Posts Tagged ‘monument’

Jo and Claro Engagement Session

Washington, DC

Jo and Claro met me in downtown DC for some engagement photos. Claro and his family have been family friends for years. By comparison, we are Hokies, Filipino, and lived most of our lives in northern Virginia. He and his fiance Jo planned to marry last summer. When they thought about a photographer for their day, I came to mind. Of course, I jumped at the chance to cover this important event for them!

National Gallery of Art East Building

Our first stop was the National Gallery of Art. Seeing that it is a space to view large art installations, it is a beautiful space for portraits! The large open space with lots of natural light makes photos very easy. In addition, your subjects can move around freely and still be in nice even light.

We started in the East Building of the museum. Given that is a modern space with clean lines, we found plenty of places for photos. With this purpose in mind, we explored all the levels of the museum to find the best spots. In between the East and West building, there is a tunnel famous for posing subjects. Above a motorized walkway a many spot lights mimicking a symmetrical field of stars. Whenever I get a chance, I will bring subjects here. I have not fallen off of the walkway yet!

Lastly, there is collection of glass pyramids on the ground level outside of the West Building. As a matter of fact, it it right above the tunnel in the above photos. Putting them in between these glass sculptures creates some awesome reflections. In reality, it is producing a Photoshop-like effect right in the camera! Although we did not have to walk a long distance, we were able to get a lot of Jo and Claro engagement photos quickly.

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Washington Monument

Updating Wall Art

Washington Monument from Tidal Basin ©TimeLine Media
Washington Monument from Tidal Basin ©TimeLine Media

Last May, I went to downtown Washington, DC to get photos of the Washington Monument. We are updating a wall art collection in one room. For that reason, I thought about grouping photos of DC monuments would fit nicely.

Now that I had an idea of what I wanted to create, I set out to make the photos on a clear evening. This time of day is ideal for what I was looking for. I did not want a late evening, or nighttime shot, but the middle of the day would not have the dimension I was looking to have on the monument. When the sun gets lower in the horizon, the shadows will be a little less harsh overall.

Sunset photo of Washington Monument ©TimeLine Media
Sunset photo of Washington Monument ©TimeLine Media

For these photos, I used the 24mm PC-E F/3.5D tilt shift lens. This is one of the sharpest lenses I have in my bag. Secondly, the shift function of the lens helped to correct the ‘falling away’ look of the very tall Washington Monument. As can be seen in the comparison photos, the straightened version is more accurate, and a different perspective than from the ground vantage point that you see.

uncorrected monument 24mm lens ©TimeLine Media
uncorrected monument 24mm lens ©TimeLine Media
shift corrected monument 24mm lens ©TimeLine Media
shift corrected monument 24mm lens ©TimeLine Media

Washington Monument Print

Once I had the settings of the camera dialed in, I moved around the base of the monument. Sometimes the placement of the trees at the bottom surrounding park was distracting. In another case, the construction cranes from a museum going up near the monument was distracting. Finally, I just decided to shoot, and remove the crane out of the print in software for my final selection. It was a successful exercise to gain experience with a lens, and to shoot for a specific purpose.

final black and white wall print ©TimeLine Media
final black and white wall print ©TimeLine Media

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Air Force Memorial – Early Morning Photos

Air Force Memorial - single exposure - ©TimeLine Media

With announcements that the cherry blossoms are very close to peak bloom, I am anxious to go out to the Tidal Basin in downtown DC to make some springtime photos! Until I get out there, I am looking back on other recent photo walks around town. The images on this post was from a particularly COLD morning at the Air Force Memorial in Arlington, Virginia. I remember how numb my hands and face was after this shoot even though I was bundled up! At least one advantage is the cold keeps the crowds away, so I was mostly alone at the Memorial except for a group of school kids that quickly took some photos, then hurried back to their waiting motor coach.

Arlington, Virginia

From this high overlook, you have a panoramic view of the Pentagon, and Washington, DC below. This also brings the high winds which makes trying to keep the camera steady difficult. A tripod was definitely necessary this morning, and it allowed me to slow down and really position the camera right where it needed to be for these photos. With the tripod steadying the gear, I also took multiple varying exposure for making high dynamic range photos. Here is a comparison of a single exposure with the metered settings, and an HDR image of 7 combined images, 1 stop apart.

Air Force Memorial HDR - ©TimeLine Media
Air Force Memorial HDR – ©TimeLine Media
Air Force Memorial - single exposure - ©TimeLine Media
Air Force Memorial – single exposure – ©TimeLine Media

The edited single exposure is preferable to me. The dark part of the sky ends up in a different area in the HDR image, and I find it more pleasing in the single image. With HDR images, they bring out more of the shadow areas which did not come out as well in the HDR as a default. I could edit this more in Photoshop, but the single image was pleasing as it is, so I have decide to just keep that version instead of investing more time in the HDR file.

Air Force Memorial with sunburst - ©TimeLine Media
Air Force Memorial with sunburst – ©TimeLine Media

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