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Space shuttle Discovery flies over WashingtonOn Tuesday, NASA transferred the space shuttle Discovery from Kennedy Space Center to its new resting home at the Smithsonian's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Washington Dulles International Airport. The shuttle made the trip on the back of a specially modified Boeing 747, and fortunately for me, the shuttle made a short detour around the Capitol.
 
The shuttle flew at an altitude of only 1,500 feet. That's very low! I envied the folks in the Post Office Pavilion (photo below). They would have had a great view! However, if you look closely at the photo, you can see folks in the tower looking the wrong way. The shuttle didn't make any sound and was moving quite quickly. I fear that some of them may have missed it. Wow, what a sight to miss! 
The low altitude flight of the shuttle made for some interesting photos. Here's one in which it appears the shuttle is banking around the Smithsonian castle. The guy working on the crane must have had a really great day! 
The organizers of the fly-by wouldn't release the flight path of the shuttle before the fly-by. They provided an approximate time and suggested various viewing locations throughout the city. However, they said that there were no guarantees that the shuttle would fly by any particular location, since even slight changes in weather might require last minute changes to the flight path. This made it very difficult to plan out good shots. I really just wanted to see the shuttle; getting a good photo would be a secondary priority. So, I gambled on the National Mall and I got lucky. The weather was beautiful and the shuttle flew right overhead. I had a really great day! 
Blossoms in the afternoon sunIn my last post, I mentioned how I visited the Tidal Basin to shoot the cherry blossoms at sunrise. Well, I returned later on the same day to shoot the cherry blossoms in the late afternoon and at sunset. On my way to the Tidal Basin, I stopped by the Washington Monument. The following is my favorite photo from the afternoon:
Fog and BlossomsOn Thursday, I made my annual trip to the Tidal Basin to shoot the cherry blossoms. I arrived very early in the morning and was greeted by a blanket of fog. The fog allowed me to get some interesting shots. I particularly like the following photo. The flat lighting from the fog allowed me to achieve an even exposure and to capture a sense of dreaminess. The presence of the fog and the fact that the trees bloomed a week earlier than expected helped keep the number of tourists to a much lower level than usual. With fewer tourists around, I was able to take some photos without people in my shots.
The fog lingered until about mid-morning. I was able to take a couple of other shots that I think turned out well. 
Washington skyline at nightOn President's Day, I went across the Potomac to take some photos of the Washington skyline at night. I think this one turned out nicely. It's a 10 second exposure. On the left you can see Arlington Memorial Bridge, which leads up to the Lincoln Memorial. To the right of the Lincoln Memorial is the Washington Monument and further to the right you can just make out the Capitol. Converging LinesI took this photo Friday evening while standing in the middle of Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC. In the very center of the photo is the Capitol. On the left is the Pennsylvania North, the Newseum, and the Embassy of Canada. On the right is the Federal Trade Commission. Behind the trees on the right is a crane for ongoing construction at the National Gallery of Art. I like night photos such as this one because, counterintuitively, there are some nice saturated colors. However, I also like this image for the perspective. The lines in the image converging on the Capitol remind me of a drawing technique I learned in school as a child. We were studying how Renaissance artists would create 3-dimensional images using a 2-dimensional medium (painting) by placing a dot in the center of a painting then drawing lines radiating outward from the dot. They would then draw structures and objects within the lines. The technique creates startlingly accurate perspective. I was quite taken with the technique. I liked the idea of using mathematics to draw beautiful pictures. (Wikipedia has a great article about perspective.) |
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