A recent find, one of the best views of the Washington DC skyline is in Anacostia! Thanks again to my friend, Austin who came up with the idea of photowalking around the Anacostia neighborhood. I would have never thought to visit Anacostia, but now I won’t even hesitate to go back. The neighborhood has so much history and character, but it is also changing too. Judging by all the construction happening, it could be the next cool hangout spot. So if you’re planning on going, definietly check out Our Lady of Perpetual Help Roman Catholic Church to see the best view of the city. It’s outstanding!
From the parking lot, you have an amazing view of the US Capitol, other buildings and then this unrivaled view of the Washington Monument. I think it’s so cool to have been able to capture it with Nationals Park in the foreground. Such a different perspective of the city that I’m totally not used to. I bet the July 4th fireworks would be an amazing show to watch from here.
So after the photowalk was officially over, I offered my friend, Larry a ride back to his car. I live close to a metro that he usually parks at so I asked him if he needed a ride but we had to make a few stops first. The first stop was to the church to capture this image. Luckily, Larry was kind enough to let me use his 100-400mm lens. Like I’ve said before, the compression on these ultra zoom lenses are amazing. I’m always so impressed by them and this would not have come out the same if it weren’t for it. Second stop was to District Donut for their seasonal donuts 🙂
My camera settings for this image is F5.6 at 1/500th sec and ISO 160 with my Sony A7II and Larry’s 100-400mm lens
I’ve lived in the area my whole life and been photographing the National Mall for over 8 years. I’ve pretty much been to every one of these places at least 20 times. So I compiled the top 7 best spots to make your trip to the Nation’s capital easier to navigate.
I’ve done all the research for you so you can just get out there and shoot. Here’s everything you need to know to capture a stunning sunrise in Washington DC:
How to Prepare for Sunrise
I love the alignment of where the sun rises among the monuments as opposed to where the sun sets from. It gives off this amazing warm glow on the memorials that’s hard to get at sunset. Plus there is this overwhelming feeling of peace and calm in a city that’s usually hustling and bustling during the day. At sunrise you’re more likely to get images with no one in them while at sunset it’s nearly impossible.
Don’t worry though even if no one else is around, park police have the memorials under constant surveillance which makes this one of the safest places to be in DC at night. If anything bad should happen, help will not be far away.
I typically try to arrive at my sunrise location about 30 minutes before the sun actually rises. That way you will see all the great predawn colors in the sky. Dress according to the weather and grab a coffee, you won’t regret it.
For the serious photographers out there, you may be wondering about tripods. For the most part they are not allowed. However if you’re photographing sunrise and there is no one else around, you could probably get away with it. I think the biggest concern is when the memorials are crowded and other people may trip over the legs. Out of all the times I’ve been out for sunrise (trust me it’s way more than I can count), I have been asked to put it away once while I was at the Lincoln Memorial. All other times other than sunrise at any of the memorials, it’s pretty much out of the question.
The United States Capitol is slightly different. Technically, it’s not the National Mall so the same rules don’t apply as they do at the memorials. There is way more security there and I’ve heard conflicting rules about tripods. The last time I spoke to a Capitol Policeman about it, he said they are allowed. However since then I’ve heard of photographer friends being asked to put it away. It seems like there is no right or wrong answer so I would just take your tripod if you want and just be respectful when photographing the grounds. The worst that will happen is that someone will ask you to put it away.
In my opinion, the Reflecting Pool is the ultimate sunrise location in Washington DC. It’s the most iconic and it is the place that I tell everyone they must go to if they have never been to the national mall and especially at sunrise. It’s the center of 4 great landmarks all within a central area. A one stop shop if you will.
Lately whenever I think of snow, I’ve been thinking cherry blossoms. Pretty awful, right? Only because the past few years when we have had snow storms, it has always been later in the season and interfered with the cherry blossom peak. So last week when we had our first “snow” in the Washington DC area, it made me want to look back to some of my spring images. You could say I’m already missing the warmer weather 🙂
Washington DC has two awesome flower trees. Obviously the cherry blossoms (captured on the left side right below the US Capitol dome) but a very close second are these pink magnolia trees. The magnolias are just as beautiful but the flowers themselves are bigger and I believe less delicate meaning they won’t fall after a huge gust of wind or rain. They can be found all around the city but my favorite ones are located on the National Mall. Although the US Capitol isn’t technically the National Mall, I feel like it’s close enough….
Seeing these pink flowers frame some of our nation’s most iconic landmarks make me so happy. It definietly gives them a more feminine and warm feel. This particular day was a foggy spring morning. I think it works though because now the whole image is filled with pink flowers instead competing with blue skies. And yes, I did have to wait like 5 minutes to get some people walking along the path. You know, just your local, lurking photographer waiting for you to walk past 🙂 LOL. Yes, to be honest sometimes I do feel like a creeper sometimes. But it’s for the ART!
Now that I’ve been waking up early for years and basically track the weather every single day, I have kinda given myself the title of junior meteorologist 🙂 LOL. Meaning, I can look at a weather report and look up in the sky at the clouds and get a good idea of what the weather is going to be like. So over the weekend we had pretty cool, mild weather with lots of clouds but I kept on hearing reports that the weather was going to warm up. So with the cold air mixing with the warmer air, I knew there was going to be fog.
And I was right! I love when that happens. I’ve been wanting this fog for a while now, spending almost every morning that I go out by the reflecting pool because I had envisioned some shots that I wanted to take. So glad it finally happened. The field to the right of the reflecting pool is a great place to capture fog but I especially like how it lingers into the trees. With Washington DC being such an active city, I knew having runners through the fog would look pretty cool. I had my 70-200mm on for every one of these shots and patiently waited for people to run/walk past. I tried my best to capture people wearing more colorful clothing but much like me, a lot of people wear black.
The last two images were taken after the sun had come up. I thought it was really interesting with the warm tones mixing in with the fog. It sort of gave off that halloween vibe. LOL
Well, I hope you all enjoyed the images and have a great weekend! I’m off to Thanksgiving number 2 today with hopefully a lot of leftovers <3
Happy Thanksgiving! My favorite holiday! The food is always delicious and it’s all about giving thanks. Honestly, what could be better? 2018 has been particularly amazing and I have so much to be thankful for. But it’s closing out with a bang!
If you’re in the Washington DC metro area, keep an eye out for Northern Virginia Magazine. Remember this image from 2017? I captured this on National Coffee day at the National Gallery of Art. It was so great because I got to meet up with friends early in the morning and sample all kinds of delicious beverages. If you know me, you know that I don’t usually drink coffee so I was EXTRA hyped this day.
After the tasting, a group of us headed upstairs to the rooftop to check out Katharina Frithsch’s Hahn/Cock. We had a mini photoshoot with my friends, Diego and Laurie. Laurie was in this amazing orange dress that perfectly contrasted with the artwork but special thanks to Diego’s amazing jumping skills because this image made the cover! I love how there’s so much energy and life to the entire spread. Earlier this week Andrew and I were walking through Whole Foods (his favorite store) and I noticed the magazine out of the corner of my eye. It looks so good! I immediately stopped and bought three. One for me, one for my mom and one for Diego 🙂
Special thanks to Northern Virginia Magazine for selecting this image for the cover. I’m so honored and could not be more grateful. What a happy Thanksgiving!
Last but definietly not least, I’d like to thank all of you for taking the time out to view my images and for all your love and unconditional support. It means the world to me and it definietly does not go unnoticed. Wishing you the best this holiday season <3
It looked like nothing even happened the day after it snowed last week. It was like back to fall all over again, which I don’t mind in the least. I went out to photograph the sunrise because I thought with the weird weather it would bring something dramatic, it didn’t, but it was the fall leaves that caught my attention. They were particularly colorful by the Korean War memorial so I decided I would spend some time photographing a memorial I don’t usually photograph.
It’s funny because I always had this idea in my head about the Korean War Memorial. I thought it was a difficult memorial to photograph because where it is on the National Mall (it’s not in a very well lit corner) or how the figures are placed. I don’t know, I never really got a composition I was really happy with… until this time.
Maybe it was the colorful leaves behind the figures or I was feeling particularly inspired, but I had a really good time photographing the memorial. To be honest, I still think that photographing this is the best during snow or fog. It just reduces things everything down. It even makes the shrubs in between the soldiers a little less visible which I think makes it a little better in a photograph. Oh well, since it’s going to be a particularly snowy this winter, I guess I’ll have more time to put this into practice.
That orange glow though! My camera settings for this image is F6.3 at 1/50th sec and ISO 500.
Also, let me know if you like these multiple image posts 🙂 It takes me a little bit longer but I feel like it tells more of a story of what it was like being at the location.
