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Archive of ‘Travel’ category

Personal, Photography, Technology, Travel | 0 comment

Washington Monument at Sunrise

Washington Monument HDR - ©TimeLine Media

Frozen Reflecting Pool

We have traded the cold for rain! With this in mind, I have not been able to get out there to make more photos in the early morning. Overall, it has been too overcast and rainy to get me out there. I should have made the effort, however, I am backed up with other work . Additionally, I would need to gear up with rain repellent gear for me and the cameras. Needless to say, I got lazy this week. There is still a backlog of other images that I have not posted about on the blog. These are images of the Washington Monument at sunrise from the reflecting pool that is situated at the front of the Lincoln Memorial.

Washington Monument - out of camera exposure - ©TimeLine Media
Washington Monument – out of camera exposure – ©TimeLine Media

Washington Monument

This is one of the images taken straight out of the camera. In this case, I took a bracketed series of photos around this exposure to combine into an HDR final image. From this file, you can make edits right in Lightroom to bump up the Exposure, Shadows and contrast, then adjust the vibrance to make this image:

Washington Monument - out of camera adjusted exposure - ©TimeLine Media
Washington Monument – out of camera adjusted exposure – ©TimeLine Media

HDR image

I was surprise to see how much data you can pull from one Raw file! Processing the 9 different exposures into HDR Efex Pro 2, I adjusted the sliders in that program to get something similar. My goal was to bring out more detail in the monument face and trees lining the pool on either side since those areas were so dark.

Washington Monument HDR - ©TimeLine Media
Washington Monument HDR – ©TimeLine Media

When editing in HDR Efex Pro 2, I was able to use control points to directly edit the face of the monument. Sunrise is not the best time to photograph the Washington Monument from this angle. It loses a lot of the luster and shine with the backlight from the rising sun. I tried to pick HDR treatments where I could bring back the light color of the monument bricks. I already have some places in mind that are situated better in the early morning light to photograph next. If you have any suggestions, please let me know! Stay tuned-

Washington Monument HDR - ©TimeLine Media
Washington Monument HDR – ©TimeLine Media

TimeLine Media – www.timelinedc.com
703-864-8208

Photography, Travel | 0 comment

Cold DC Photos

Lincoln Memorial - HDR image at a cold sunrise - ©TimeLine Media

Washington, DC

No, I have not gone out in this crazy cold weather to take more photos at sunrise! There has been an itch in the back of my mind since I know that not too many people will be out there, and the skies have been really clear in the mornings. However, the logical side of my brain won saying not to risk it with this record cold out there. Also, I do not have the proper gear to get out there and make images without getting frost bite! But I did make some nice ones after the Korean War Memorial walk through that I posted about earlier. When I started to walk back towards the car from that area, I saw this right behind me:

Lincoln Memorial at sunrise - ©TimeLine Media
Lincoln Memorial at sunrise – ©TimeLine Media

Cold Sunrise

I have already made so many images of the Lincoln Memorial, but this amazing monument that is colored pink in the breaking sunrise was too good to pass up. I did not go into the memorial, as this was not what was in the best light. With the sun very low on the horizon, the pink was hitting the structure that was built up higher first. I moved as quickly as I could into position without slipping on the frozen ground to make more photos.

Lincoln Memorial at sunrise - ©TimeLine Media
Lincoln Memorial at sunrise – ©TimeLine Media

The images above are just about straight out of the camera using the Vivid camera calibration from my Nikon. This last image was from an HDR of 9 bracketed exposures. I did not go too crazy with the post-processing. I just wanted punch up a little of the saturation in the sky while keeping the detail and sharpness of the building. Trying to do this on a single exposure was too difficult to balance correctly without making the masking or selection look like a mess. The HDR processing was a much faster way to get where I wanted to go!

Lincoln Memorial - HDR image at a cold sunrise - ©TimeLine Media
Lincoln Memorial – HDR image at a cold sunrise – ©TimeLine Media

TimeLine Media – www.timelinedc.com
703-864-8208

Photography, Travel | 1 Comment

Korean War Memorial

Washington, D.C. Memorial at Sunrise - ©TimeLine Media

Washington, DC

Brrr. There is a new term that meteorologists have thrown out there in recent days, the Polar Vortex! It has turned our weather in this New Year especially cold, very quickly. Early on this occasion, I had second thoughts about an early morning shoot with the wind and very low temperatures. It took a pep talk to myself to get out of the car. Parking right on the banks of the Potomac River, the wind was the first to hit me. During the walk small flecks of snow that were kicked up in the wind were biting against the little bare skin I had exposed on my face. Immediately, I thought that I should have worn more than my scarf to protect my face!

I started walking quickly towards the monuments. Since there was snow on the ground, I had the objective to photograph the Korean War Memorial situated close to the Lincoln Memorial. It was a perfect morning if you were trying to get photos of the National Mall without any distractions in the background – there was no one out there! A crew of Park Rangers was just arriving on the monument to start spreading salt over the marble stairs and walkways. I was obviously envious of their winter gear. I walked over to the Memorial, and the snow-covered statues really added to the solemn, quiet feel to the monument.

Korean War Memorial at Sunrise - ©TimeLine Media
Korean War Memorial at Sunrise – ©TimeLine Media
Washington, D.C. Memorial at Sunrise - ©TimeLine Media
Washington, D.C. Memorial at Sunrise – ©TimeLine Media
Korean War Memorial at Sunrise - ©TimeLine Media
Korean War Memorial at Sunrise – ©TimeLine Media

Korean War Memorial

The statues depicting all the branches of the US military as they worked their way through some harsh terrain. There are 19 statues that are reflected in the large black granite wall next to their position making them look like a total 38 soldiers commemorating the 38 parallel. The granite wall was sandblasted with more images of soldiers on the surface.

Washington, D.C. Memorial at Sunrise - ©TimeLine Media
Washington, D.C. Memorial at Sunrise – ©TimeLine Media
Washington, D.C. Memorial at Sunrise - ©TimeLine Media
Washington, D.C. Memorial at Sunrise – ©TimeLine Media

As I exited the memorial, the sun was just starting to rise above the horizon. The bright orange color contrasted with the blue hues from the memorial that was still in shadow. In the cold, I moved as quickly as I could to compose and make the photos before the sun was too high in the sky, changing the look and mood from dramatic to flat. It only lasted a few minutes.

Korean War Memorial - Washington, D.C. Memorial at Sunrise - ©TimeLine Media
Korean War Memorial – Washington, D.C. Memorial at Sunrise – ©TimeLine Media

TimeLine Media – www.timelinedc.com
703-864-8208

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