Vietnam Veterans Memorial

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You know, I photograph Washington DC a lot. LOL. A lot of the time it’s at sunrise. And lately there hasn’t been a real sunrise that has gotten me excited to shoot, except for this day! I woke up a little earlier than usual and made my way down to the National Mall. Driving in I knew it was going to be a real good one. It’s really hard to say how, but I can just tell by looking at the clouds. Needless to say, I was super hyped.

I knew right away that it was going to be a great photo day. I wanted to make sure that my feet kept on moving as I walked through the Lincoln Memorial, the Reflecting Pool and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. I try my best to experiment with different compositions at the places I go to the most. I really don’t like going home with a SD card full of the same exact images. So the only way to prevent that from happening is to keep on moving. But something was calling me back to the Reflecting Pool. I knew it was going to be THE place to capture this amazing sky.

As soon as I turned the corner from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, I stood in awe. It was AMAZING. My favorite is seeing the perfect cloud reflections in the water. In order to capture it all, I had to get real low. No tripod, just balanced my camera on the ground and hoping my winter shivers didn’t move the camera too much. It literally looked like the sky was on fire. Couldn’t have asked for a better morning!

The settings for this image is F8 at 1/20th of a second and ISO 250 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.

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Honored to have been at the right place at the right time to make this image. Humbled by all the emails and messages I’ve gotten from vets and their families telling me their stories and trusting me with their emotions. Happy Veterans day today and everyday. ✌

Vietnam Veterans Memorial at Sunrise

When I got yesterday, I looked up at the sky and thought it was going to be an ok sunrise. OMG was I wrong! As soon as I got to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial the sky was so colorful and beautiful. There was fog all over the mall which is something I’d never seen before, which added to the mood.

I went to the memorial to try to capture the wreaths.

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