National Cathedral - Sunset

This shot of the National Cathedral taken at sunset is a small section of it instead of the entire cathedral itself. The idea of this shot is to focus on the detail of the building and the beautiful orange light that is shinning on it. I was able to find a frame a section of its facade with the moon in the background. Although I did take other shots of the National Cathedral at sunset, I thought this unique shot was worth sharing the most. 

Fair Weather

In this shot titled Fair Weather, I am exploring two different opposites that balance each other out: the darkness of the clouds behind the National Cathedral versus the sunlight that is hitting the Cathedral itself. 

A Spring before the Earthquake

Today is the first day of spring, although this photo is from the spring of 2011. I would not be able to capture the same exact photo this spring. The steeples on the central tower of the National Cathedral are now of course surrounded by scaffolds from the damage they suffered during the earthquake last August (see my previous post for reference). It could take several years to complete the repairs and thus have the opportunity to capture such a photo again.

Baseball Practice at Saint Albans School

For those who have been following my blog, this place may appear familiar to you (see my posting L'Arrivé d'Autonme). It can often be interesting to capture the same place during a different time of the year. I returned to capture once again such a place near the National Cathedral last week. There is an all boys prep school near the cathedral known as Saint Albans School. Their baseball team was practicing that afternoon when I captured this photo through a chain linked fence. The trees appear bare in this photo, but should began blossom as spring arrives this week.

l'Arrivée d'Autonme

Voila another post dedicated to the Washington National Cathedral. In my post, "Cathedral Clouds", I had photographed the cathedral from its north side. On its south side, there is a sports field that belongs to a private school. I have been wanting to capture the afternoon sun shinning on the field and the National Cathedral so I decided to head over to the cathedral on a sunny Sunday October afternoon. As luck had it, the leaves on the trees had already begin to change color. I wouldn't have been able to perhaps capture such colors from the last time I was at there in September. In addition, since the last time I was at the cathedral, in this photo you can see the further development in the restoration efforts of the rear tower that had suffered damage during the earthquake in August. There is now a platform surrounding the upper portion of the tower.

Using my 50mm to capture this shot, I had to put the lens in between one of the gaps of the chain link fence separating the field from where I was standing. There was a young boy and girl playing with a football in the field. The boy was situated on the other side of the net just outside the frame. The girl was running towards the football which is on the grass just outside of the frame. I took a couple of shots with both the boy and the girl playing with the football. I thought that this shot with the girl by herself was the most interesting to post though.

Cathedral Clouds

A few weeks ago, I took a late afternoon walk near the Washington National Cathedral. It was one of those days where the sun would constantly disappear behind and reappear from the clouds. I have already photographed the Washington National Cathedral on various occasions in the past. This time around though I wanted to capture the formation of the clouds in the sky above the Washington National Cathedral. Such formations come and go and were worth capturing. Here are some of the photos I took that evening.

 

While I was there, I discovered a spiderweb hanging from two bushes that were several feet away from each other. If fact, the distance between the bushes was large enough that you could easily walk into the spiderweb if you were unaware of its existence. The spider was at the center of the web surrounded by tiny insects that must have flown into the web.

This was my first time photographing the National Cathedral since the earthquake that hit the Washington, DC last August. The Cathedral had suffered some damage during the earthquake, notably on three of the spires in its rear tower. Work to repair the spires is currently underway as you can see from the beams situated on opposite sides of each spire. The reparation of the damages may last a decade according the articles that I have read.

 

Photographing Lighting

85mm 30sec f/16 ISO 200

I took this photo the other night and particularly special as it is my first exposure ever taken of lighting. Lighting can be a challenge to photograph because you never know when and where it will exactly hit. Of course you need to use a tri-pod and shot your camera at a slow shutter speed. After about an hour of being outside on the roof of my apartment building, this was the best exposure I was able to get. I used the Washington National Cathedral as a point to frame the photo.