east potomac park

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To say the 2021 cherry blossom season was really different is an understatement.

They came about a week earlier than expected which worked out well because crowds were a lot more manageable. There were road closures around the tidal basin, no in-person festivals celebrating the blooms, and the Jefferson Memorial is STILL under scaffolding.

Luckily, the blossoms were as beautiful as ever. I’m glad I was able to get out there when I could. I hit up my usual spots, tested out a new camera lens, and came home with some images I was really excited about.

Washington Monument

Since parking was really limited this year, Ohio Dr and the East Potomac Park parking lots were all closed, I had to get creative with the places I parked. Most of the time that meant parking on Jefferson Dr or Constitution Ave and walking past the Washington Monument to get to the Tidal Basin. I didn’t mind because I’ve always enjoyed these cherry trees as well. Although they aren’t as big as the ones by the Tidal Basin, they are beautiful trees that frame the Washington Monument.

Tidal Basin

Cherry blossoms usually last about a week, maybe 10 days if we have some really nice weather. However, if it rains or gets really windy, the petals start falling off the flowers and start turning into green leaves. I think most locals know this and by the time the first rainstorm hits, a lot of people will stop going to the tidal basin, but it’s probably my favorite time to go. Puddles are everywhere and I love it when the petals start flying off and land in the water and all over the ground.

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I almost forgot I had this one.

When I have a really good photo day like I did this day, I tend to go home really excited about my images and process a bunch at a time. No rhyme or reason to any of it. Sometimes they make it to social media, sometimes they just live on my desktop for however long. I don’t know, it’s just a photoshop partay and everyone is invited. LOL

See some of the other images from this day here and here.

So I can’t believe I forgot about it. I think this image turned out really cool and I love the mood that it captures. The fog was low and intense this day. I think the bare trees just add to the entire vibe and I love it. I don’t know if I would have been able to capture it if I weren’t walking around that day with my friend, Birch. We walked a lot but we also walked around in areas that I don’t usually go. So seeing this new perspective definietly inspired me. My favorite part is the touch of color you see in the grass. What’s crazy is that 99.9% of my images are in color. Even the ones I posted last week. All color, no black and white.

On a totally random side note, I’m obsessed with this song now. It’s on Justin Timberlake’s new album and it features one of my favorite singers of all time, Alicia Keys. The song is called “Morning Light” and it totally gives off this warm, easy, bob your head kind of mood. I love it. Download it. You won’t regret it. I promise.

My camera settings for this image is F5.6 at 1/250th of a second at ISO 320 with my Sony A7II on my 28-70mm.

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Going through some of my older images, I ran across this one. It is funny that I remember the exact day that I took it too. It’s the same day I took this image. You can’t see the sky or the sunrise as clear in the previous image but this is what it looked like from behind the peepholes. Pretty cool!

I also remember thinking that this particular day wasn’t going to be that great for sunrise. I arrived a little early and it looked like it was going to be too cloudy to have any kind of color. It’s ok, it happens sometimes. I figured I would just take the time to go out and try to find some new, interesting compositions and save them for when the sky was looking just right. By the way, the previous image was my “new and interesting composition” 🙂 Fortunately for me, I was wrong about the sunrise. The sky turned out to be way better than expected and I really love how this image turned out. I feel like theres every color of the rainbow represented in this image which makes me even happier to look at it. Even though I’ve shot this same scene a hundred times, I do not ever get bored of it. Its such a classic Washington DC shot and the reflection from the tidal basin is perfect. I couldn’t have asked for a better way to start the day than this.

The settings for this image was F22 at 0.8 seconds and ISO 80 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm lens. Sorry I don’t remember if this was shot on a tripod or not. Knowing me it probably wasn’t. I was probably just using the ledge of the pedestrian bridge as a sturdy surface and hoping for the best.

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Already over the cold weather. Can we just skip winter and go straight to spring? Actually we need one good snow storm and then it can go to spring. K thx.