us botanical garden

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Every year Washington DC welcomes millions of visitors traveling to the National Mall to take in all the sights and history. Many will start coming in the springtime to catch a glimpse of the beautiful cherry blossom trees at the Tidal Basin. They are alluring, but can sometimes be elusive. Especially when you are dealing with nature, you never know exactly when they are going to bloom or how long they will even last. In general, they will stick around for a week to 10 days. This already leaves a short window of time to see them and that doesn’t include the fact that these flowers are fragile and can fall off their branches with a sudden gust of wind or rain.

So this guide is for all you flower nature lovers who may have missed the cherry blossoms and are here to see what else the city has to offer. Don’t worry because there’s a lot! From Saucer Magnolias to Star Magnolias, Tulips and Forsythia, there is no shortage of beautiful blossoms in the city. You just have to know where to go to see them.

But if you are only interested in the cherry blossoms, I’ve got your back. Click here for the cherry blossom guide!

The National Mall:

Washington DC, especially the mall area, is a very nice area to walk. I highly suggest just taking the day to wander and get lost. There is no doubt that you will run into flowers and beautiful trees while walking around the area. Even the side streets that lead up to the Mall have pretty florets to look at. But if you’re on a time crunch, here are a few specific places to go:

Enid A Haupt Garden

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Taken around the same time I captured this image, I love the way this one turned out. It also goes great as a pair because I think it portrays what it’s been like in DC lately, H-O-T. Granted it’s not as hot as it was last week but it is definitely sundress or tank top season. OMG.

This image was taken around sunrise time. I was definitely getting the orange glow from the sun but boosted up the vibrancy a little bit in lightroom to show off the color a little more. After I saved the image in my “haven’t blogged yet” folder, I noticed it was sort of similar to this image I captured a few weeks ago at the McKee Beshers sunflower fields.

So I guess that means I have a “style” for when I’m feeling extra warm outside. They both give off that, “please provide me with some shade” feeling. LOL

My camera settings for the Capitol image is F8 at 1/1000th sec and ISO 640 with my Sony A7II and 70-200mm zoom lens.

My camera setting for the sunflower image is F4 at 1/3200th sec and ISO 400 with my Sony A7II and 70-200mm zoom lens.

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Since I’ve photographed Washington DC so much, I sometimes play tricks on myself and try to park my car in different places so I can find different perspectives in photographing the landmarks. That way I will force me to walk different directions than I’m used to and hopefully see things differently. I think this trick works well, as long as you remember where you parked your car 🙂

So I was driving around, trying to look for a different parking spot when I noticed the Bartholdi Fountain flowing with water at sunrise. I was surprised it was on because even the World War II memorial on the National Mall doesn’t start the water until 6 am. So when I drove past around 5:30 am, I was excited and knew that I wanted to photograph the fountain.

It’s been a while since I have photographed it. Almost 4 years! But I do remember thinking that I wanted to get back there one day for sunrise. So I finally did it and concentrated on creating layers with the US Capitol dome. The sunrise itself didn’t have any clouds in the sky so I really wanted to fill the frame with the dome, water, and fountain. I made sure to have a “slower” shutter speed so you can see the steam of water flowing well against the almost white sky.

My camera settings for this image is F20 at 1/15th sec and ISO 400 with my Sony A7II and 70-200mm.

lego, orchid, flower, purple, macro, us botanical garden, purple,

When I first saw this flower, I thought that there was a little lego man hanging out by the flowers. I was giggling the whole time I was taking this picture. Now, I can’t un-see it. Theres a lego man in the middle of the flower!