The First (Real) Day of Winter

The month of December really didn't seem that cold in DC for 2011. In fact on New Years Day, it had reached a high of 60F (16C approx). Just a few days after New Years Day, on January 4,  I woke up at a quarter to six. Looking at the weather conditions on my computer, I saw that it was a mere 17 degrees (approx -8C) outside on my computer. That seemed like quite a drop in temperature from Sunday. I decided to head downtown to take some early morning photos wearing two pairs of jeans and a few sweaters, a thermal, a fleece and a jacket. I found myself at the reflecting pool in front of the Capitol building at around 6:30. When I got there, the sky was clear. However, as the sun rose, the clouds arrived.

Although it wasn't too breezy, it was bitter cold. The few droplets of water, which had landed on my camera bag during a pit stop at Starbucks had frozen. Yes, the winter tempertures had finally arrived!  Here are just a few early morning shots of the Capitol that I captured from that day. While I was there shooting, a little web footed friend came to join me.

Fall Sunrise on Pennsylvania Avenue

 A few weeks ago, I got up early and headed downtown. Just as I arrived in Freedom Plaza the sun had just started to rise on the Capitol building. I took a few shots as the sun began to rise on Pennsylvania Avenue. As it was a weekday morning, such photos show people heading to work, some with a morning beverage in their hand. These photos shows the various buses that run along Pennsylvania Avenue. Moreover, one can see one of the many commuter buses that bring people to work into DC each from places usually far outside of DC and beyond the reach of the metro. One can of course see the tents of the Occupy DC movement located on Freedom Plaza. All photos were shot with my 55-200mm VR kit zoom.

 

A Red Light District

For those of you thinking that this post was going to be about a red light district in the District of Columbia, I guess that I tricked you with the title of the post. I was photographing the Occupy DC protest in Freedom Square last month when I took this shot looking down Pennsylvania Avenue of the sun setting on the Capitol Building. Being a Sunday evening, I suppose you would see more cars' red lights during an weekday evening rush hour.

Spring Sunrise in DC-

Spring has arrived once again in Washington, DC. Le vendredi dernier, I went down to the Mall on Friday at dawn to capture early morning shots of the Cherry Blossom trees as they have just recently blossomed. Amid the cold temperatures of a DC spring morning, I witnessed the warm colors of the sun rise next to the Capitol Dome. Taking shots of the Capitol from the Washington Monument with my trusty D50 coupled with my Nikon 55-200mm 4-5.6 VR zoom, a "bread and butter" but versatile zoom, my hands grew cold and dry in the early chilly breezy air. A ce moment je me suis dit "mince, j'aurais du apporter mes gants avec moi!" Heureusement, j'etais plutot satisfait avec mes photos que j'ai pris.

82mm 1/100s at f/4.5 ISO800 (slightly copped and edited)

90mm 1/160s at f/8 ISO800

145mm 1/100s at f/8.0 ISO800

200mm 1/200s at f/8.0 ISO800

55mm 1/320s at f/8.0 ISO800

200mm 1/500s at f/8.0 ISO800

72mm 1/400s at f/8 ISO800

175mm 1/1250s at f/5.6 ISO800

175mm 1/1600s at f/5.6 ISO800

160mm 1/1600s at f/5.3 ISO800

200mm 1/4000s at f/7.1 ISO800

82mm 1/1000s at f/7.1 ISO800

68mm 1/1600 at f/7.1 ISO800