sun burst

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So yesterday was one of the best days ever! I’m still trying to comedown from the high.  Andrew and I attended the Ball for the Mall and it was the most beautiful, exciting, and inspiring evening ever. Thanks again to the Trust of the National Mall for the invitation and using my images throughout the entire event. Everything was absolutely incredible. Promise I’ll share some images from the evening soon. I’m still trying to gather all my thoughts about the night.

In the meaning time, here’s a pretty picture of the cherry blossoms 🙂 LOL. Like I said yesterday, I didn’t create too many images with the Jefferson Memorial and the cherry blossoms this year. I feel like it’s been done so many times that it’s difficult to make it different. So on that same day that I managed to shoot with very low battery, I grabbed this image. Initially it was the sun burst that caught my attention, but I’m a sucker for using the cherry trees to frame subjects. My favorite is the light that’s coming through the flowers. Doesn’t it make you feel all warm inside?

This is why we need to help preserve the National Mall and other national parks across the country. So that people can appreciate beautiful scenes like this forever and ever. Government funding only goes so far. We need additional resources that will help keep the cherry blossom trees healthy and all of our monuments and memorials safe and clean. The National Mall is a unique national park because it’s located within a city. We get so much foot traffic that eventually things are going to wear and tear. Please click here to find out how you can help.

My camera settings for this image is F22 at 1/100th of a second at ISO 400 with my Sony A7II and 27-70mm handheld. 

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Recently I was asked about my favorite place east of the US Capitol. First, I had to look on a map. LOL. Then found out that there were so many places that I could list – Union Station, the Arboretum, etc but it always came back to the US Capitol. Does that count? I don’t know what it is about the Capitol, but it’s such a beautiful building. My favorite is just walking around it. From all points of view its amazing. My favorite for sunrise is this spot right here. Right in front of the reflecting pool while watching the ducks swim past.

But have you ever been inside? It’s the best part, in my opinion. The Rotunda is stunning. As soon as you walk in you are overwhelmed with beauty. And then when you look up! OMG. Breath taking. So the only way to see the Rotunda is to take the Capitol tour. They’re free and highly recommended. I really should go back again soon. Last time I went was during the restoration and most of the dome was covered up. This may have sounded like a paid advertisement for the tour, but it’s not. LOL. Just a huge fan in the interior of this building.

In reality, I captured this sunrise a while ago. I think it was during cherry blossom season. I was just so consumed by the beautiful blooms that I didn’t have time to work on this image. My favorite part is definietly the sun burst coming out of the Capitol. I think it’s what really makes this image pop. The camera settings on this one was F22 for 1/13th of a second ISO 250. If I remember correctly, this was a handheld. I think it was the day after my ‘little’ tripod incident and wasn’t about risking it again.

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This one was fun to shoot. My intention was to photograph the Washington Monument and cherry blossoms through the puddle and get a really cool reflection shot out of it.  I didn’t use my tripod because it doesn’t go as low as I’d want and  I couldn’t get the right angle. So I bent down to get low. I figured out the composition using the live view function on my LCD screen.  The lens was hovering right over the puddle.

While I was getting all of that sorted, I didn’t realize I was holding up people behind me. They were being nice and was  trying to avoid getting in my shot by waiting but I figured I’d let them pass because it’d be faster that way. As they were passing and without even thinking, I pressed the shutter. There was no real plan for people to walk through this shot or anything like that but I’m so glad they did. It turned out way better than anticipated.

I then posted this image Saturday night on instagram and almost immediately got a message from the girl in this image! She was saying how after they walked passed the puddle, her and her husband were talking about how cool of a shot that would of been. It’s so funny how all of these things come full circle. I love that they found themselves and I’m even more happy that they like this image.

I’d say my favorite part is the sun burst on the guy’s leg. My eyes keep on drifting to that part of the image and am super grateful how everything lined up so nicely. It looks like I had my own little cherry blossom parade but without all the balloons and streamers. Just some beautiful cherry blossoms and very nice people.