dumbarton oaks

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Every year Washington DC welcomes millions of visitors traveling to the National Mall to take in all the sights and history. Many will start coming in the springtime to catch a glimpse of the beautiful cherry blossom trees at the Tidal Basin. They are alluring, but can sometimes be elusive. Especially when you are dealing with nature, you never know exactly when they are going to bloom or how long they will even last. In general, they will stick around for a week to 10 days. This already leaves a short window of time to see them and that doesn’t include the fact that these flowers are fragile and can fall off their branches with a sudden gust of wind or rain.

So this guide is for all you flower nature lovers who may have missed the cherry blossoms and are here to see what else the city has to offer. Don’t worry because there’s a lot! From Saucer Magnolias to Star Magnolias, Tulips and Forsythia, there is no shortage of beautiful blossoms in the city. You just have to know where to go to see them.

But if you are only interested in the cherry blossoms, I’ve got your back. Click here for the cherry blossom guide!

The National Mall:

Washington DC, especially the mall area, is a very nice area to walk. I highly suggest just taking the day to wander and get lost. There is no doubt that you will run into flowers and beautiful trees while walking around the area. Even the side streets that lead up to the Mall have pretty florets to look at. But if you’re on a time crunch, here are a few specific places to go:

Enid A Haupt Garden

Click here to read more

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On the same photo walk that I captured this image, I also captured this image of my friend, Andy. It’s fun to go out shooting with friends. You can place them in scenes where I would usually have to wait for someone to pass by and hope for the shot. When I’m with friends, I know I’ll get exactly what I was looking for.

If it weren’t for Andy, I would have never been able to capture this. I basically asked him to smoosh into a corner so that I can take a picture of his shoes. There would have been no amount of time that I could have waited for that to organically to happen. LOL.

But it was perfect because Andy is known for his red shoes. I’m pretty sure he purchased them just so he can take pictures of them. I don’t think there has been a time where I haven’t seen him wear those shoes. So after I told him that I wanted to concentrate on just his shoes, he told me he was wearing his valentine’s day socks that his girlfriend gave him. PERFECT!  I asked him to pull up the legs of his pants and smoosh into the corner.

Just a fun photo for your Thursday.

My camera settings for this image is F5.6 at 1/1600 and ISO 400 with my Sony A7II with my Sony A7II and 70-200mm.

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One of my favorite places in Washington DC is Dumbarton Oaks. I always look forward to going, but mostly in the springtime. You just automatically feel like you have been transported to Europe or something because of the architecture and just the abundance of flowers and plants. Ok, maybe not Europe but you definietly don’t feel like you’re in the capital city anymore.

So after cherry blossom season was over, I met up with my friend, Andy to walk around and take pictures. It just so happened that the Orangery was our first stop coming into the garden area and our last before we left. The first time we were there, it was crowded with a tour group so we wanted to wait a bit for people to clear out before taking pictures. I’m so glad we did because I just love the way this one turned out.

The lights and shadows coming from the ceiling above was so eye catching. I loved the patterns it was creating, especially on the plant in the corner. So I got down low to try to exaggerate the shadows a little bit more to fill up the frame. I just can’t stop looking at the lights on the plant.

But you can see behind the plant and how the interior is just covered in these vines. If you time it right, you can actually see wisteria hanging from them on the outside Orangery because it’s covered with vines on the exterior too. OMG it just takes my breath away everytime.

My camera settings for this image is F5.6 at 1/500th sec and ISO 400 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.

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I spent yesterday afternoon in Dumbarton Oaks photographing the wisteria there. Can I tell you that Wisteria Hysteria is a real thing? They are so beautiful in real life. I must have taken a million pics. Not really but I can not wait to look through those images. It was actually my second time there this season and I can’t get enough of that place. Ever since I visited last year with Andrew, I made a mental note that I had go in the spring. I bet fall is nice there too. Let me know if you’ve ever been in the autumn time. I wonder if there are a lot of colorful trees.

Well anyways, this image was from my first trip this season. I think my favorite part of the gardens at that time were these magnolias. They were so big and hardy (is that the right word to describe them?) that I don’t think I could hold one in one hand alone. *cat heart eye emoji* Obviously I didn’t want to touch them but I spent a significant amount of time staring up and circling these trees with my camera until I found the perfect sun flare. Love you, spring!

PS Happy Cinco de Mayo mañana. I usually don’t celebrate holidays unless it’s Thanksgiving or Mothers day or something like that, but I’ll be celebrating tomorrow. I had the best week ever! Thank you all so much for the positive feedback to Snap DC. I could not be more excited about it and I am even more excited for you to hold it in your hands! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!! And yes, celebrations always include pizza 🙂

My camera settings for this image is F22 at 1/25th of a second at ISO 200 with my Sony A7II and 16-35 mm wide angle lens.

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Officially home from California and could not be happier. Our trip to San Diego was a blast. I had such a great time being on the west coast. I spent everyday but one (when it was raining) photographing the city and I loved every minute of it. Now, I have so many images to go through. I’m pretty sure I took almost a thousand if not more. LOL. So get ready for some foggy ocean images coming soon 🙂

On my way home I picked up two copies of the Washingtonian Magazine, one for me and one for my mom, because I have 2 images published in the January issue! It’s their “Our Favorite Places” issue and they’ve highlighted some pretty cool places in the city. One of them being the image above, Dumbarton Oaks. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you’ll know that I went there for the very first time this past summer. I can’t wait to go back again in the spring. I know that place will be flourishing in all kinds of beauty.

The second image I have on there is on page 76 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial I took back in 2012. It’s a full page image and was so excited to see how well it turned out! You may remember it because I captured it at the same time I took this one.

So if you haven’t already, pick up the January issue of the Washingtonian and let me know if you think they’ve left out any places that should be on the list. And a big MUCHAS GRACIAS to Washingtonian for publishing my work. It’s always such an honor to see my images in print.

My camera settings for this image is F/7.1 at 1/30th of a second and ISO 80 with my Sony A7II and 28-70mm lens.

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I did it! I said I would and I did. I finally visited Dumbarton Oaks garden and parks. Also managed to get Andrew to come with me too! I don’t know how that happened because it was a super hot and humid day when we went. It was 90 degrees but felt like it was closer to 100 with all the humidity. By the end of the visit, my dress was completely stuck to my back from sweat.

T O T A L L Y  W O R T H  I T.

As soon as I walked in, I felt like I was in Paris again. The gardens was all so beautiful and lush. Every tree and bush was manicured so beautifully. There was something so incredible to see in every corner. Its hard to say which part was my favorite. Can say it all was my fav? I definietly know I want to go back soon and spend more time there. I was also thinking how pretty it would be when it’s all covered in snow. *heart eyes cat emoji*

Anyways, this is the first building you see once you walk in. It must be used as an event space or something like that because it was completely empty. It was so beautiful to me to see it like that because it made the plants and ivy stand out even more. The light from the “roof” was the thing that attracted me the most to this little corner, but I love that empty vase. It makes things look a lot less perfect which I really enjoy. The whole time we were walking through the garden I asked Andrew if we could get remarried in this space. Not sure how he felt about that considering we got married less than 5 years ago and I’m already planning our second wedding.

Whatevs. We’re doing it!