Thursday was Independence Day and, as I usually do on the 4th of July, I made my way to the Capitol to shoot the fireworks. This year, I got a great shot of the Capitol with red, white, and blue fireworks exploding right behind the dome. I uploaded two versions of the same shot. The first shows the full length of the Capitol and the second is a closer crop that more closely resembles my images from previous years.

I hope you like my new fireworks images. Let me know which crop you like best. Thanks!

Expanded crop version:

Closer crop version:

In September, I took a photo of the Capitol during the blue hour (the period of twilight each morning and evening when there is neither full daylight nor complete darkness) with the dome reflected in one of the two giant skylights of the Capitol Visitor Center (which lies underground, just in front of the Capitol). Normally, a small amount of water surrounds each of the skylights. At the time, the water wasn't present, I assumed because of an ongoing drought. The water has since returned and I recently visited the Capitol again to see if I could improve on my previous photo with the water present.

Here are two photos. I took the first just before the start of civil twilight and the second right at the start of civil twilight (dusk). I took the photos only 11 minutes apart and as you can see, in that 11 minutes, the light changed considerably.

The Capitol at Dusk

Blue Hour at the Capitol

I made another visit to Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens recently. It seems the flowers are blooming a bit late this year. None of the lotuses were in bloom and only a few of the waterlilies had bloomed.

Here are a couple of the waterlilies. I think the colors turned out great. Flowers tend to look best on cloudy days and I used a polarizer to cut down on the glare. I'll try to get back to Kenilworth in a few weeks to see if I can get any of the lotuses.

Pink Amidst the Green White Amidst the Green