evening

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Taken at the same time I captured this image, this was one of the first I captured from that evening.

I love how the tree branches are framing the Washington Monument. It sort of gives the whole image a creepy feeling.

I’ve heard some people say that they don’t like photographing in the winter for the exact reason, but I think photographing the trees with bare branches gives it a totally different mood that can be beautiful as well. What do you think?

Obviously photographing it in spring or fall would give it more color, but you may not be able to see the framing because of all the leaves.

My camera settings for this image are F7.1 at 2 secs at ISO 250 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide-angle lens on a tripod.

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So the next morning, I obviously had to wake up to check on the fog again. 

Luckily, I got to the Tidal Basin early. The fog really seemed to have rolled in overnight and you could barely see the Washington Monument anymore. I love how even though its dark on top, the sunrise colors are still shining through. Or maybe that’s just the light pollution from the city. Either way, I love how it came out.

I’m also glad that I went early because they actually start turning off the Washington Monument lights about 30 minutes before sunrise too. As soon as they turn it off, it’s almost like a dark monster in the air. It’s hard to see and even harder to photograph.

My camera settings for this image are F4 at 1 sec and ISO 320 with my Sony A7II and 70-200mm zoom lens.

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After a full day of rain, Andrew and I randomly decided to just go out to eat dinner. Weekdays we usually stay in and eat at home but Andrew got some good news so to celebrate, we went out. As he was finishing up some work, I was checking on the weather. I saw that we had a dense fog warning so I decided to bring my camera “just in case”.

Dinner was great. Dessert was even better. So after we were done, I suggested that we should go to the Mall to see what it looked like. I parked by the Monument and it was actually Andrew’s first time being so close. It was so weird because I had been there a million times. LOL.

Anyways, as we were walking back to the car and I decided to take one more look at the monument and I noticed that the fog and lights were creating this really cool shadow alongside the Washington Monument. I had to capture it. It was very cool to see.

My camera settings for this image are F4 at 1/30th sec and ISO 5000 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide-angle lens.

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I’ve been to the National Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall many times on my visits to Taipei. Each time I go creates a special memory but I wasn’t really planning on going on this trip. For one, I didn’t know what my schedule would be and how much time I would have. But one day when I figured out I had a free afternoon, I started googling things to do in Taipei on rainy days. Yes, I’ve mentioned rain almost every single one of these Taiwan blog posts, but it was a threat every day we were there.

So I found this blog post that had some very good suggestions. I even considered going to the Hello Kitty cafe but that was pretty far out of the way. So I figured I’d just spend the evening at the National Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall. As soon as I got there, I was so glad I made the decision. There were puddles EVERYWHERE and made for some amazing reflections. To be honest, I had never seen so many people line up to take puddle images before and I felt like I was right at home. LOL.

This is one of the images I captured of Liberty Square. I haven’t had the chance to look at the other images yet, but I’m so excited to share more images I captured from this evening.

My camera settings for this image is F2.2. at 1/200th sec and ISO 1600 with my Sony A7II and 35mm prime lens.

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Happy Independence Day, America! Hope everyone has a happy and safe evening tonight. I look forward to capturing some more firework images somewhere in the National Mall. Not sure where yet but either way it will be a good time. I always find photographing the fireworks super exciting. I feel like it’s similar to photographing lightning. You never really know what you are getting until you pop your memory card into your computer. Most of the time its way better than you imagined 🙂

If you have plans for photographing the fireworks, check out this youtube video I created a few years ago. Even though the video is a little older, the information is still valid. It’s all my tips, tricks and camera settings in order to capture the bursts. Hope you’re able to capture some great ones!

This image was taken 3 years ago close to the Memorial Bridge in Arlington, VA. It is definietly one of my favorite views of the monuments and Andrew and I have sort of figured out a system for photographing the fireworks from here. It’s a long story but Andrew’s least favorite holiday of the year is the 4th because in the years past I made him sit outside with me, in the heat and humidity while we wait for the fireworks. He misses out on all the bbqs and other things so when the 4th comes around he kind of rolls his eyes at the whole thing. So we figured out that he could just drop me off at wherever I want to go shoot from, close to the time when the fireworks are suppose to go off and he will just drive home to the air conditioning while I just metro my way home. It’s works out for both of us! LOL.

My camera settings for this image is F5.6 at 1 second ISO 160 with my Canon 5D Mark II and 70-200mm zoom lens.

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Man oh Man what a week. A freakin’ awesome week to be more specific! At one point in time Snap DC was #1 on the charts for best selling travel book in the Mid atlantic region! Does that make me a best selling author? AHHH!!!! So crazy. But I believe it’s still number one in new releases in the same category. I seriously can’t say thank you enough! I’m so excited!

This image was taken last Saturday evening after the photowalk. My friend, Zack and I stuck around the Tidal Basin for a little while to see what blue hour would look like and it did not disappoint! At one point in time the sky was doing this thing where you were able to see the shadow of the Washington Monument in the clouds! It was awesome. And in turn you were able to see all of that reflecting in the water.

But the CRAZIEST part about it all was that there were bats flying above us the entire time. WHO KNEW THERE WERE BATS IN WASHINGTON DC? Definietly not me. That was the first time I’d ever seen any. At one point in time I swear there were like 6 flying above us. It was absolutely nuts. I could not stop staring. It was like I was shooting the Washington Monument and holding my camera steady with my hand but my eyes were in the sky following the bats (making sure they weren’t coming close to us). It’s seriously something new everyday at the National Mall. I swear!

Anyways, hope you all have a wonderful Memorial day weekend! Thanks again for all the support with Snap DC. If you have received your copy already, hope you can get out there and take some awesome pictures.

My camera settings for this image is F4.0 at 1/4th of a second and ISO 1600 handheld with my A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.