Happy holidays!

2018 Capitol Christmas Tree v2The 2018 Capitol Christmas Tree in front of the United States Capitol. This year, the tree was chosen from the Willamette National Forest in Oregon. The tree was harvested on November 2, 2018, and traveled to Washington, D.C., by truck.

Above is a photo of the 2018 Capitol Christmas Tree in front of the United States Capitol, here in Washington, D.C. This year, the tree came from the Willamette National Forest in Oregon. It was harvested on November 2 and traveled to Washington by truck.

Below is another photo I took of this year's Capitol Christmas Tree. I like this angle and the colors. Enjoy!

2018 Capitol Christmas TreeThe 2018 Capitol Christmas Tree in front of the United States Capitol. This year, the tree was chosen from the Willamette National Forest in Oregon. The tree was harvested on November 2, 2018, and traveled to Washington, D.C., by truck.

Fall color at the Capitol 1Fall color at the United States Capitol.

Autumn is finally here. The trees around Washington, D.C., appeared to reach their peak color around Thanksgiving. This is highly unusually. Normally the trees would be completely bare by Thanksgiving. Better late than never! I shot these two photos of the Capitol framed in fall foliage the day after Thanksgiving.

Fall color at the Capitol 2Fall color at the United States Capitol.

First Light at Chimney RockDawn at Chimney Rock in Catoctin Mountain Park, Maryland. The fall foliage is just starting to turn.

Congress was out of session in October to give members time to campaign for the November election. I took a few vacation days and used the opportunity to get out and shoot some fall foliage. Here, at the end of October, I drove out to Catoctin Mountain Park in Maryland. Catoctin is a national park that is relatively close to D.C. It also happens to be where Camp David, the Presidential retreat, is located.

I didn't actually go anywhere near Camp David, which is off limits to park visitors anyway. I wanted to shoot the sunrise at Chimney Rock, which is in a different part of the park. As you can see, even though it was late October, many of the trees had yet to turn. Nature decided this year that autumn should begin a month later. Nevertheless, it was a very pretty sunrise and I think I captured some great colors.