While the Thomas Jefferson Memorial is under scaffolding from the exterior, you are still able to go climb up the steps and go in the interior. However, some of the side openings that allowed you to walk all around the base of the memorial are blocked off, everything else looks pretty much the same.
As we were walking through, I noticed the beautiful sunlight that was coming through some of those openings. So I did what any person with a camera would do, take a shadow selfie that made my legs look extra long 🙂
My camera settings for this image are F9 at 1/1000th sec and ISO 500 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide-angle lens.
We have been getting some crazy rain in the Washington DC area. The past week has been especially hard on Frankie who doesn’t like getting wet at all. He immediately wants to run back into the house at any signs of rain.
But with all this rain, I knew the Tidal Basin would not be doing so well. Even with a normal amount of rain it gets bad, but this has been exceptional. Earlier this week I decided to go check it out. To be honest, it wasn’t as bad as this day but it was still crazy to see. As soon as I walked up to this bench, I had an idea for a selfie. I wanted to sit on top of the bench to try to create a sort of pyramid between me and the two monuments. But it didn’t quite work out like I had planned.
Like I said before, I’ll be shooting with my Canon for the next few days. It’s been so long that I’ve even held it that I kinda forgot how to use it. So I set the camera up on a tripod and was hoping to set it on a 10 second timer to execute my vision. I didn’t think to bring my remote and I could only find the 2 second timer. I even tried googling it real quick but found no answers to where I could find a 10 second timer. So two second timer it was.
Man 2 seconds is FAST! Here are more attempts. I think it’s pretty funny but still would have rather have found the 10 second timer. What’s even better is that I have at least 10 more of these “images” on my memory card. After a while I just had to give up. LOL
After a while I thought if I put my camera to the side then I could be a little closer and make it, but that didn’t work either. LOL. Oh well.
My camera settings for these images are F5.0 at 1/4th of a second ISO 400 with my Canon 5D Mark II and 17-40mm wide angle lens.
If you haven’t seen them already, I’ve made two vlogs in the years past from McKee Beshers in Poolesville, Maryland. They’re linked here and here.
But this season is a little different. This year I have my drone! Muahaha. I ended up taking more drone pics and video than I did with my Sony camera. I think I was just excited about having a really beautiful place to go and legally being able to fly. It’s funny though because I wasn’t the only one who had this idea. There was at least 3 other drones flying around. One guy commented that he has never seen so many drones in one place before. It’s all good though. They’re just so much fun to fly.
And they make for the best selfie sticks! Here’s another pic of me with my friends Sue and Birch. The sunflower squad. No, we didn’t actually call ourselves that but it would have been funny if we did. LOL.
If you don’t have a drone, make sure to bring a step stool. The flowers are over 7′ tall this year. Way better than it was last year. It’s pretty overwhelming to try to capture it all so I highly recommend trying to get on a higher level. And as always, don’t forget your bug spray! I accidentally brought bug bite relief as opposed to repellant and my ankles got torn apart. I hope those mosquitos enjoyed the extra cooling sensation. *waves fist in the air*
My camera settings for my alone selfie is F2.2 at 1/13th of a second ISO 978 (?) with my DJI Mavic Pro.
That question mark is in reference to the weird ISO number. I’ve never seen anything wasn’t a multiple of 100 on any other camera or film. Weird…
I know it’s not obvious in this picture but I am loving life right here! LOL.
It’s true. The skies were moody and cloudy, I’m in my favorite place in the whole wide world and I have my airpods in listening to an audible book. What could be better?
Maybe a tripod… but meh.
I like the perspective though. It was another one of those, put your backpack down and hope that the image comes out well. At first I envisioned the dandelions to be as tall as the Washington Monument. When that didn’t work out, I just set my timer to see what it would look like if there was a human element in it. I liked it! So I started posing as if I didn’t know I was taking my own picture. LOL.
I remember I took this on a Sunday evening. I knew the sunset wasn’t going to be great, color wise, but I just wanted to get out there and go for a walk with my camera. It could have been the 4 slices of pizza I ate prior to the photowalk, but it was just so nice to be out in fresh air and doing what I love doing.
And PS Thank you Thank you Thank you to everyone who has ordered Snap DC so far. I am LOVING all the pictures you’re sending and all the feedback. You seriously made my whole year already. I don’t know how long this is going to last for but Amazon actually dropped the price of the book. I had no idea that they were going to do that so the original price was $29.69 and now its on sale for $24.78. So if you haven’t already, I’d get your copy of the guide now.
A little break from cherry blossoms for a photo of me 🙂 LOL
I was with my family at the National Museum of Natural history the other day when I decided to take a little breather and go for a quick walk around the National Gallery of Art. I love how these two museums are right next to each other because they are my favorites at the National Mall. It’s so easy to hop from one beautiful museum to the next.
I love the purple wisteria that grow along side of NGA and I had every intention of capturing them on my walk. I only saw a couple of them so I think I was a bit too early for that this year. But in a surprising turn of events it was the glass pyramids outside the east building that caught my attention. I’ve never paid too much attention to them before but when I got closer up to them, I noticed how they are the windows that bring in so much light to the cafeteria part of the gallery. Right next to them are water fountains that trail down to the interior of the building. It was so cool. So as I was kneeling down low to try to capture different angles, I noticed my reflection in the pyramids and decided to take a quick selfie.
I was really surprised by the way that it turned out. First of all, I had no idea that there were so many water stains on the glass. LOL. But for being such a quick click, I really like how it turned out. I imagine this is what I look like to most people when I’m out shooting so it was a very different perspective to see me like this. Pretty, pretty interesting. LOL.
My camera settings for this image is F9 at 1/80th of a second at ISO 200 with my Sony a7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.
One of my best friends from college, Neena is amazing. She is always so fun to hangout with and definietly knows how to have a good time. One of the things that I appreciate the most about her is that when she hears a new song that she thinks I’ll like, she’ll texts me a link. But this girl somehow hears all the hot new jams before anyone I know. I love it. And she knows me and the kind of music I like so well. Usually when she texts me a song I get so excited and play it on repeat for a week straight.
So a couple of months ago, she texted me this song by Camila Cabello called ‘OMG’. From the first second I heard it, I loved it. I downloaded it immediately and it has been on my playlist ever since. Such a fun song to dance to! Plus I think that Camila looks so beautiful on the album cover. It’s such a simple image but I love everything about it. I remember looking at it and thinking it’d be cool to have an image like that.
Fast forward to this past weekend when Andrew and I were walking around Balboa Park in San Diego. It was my very first time visiting the park and was blown away by how big and beautiful it was. It was something I was not expecting at all. While walking to the botanical garden, I noticed the shadows these palm trees were casting onto the side of a building. I knew that this was my chance for my Camila Cabello album cover. LOL! Trying to recreate it from memory, this is what Andrew and I came up with. He shot the image but I told him exactly how to do it and frame it. I’m just glad it’s all in focus 🙂 LOL.
My camera settings for this image is F11 at 1/125th of a second and ISO 125 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.
