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Out of all the beautiful buildings in Washington DC, the Eisenhower Executive Office Building is one of my favorites. It’s located right next to the White House so it is not difficult to find but I always find myself trying to capture it whenever I’m close by.

This image was taken around 7:30a on a Friday morning. Right around the time people are commuting to work. I met up with my friend, Birch with intentions of capturing stride bys but wanted to get a lower perspective of the scene. So we sat down on the curb across from the building and just waited for people to walk by.

Right in front of the White House, Eisenhower Executive Building and Treasury Department, along Pennsylvania Ave, the section of the road is closed. It’s only for pedestrians so it is a great open space to just people watch. I found this man to be particularly interesting just because hit fit the mold. The busy business man or government official on his phone with so many things to finish up before the work week ended. He had no idea Birch and I were across the street, just observing and talking about different skin care routines. LOL.

I also really like how the only colors in this image are from the trees that are framing the building and this man. I think the little pops of green really help to complete this image.

My camera settings for this image is F13 at 1/80th sec and ISO 500 with my Sony A7II and 70-200mm zoom.

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Last week I found myself at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Usually when I wake up for sunrise, I don’t have a real plan of where I’m going to go. I just go where the wind takes me but on this particular day as soon as I parked my car, I knew exactly where I was going. It was around this time 6 years ago when I captured this image of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. I’ve always wanted to go back when the wreaths are laid and I knew that this was my chance.

Unfortunately, I did not get the same light as I did 6 years ago but the wreaths were beautiful. You can’t help but feel thankful for all the names on this wall and their sacrifice. Then it led me to think about our current military and how some of them aren’t able to be home for the holidays. Even some our neighbors who have to work around the clock, just to serve like doctors, nurses, even postal workers. Thank you all so much.

In order to capture this image differently, I tried a new perspective. I basically placed my camera on the ground and wanted to get a nice line of wreaths in the shot. I like the way that it turned out but I can’t help staring at the reflections of the trees behind them on the wall. I love how they look so small and I think this is a real interesting point of view.

I’m not sure how long these wreaths stay at the memorial or even Arlington Cemetery. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to photograph them again in more light.

Thanks again to all those who serve and happy holidays to everyone.

My camera settings for this image is F4 at 0.3 sec and ISO 1000 with my Sony A7II and 70-200mm zoom

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If you ask me what is one of my all time favorite books ever, the first book that comes to mind is Steve Jobs by Walter Issacson.

I have to admit that I was already a big fan of apple products before I read this book. I mean, I’m currently using my Macbook Pro to write this blog post and sitting right next to me is the 5th or 6th iPhone I’ve owned. We have old iPads, iPods, and basically anything else that apple sells besides the iWatch (only because I don’t really wear watches).

But I didn’t actually read this book, I listened to it on audible. So one evening I was preparing for a long drive the next morning and I knew I wanted to download a book. Sometimes music can get kinda boring so I wanted something that’d keep me entertained for at least 4-6 hrs. Then I remembered Andrew Warner saying how he loves to read biographies. So the first ever biography I decided to “read” was Steve Jobs.

Before listening, I already knew a little bit about him. I knew about his tantrums, he was a little crazy but overall super smart. Man, as soon as I started listening to the first 10 minutes or so, I was HOOKED! Initially, it was the part where Issacson pointed out the fact that Jobs knew he was already smarter than his parents at a very young age. Like, before he even started going to school. That’s insane but there is something so authentic about that statement that it really wanted me to get to know Steve even more.

As the book went on I became more and more interested in the way he cared so much about his work and everything he did. At times it made me wonder if I have the capacity to pay attention to so much detail like Jobs did. I could see why people thought he was a little crazy but I think it’s only because he cared so much about quality. Of course he’s human so he has made his own share of mistakes but he was definitely an artist in his own way. To that I am definitely appreciative of him and his genius for helping to improve my technological life. And of course for Finding Nemo 🙂

So, if you want a good book to really get lost into, I’d highly highly suggest, Steve Jobs by Walter Issacson.

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This almost didn’t happen. My original intention was to take pictures of the Air Force Memorial, but I couldn’t find parking. So I decided to skip it and go home. As I was driving home, I noticed the colors in the sky started changing and I was closer to Iwo Jima than I was anything else. So I turned around again and went to the Marine Corp Memorial. Glad I did. And I’m glad that the clouds lined up perfectly to make it look like it was exploding out of the memorial.