must see

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Confused by what sights to see on your short visit to Washington DC?

There are so many monuments, memorials, and museums. Where do you even start?

If want to know the absolute best of the best things to see in Washington DC, keep on scrolling. This guide is for you!

I’ve lived in the Washington DC area my entire life and in that time I’ve gotten to know the city very well. It has changed so much in the past few years that it may be hard to keep up with all the new and fun things to see. Sometimes I even think it’s hard to keep up with all that is going on. There have been new museums, memorials and points of interest that would be fun for a solo traveler as well as families all at the same time.

So in this guide, I will share some highlights of my favorite sights as a Washington DC native and photographer.

My 7 Favorite Must-See Sights in Washington DC:

 

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Whenever people ask me about places to photograph in Washington DC, I always have to ask follow up questions because there is just so much to see in our little city. If you wanted sunsets, visit the National Mall. If you want cool interiors, visit the Library of Congress. If you want to know my favorite museum? It’s is hands down the National Gallery of Art. I think it is one of the most beautiful spaces we have in the district. Every time I walk in, I feel so refreshed and so excited about what I’m going to see.

The gallery is so large that it is actually divided into two separate buildings and my favorite is definietly the east building. There you’ll see the more modern art, it’s the side of the gallery that changes out more often, but I also love the BEAUTIFUL light you get through the windows while you’re walking around the concourse. And of course, you can’t forget that NGA wall! It’s a staircase that is just so beautiful and minimal, it’s been photographed a million times. But each time I see an image from here, it’s like I forgot how beautiful it is and fall back in love.

And if you do get a chance to visit the gallery, don’t forget to check out Multiverse by Leo Villareal. It’s a moving walkway that sort of connects the East and the West but it’s will probably be the coolest moving walkway you’ve been on. NOTHING like what you see in airports. HAHA.

I really wish I could have included museums in Snap DC. This would have been the very first place I would have mentioned to go visit. I just can’t express how much I love the National Gallery of Art.

My settings for this image is F6.3 at 1/8th of a second at ISO 100 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.

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This was totally an experiment but I really like the way it turned out. The car trails are so dynamic that I kinda wish that I captured it horizontally, instead of vertically. That way they would have taken up more space in the image but I had no idea how cool it was going to be.

I captured this on a Friday morning so luckily there were quite a few cars driving around at 5:30a. I saw a whole line of them waiting to turn so I propped my camera down and just waited for the green light. I didn’t spend much time trying to capture other exposures but this was definietly the best one. The key was to wait for them to turn and drive past you while standing in the median. But I think one of the coolest parts about this image is that you can see the red, yellow and green lights.

Looking at it again, I already have new ideas of how I could improve upon this image. That’s one of my favorite parts about daily blogging. It constantly pushes me to create new images and talk about them once they are complete. Even if I’m not totally happy with them, I see each of these posts as kind like a sketch book where I can go back and see some of my older images and improve. But OMG, googling my images from years ago, like 5 or even 7 years ago. My images have changed sooo much. It’s kind of funny (but also hurts my eyes in a way too LOL). So grateful to be growing and falling in love with my images over and over again.

My camera settings for this image is F18 at 25 seconds ISO 400 with my Canon 5D Mark II and my 17-40mm wide angle lens.

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If I had to pick a place to live in San Diego, it would definietly be La Jolla. Not just because there are big, beautiful homes there but I just love the vibe of it. Everyone seems so peaceful and relaxed. It was a nice change of pace to just walk around the town and not have to worry about anything. I felt like I was smiling at every street corner. PLUS the seals and sea lions like to hangout on the beaches. But where I found most of my favorite photo places in San Diego.

Take this place for example, Salk Institute. I found out about it from this blog and I’m so grateful to have been able to visit. It is so aesthetically pleasing! Seriously when I walked for the first time I just stood there for a minute in awe of it all. The architecture, the lines, the space was all just amazingly beautiful. You know you love a space when you literally spend 30 minutes just photographing a staircase. LOL. Not even joking.

However, this image is not of the staircase. It’s just a portion of a hallway. Sooo cool, right? At the end of the hallway you would be able to see a full on orange tree if Andrew wasn’t walking by. So Cal, man you are amazing. Next time I visit and have more time, I’d love to attend the architectural tour at the Salk Institute. I’m sure theres so much more to see on this campus! I’m not sure how anyone could get any work done here. If I worked here, I’d be standing by the pool watching the clouds float by everyday.

The camera settings for this image is F5.0 at 1/80th of a second at ISO 800 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.

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Day 3 of reflections. Check out day 1 and day 2.

Obviously an image of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool had to be a part of the week long series of reflections. I took this one a couple weeks ago with my friend, Chris. We met up for sunrise and it was forecasted to be a clear day but the predawn colors in the sky were amazing. Usually I hope for clouds for any sunrise image but I feel like the orange color was so vibrant all on their own that it didn’t even need them.

And as I arrived at the reflecting pool I was excited to see that I had got there early enough for them to still have the US Capitol lights on. About 10 minutes later, they were all turned off and it was a lot harder to see it back there. Anyone know what the light schedule to the monuments are like? Next time I’d like to plan for it instead of guessing.

But this same composition has a special place in my heart. It always reminds me of when I first started waking up for sunrise to take pictures. I would make Andrew go with me at first just because I didn’t know what the situation was going to be like. Being a female with expensive camera equipment could be a potentially dangerous situation. But as time went on, I decided that I didn’t need him to go with me anymore. I got comfortable waking up and doing what I needed to do all by myself. So the first time I went by myself to DC, I shot this same exact image and felt super proud of myself.

Now look at me. Sometimes I’ll even wake up before I need to just because I’m so excited to go out to shoot.

The settings for this image is F5.6 for 10 seconds at ISO 200 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.

 

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I usually have tons of plans and to-do lists before I leave for a trip, but this time I didn’t have any of that. I might of had a few suggestions here and there from friends but otherwise, I left for Maine last week with no expectations. Well, I’m happy to say that I had a blast. It was way better than expected! LOL.

About 2 days before we left, my friend Sue and I decided to stay one less day in Acadia National Park and spend that extra time in Portland. I’m so glad we did that. It’s only 3 hours away from Bar Harbor/Acadia National Park but it gave us a better idea of what it’s really like being in Maine. From the one day that we were there, I loved how seeing lobster cages in the back of a pick up truck was no big deal and you can really tell that the people who lived there, loved it there. Everybody was so happy and friendly and I don’t think I have seen such a clean city before. You can really tell that Mainers respect their land and their water.

And on the top of every to-do list that we googled about Portland was this lighthouse, Portland Head Light. I loved how accessible it was. It’s so close to the city and it’s just a short walk from the parking lot. Which was perfect when you are running late for a sunrise! Man, was I running through that parking lot like it was no one’s business. And I may or may not have jumped a fence to capture this, but I figured it was ok since I saw other people doing it, right?

My camera settings for this image is 8.0 seconds at F/4 ISO 640 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens. I also had my neutral density filter on there to make a longer exposure to smooth out the water.