily the sky stayed beautiful while I was lining everything up because it didn’t last much longer after that. It went pretty grey but I still went home happy just being able to get out there and shoot.

My camera settings for this image is F8 at 0.6sec ISO 2000 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.